Wanted: The Most In-Demand Jobs Of The Next Decade

Ever since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022 and other AI tools that have followed in its wake, people have been pondering the potential of artificial intelligence to replace certain occupations, trying to figure out if and how the nascent technology will change the way people work. And while the focus of discussions like this is often on the risk of certain jobs being replaced by emerging technologies; as Statista's Felix Richter reports, these shifts, as well as societal changes, usually offer new employment opportunities as well.

Think of the rise of e-commerce for example: while it has led to a decline in retail jobs, it has supported strong job growth in transportation and warehousing and still does.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment Projections, transportation and warehousing is going to be among the fastest growing sectors over the next decade, with wage and salary employment in the sector projected to grow 8.6 percent between 2022 and 2032.

At 9.7 percent, the biggest increase in employment is expected for the healthcare and social assistance sector, which is driven less by technological changes and more by demographic shifts. Due to the ageing population and the growing prevalence of chronic conditions, the healthcare and social assistance sector is projected to account for 2.1 million new jobs by 2032, making up almost half of all new jobs expected by the end of the projection period.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Looking at individual occupations, this trend is also evident, with home health and personal care aids projected to be by far the fastest-growing occupation over the next decade, adding more than 800,000 jobs by 2032.

With registered nurses and medical and health service managers also in the top 10, it’s clear that the health sector as a whole is going to be a major driver of employment growth in the near future.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/14/2024 - 06:55

"Markets Extremely Quiet" Ahead Of PPI, CPI, Powell Speech

US equity futures are flat into tomorrow's CPI/Retail Sales print with PPI the major macro data point today, while Fed Chair Powell also speaks. Futures are flat after also closing unchanged yesterday when the return of the meme stonk mania sent GME and AMC soaring, and hammered L/S hedge funds, whose short books exploded, leading to P&L carnage across the board and widespread degrossing which however did not impact index prices.  As of 6:30am, S&P and Nasdaq futures were unchanged. Bond yields are down 1-2bps as the yield curve bull steepens. The USD is flat and commodities are mixed with Ags lagging. Meme Stock Mania returned yesterday with GME +74% and AMC +78%, though Bitcoin was only +3%; As JPM's Andrew Tyler asks this morning "has the Retail investor reactivated and do they support Mag7?"

“Markets this morning are in extremely quiet mood ahead of tomorrow’s US consumer price index data that’s going to come out and shake things up or not,” said Kit Juckes, chief FX strategist at Societe Generale SA. “Sentiment about what the Fed’s going to do, sentiment about a lot of markets, will be determined by core CPI.”

The Stoxx Europe 600 index was little changed, hovering near a record high, as gains in auto and consumer product shares offset losses in travel and insurance names.  Shares in Anglo American Plc fell after the London-based miner outlined a major shake-up to fend of a takeover approach from BHP Group, with analysts citing execution risks. Delivery Hero SE soared as much as 22% after selling its Taiwan business. A revenue beat by Tencent Holdings Ltd. pushed the stock of its largest shareholder, Prosus NV, higher. Here are the most notable European movers:

• Delivery Hero shares soar as much as 22% after the food delivery firm agreed to sell its Taiwanese operations to Uber for $950 million. The deal is attractively priced as it allows Delivery Hero to reduce debt, although regulatory approval could be a potential concern, according to analysts.
• Vodafone shares rise as much as 3.9% after the telecom operator set full-year profit and cash flow guidance ahead of estimates. The German market, which now accounts for more than 45% of Vodafone’s Ebitda, saw service revenue growth ahead of expectations.
• Nagarro shares jump as much as 23%, the most on record, after the German IT service firm’s results beat expectations. Analysts noted the contrast between its reiterated guidance and US peer Epam’s profit warning.
• Nordex shares jump as much as 8.6%, hitting the highest in two years, after the wind turbine maker beat expectations and delivered a “blowout quarter,” according to Jefferies. Analysts at Oddo upgraded the stock.
• Sonova shares jump as much as 6.6% with Morgan Stanley saying the hearing system firm’s outlook implies upgrades to sales and earnings consensus.
• Societe Generale shares gain as much as 4.1% after French President Emmanuel Macron said he’d be open to seeing a major French bank being taken over by an EU rival to spur deeper integration.
• On The Beach shares drop as much as 12% after its first-half earnings showed ongoing pressures on consumers. However, the group’s reinstated dividend and strong demand remain points of confidence, according to analysts.
• Brenntag shares fall as much as 9.6%, the most since November 2022, after the German chemicals distribution firm’s first quarter missed estimates due to pricing pressures. The company reduced its guidance for the full year to the lower end of its range.
• Rheinmetall shares decline as much as 6% after the German defense company reported a backlog for the first quarter that was €40.2 billion compared with €28.2 billion at the same time last year. Oddo calls it a slow start to 2024, with earnings below consensus.
• DCC shares drop as much as 5.3% after its results came in below expectations, bringing an end to a strong run for the international sales and support service group that took its stock to a two-year high yesterday.
• Lonza shares fall as much as 3.3% after the Swiss maker of drug ingredients reported a subdued start to the year and confirmed a flat sales growth outlook for 2024.

Earlier in the session, Asian stocks traded in a narrow range as investors awaited crucial US inflation data. A rally in Hong Kong stocks stalled ahead of key technology sector earnings due later Tuesday. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index swung between gains and losses of as much as 0.2%. TSMC and Alibaba rose, while AIA and Tokyo Marine fell. Shares in Hong Kong and mainland China closed lower ahead of major earnings. A gauge of Chinese tech companies jumped as much as 2.3% before paring much of the gains. Tech is “expected to be a bright spot amid this earnings season that has been lackluster thus far,” said Marvin Chen, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence in Hong Kong.

In FX, the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index inched up for the third straight day, supported ahead of US producer price data due later Tuesday. Investors also awaited speeches by Federal Reserve President Jerome Powell and Board of Governors member Lisa Cook to see if they offer any additional hints into when US interest rate cuts will start. Markets are bracing for US CPI data due on Wednesday for more steer into whether the Fed will begin easing in September, in line with market pricing.

In rates, Treasuries edge up ahead of US inflation data, with US 10-year yields falling 1bps to 4.48%. UK government bonds have pulled back from session highs having rallied after Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill suggested a summer interest-rate cut is in play. UK 10-year yields fall 1bp to 4.16%. His comments also weighed on the pound which is among the weakest of the G-10 currencies, falling 0.2% against the greenback after showing little reaction to UK jobs figures released earlier.

In commodities, oil prices gained before the release of OPEC’s market outlook, with WTI trading near $79.10. Industrial metals including nickel and copper climbed, while gold was steady after Monday’s decline of more than 1%. Spot gold rises 0.5% to around $2,347/oz.

To the day ahead, and central bank speakers include Fed Chair Powell, the Fed’s Cook, the ECB’s Knot and BoE chief economist Pill. US data releases include PPI inflation for April, along with the NFIB’s small business optimism index. Otherwise, we’ll get UK unemployment for March and the German ZEW survey for May.

Market Snapshot

• S&P 500 futures little changed at 5,247.50
• Brent Futures down 0.3% to $83.10/bbl
• Gold spot up 0.1% to $2,338.66
• US Dollar Index up 0.14% to 105.36
• STOXX Europe 600 little changed at 521.06
• MXAP up 0.1% to 178.43
• MXAPJ up 0.2% to 558.88
• Nikkei up 0.5% to 38,356.06
• Topix up 0.3% to 2,730.95
• Hang Seng Index down 0.2% to 19,073.71
• Shanghai Composite little changed at 3,145.77
• Sensex up 0.7% to 73,274.89
• Australia S&P/ASX 200 down 0.3% to 7,726.76
• Kospi up 0.1% to 2,730.34
• German 10Y yield little changed at 2.49%
• Euro down 0.1% to $1.0778
• Brent Futures down 0.3% to $83.10/bbl

Top Overnight News

• European stocks and US equity futures kept to small ranges for a second day, with traders waiting for US inflation reports to give markets fresh direction. US Treasuries and the dollar remained steady.
• US President Joe Biden is hiking tariffs on a wide range of Chinese imports — including semiconductors, batteries, solar cells, and critical minerals — in an election-year bid to bolster domestic manufacturing in critical industries.
• Japanese sovereign bond yields are surging to the highest levels in more than a decade amid signs the central bank is ready to reduce debt purchases to ease pressure on the ailing yen.
• From JPMorgan Chase & Co. to Citigroup Inc., Wall Street’s most prominent trading desks are warning that investors should gear up for a potential break in the calm that’s come over the stock market.

A more detailed look at global markets courtesy of Newsquawk

APAC stocks lacked firm conviction after the indecisive performance in the US ahead of key events. ASX 200 was dragged lower by weakness in real estate and consumer staples ahead of the federal budget announcement, while Australian Treasurer Chalmers had previously cautioned against expectations for a welfare 'cash splash'. Nikkei 225 was choppy amid a weaker currency, mixed earnings releases and relatively in-line PPI data. Hang Seng & Shanghai Comp were initially boosted at the open with strength in tech and real estate although the Hong Kong benchmark eventually faded most of the gains, while sentiment was dampened in the mainland amid the threat of looming US tariffs which are expected to be unveiled today, while developer default concerns also lingered after Agile Group missed a coupon payment and flagged an inability to fulfil all payment obligations.

Top Asian News

• China's embassy said China remains open to cooperating with the US on repatriation of illegal immigrants but the US side should also demonstrate sincerity and address China's concerns, creating a suitable atmosphere for such cooperation, according to Global Times.
• Japanese Finance Minister Suzuki said it is important for the government and BoJ to coordinate policy and it is important for currencies to move in a stable manner reflecting fundamentals, while he added they will take a thorough response for forex and are closely watching FX moves, according to Reuters.
• Former BoJ executive says the BoJ may decide to reduce the size of scheduled bond purchases next month amid largely dysfunctional bond market, adding that the BoJ is likely to hold off on raising rates until September, according to Reuters.
• Australian Budget: sees 2023/24 budget surplus at AUD 9.3bln (vs. Exp. AUD 9bln) and deficits in 2024/25 - 2026/27 (as expected). 2024/25 deficit AUD 28.3bln vs. Exp. AUD 13.9bln. 2023/24 CPI seen at 3.5%, 2024/25 at 2.75% 2025/26 at 2.75%. 2023/24 unemployment seen at 4.0%, 2024/25 4.5% and 2025/26 4.5%. 2023/24 GDP growth at 1.75%, 2024/25 at 2% and 2025/26 at 2.25%. Sees iron ore price falling to USD 60/tonne, thermal coal USD 70/tonne for Q1 2025.

European bourses, Stoxx600 (+0.1%) are mixed and lack any firm direction, continuing the indecisive performance in APAC trade overnight. European sectors hold little bias with the breadth of the market fairly narrow. Autos is found at the top of the pile, building on the prior day’s gains, whilst Travel & Leisure is weighed on by Flutter (-2.5%) post-earnings. US Equity Futures (ES U/C, NQ +0.1%, RTY +0.1%) are mostly and modestly firmer, with trade tentative ahead of today’s PPI. Elsewhere, the White House says US President Biden is directing US Trade Representative to increase tariffs on USD 18bln of imports from China (in-fitting with recent reports).

Top European News

• BoE Chief Economist Pill says there is still some work to do on the persistence of inflation; not unreasonable to believe that over the summer, the BoE will see enough confidence to consider rate cuts. Not unreasonable to believe that over the summer, the BoE will see enough confidence to consider rate cuts; could cut and keep the stance restrictive. Question of when and how restriction is eased.
• Even a very poor EZ inflation reading this month would not necessarily dissuade the ECB's Governing Council from going through with the 25bp rate cut that has been amply signalled for its June meeting, according to a Eurosystem insider cited by Econostream.

FX

• Dollar is a touch firmer vs. most peers and briefly popping above yesterday's 105.36 high in quiet trade, though with traders mindful of today's PPI, and CPI on Wednesday, in addition to Chair Powell at 15:00BST/10:00ET.
• EUR is steady vs the USD after the pair failed to hold above the 1.08 mark. EUR/USD is currently contained within yesterday's 1.0765-1.0806 bounds with newsflow light, ZEW data failed to move the markets.
• GBP is the laggard across the majors. GBP was choppy following mixed jobs data, though commentary from BoE's Pill sent Sterling lower. The Chief Economist continued to talk up the possibility of rate cuts. Cable down as low as 1.2510 with eyes on a test of 1.25; not breached since May 9th.
• JPY is once again losing ground to the USD with markets bracing for upcoming US inflation prints, which could be the next inflection point for the pair. USD/JPY has been as high as 156.56 with not much in the way of resistance until 157.
• Mildly diverging fortunes for the antipodes with NZD edging out moderate gains vs. the USD. AUD/USD is holding above the 0.66 mark and respecting yesterday's 0.6587-0.6628 range in quiet trade.
• PBoC set USD/CNY mid-point at 7.1053 vs exp. 7.2307 (prev. 7.1030).

Fixed Income

• USTs are incrementally firmer but with magnitudes much more contained than EGBs as we await US PPI ahead of Wednesday's CPI print. USTs at the top-end of 108-24 to 108-29 bounds which are contained by Monday's 108-23 to 109-00 parameters.
• Gilts initially gapped lower by just 11 ticks to 97.52 following the morning's data which was hawkish on the wage components, though upticks in unemployment and another sizeable negative employment change provided some dovish reprieve. Speak from BoE's Pill thereafter lifted Gilts to a 97.89 peak just shy of Monday's 97.93 best.
• Bunds are flat after initially being supported in tandem with Gilt price action; the ZEW data once again came in stronger than expected and prompted Bunds to pullback to the 131.00 mark. Bunds to a 131.13 peak post-Pill matching Monday's best.

Commodities

• Subdued trade across the crude complex following yesterday's gains, which saw the contract settle higher but off best levels in a day with light oil newsflow. Brent Jul'24 sits within a USD 82.98-83.62/bbl parameter.
• Precious metals hold an upward bias despite the stronger Dollar, with outperformance in spot palladium this morning whilst spot gold remains caged ahead of the aforementioned risk events including US PPI and Fed Chair Powell later; XAU sits within a tight USD 2,334.89-2,345.99/oz intraday range thus far.
• Mixed trade across base metals with 3M LME copper futures flat but holding onto a USD 10k+ status, while aluminium prices are subdued following another large warehouse stock metric (+131k/T).
• OPEC OMR due at 11:00BST/06:00ET today
• LME Stocks: Aluminium +131k/T.
• Peru copper production dipped slightly in March and was down 0.1% Y/Y, according to government data.

Geopolitics

• "Israeli tanks began to penetrate into the center of Rafah for the first time amid fierce clashes ", according to Al Arabiya
• "Lebanese agency: Israel used 'seismic missiles' in the town of Kafr Kila in southern Lebanon", according to Al Arabiya
• Member of the Hamas Political Bureau told Al Arabiya they are committed to the path of the exchange deal negotiations.
• Heavy Israeli artillery shelling and heavy gunfire reported in the centre and east of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, according to Al Jazeera.
• US officials said Israel has mobilised enough forces to launch a large-scale operation in Rafah but they are not sure if We are not sure if Israel has made a final decision to launch a large-scale operation in Rafah, according to CNN.
• US Deputy Secretary of State said we do not believe that the complete victory that Israel seeks to achieve is likely or possible, according to CNN.
• Hezbollah said it targeted two buildings used by enemy soldiers in the settlement of Metulla and achieved a direct hit, according to Al Jazeera.
• EU decided to broaden the scope of its sanctions framework to include not only provision of drones from Iran to Russia but also missiles. It also expands the sanctions regime geographically to cover the Middle East, according to a press release. 
• US Secretary of State Blinken arrived in Ukraine on a previously undisclosed trip and intends to send the signal of reassurance to Ukraine at a 'very difficult moment', while US-supplied artillery, ATACMS long-range missiles and air defence interceptors are already reaching Ukraine's front lines from the new US aid package approved on April 24th, according to a US official cited by Reuters. 
• US and Taiwan navies quietly held Pacific drills in April, while the exercises involved about a half-dozen ships from both sides but officially didn't take place, according to a Reuters source. Furthermore, a source added that exercises were dubbed 'unplanned sea encounters' and gave the navies a chance to practice 'basic' operations.

US Event Calendar

• 06:00: April SMALL BUSINESS OPTIMISM 89.2, est. 88.2, prior 88.5
• 08:30: April PPI Ex Food, Energy, Trade MoM, est. 0.2%, prior 0.2%
• April PPI Ex Food, Energy, Trade YoY, prior 2.8%
• April PPI Final Demand MoM, est. 0.3%, prior 0.2%
• April PPI Final Demand YoY, est. 2.2%, prior 2.1%

DB's Jim Reid concludes the overnight news

The start of this week has seen a holding pattern ahead of potentially more exciting times to come over the next couple of days. The S&P 500 (-0.02%) and 10yr Treasury yields (-1.0bps) didn't move much. Unless you've been living on Mars, you'll know that we have the US PPI release today, followed by the CPI tomorrow. You'll also likely be fully aware that the first three months of the year all had fairly strong inflation, and all beating expectations, so this is an important week.

If you're looking for a little bit of excitement then Japanese yields are edging to decade plus yield highs overnight on concerns the BoJ will cut bond purchases again at its next regular operation on Friday. Yields on 10yr JGBs increased +2.5bps to 0.965%, its highest in more than a decade while yields on 20yr JGBs touched a high of 1.77%, the most since 2013 before settling at 1.759% as we go to print. 30yr yields hit their highest since 2011, trading at 2.038% as I type. The speculation being that smaller purchases are being planned to help the ailing Yen which has been drifting back down over the last week or so post what is thought to have been two bouts of intervention. So one to watch.

Back to those upcoming US inflation prints and the mood music ahead of them has been a little worrying, as data on inflation expectations showed a further uptick. That came via the New York Fed’s latest Survey of Consumer Expectations, where 1yr inflation expectations were up from 3.0% to 3.3% in April, marking its highest level in 5 months. Moreover, that follows on the heels of the University of Michigan’s survey last Friday, where inflation expectations also surprised on the upside, so there’ve been several pieces of news pointing in that direction. To be fair, the 3yr NY measure did fall a tenth to 2.8%, but the 5yr measure ticked up two-tenths to 2.8%, so it was a mixed bag at the longer time horizons. Separately, there were some labour market indicators that pointed in a weaker direction, with the mean probability of finding a job in the next 3 months (if one’s job was lost today) falling to a 3-year low of 50.9%.

For the April PPI release today, our economists expect headline PPI to come in at a monthly +0.4% pace. That would be an uptick from the +0.2% pace in March, but the focus for our economists will be on those components that feed into the core PCE deflator, which are health care services, portfolio management and domestic airfares. So those are the categories to keep an eye on, since they feed into the PCE measure that the Fed officially targets.

Ahead of that, we did hear from Fed Vice Chair Jefferson, who reflected the cautious tone of the FOMC about future rate cuts. For instance, he said that they “continue to look for additional evidence that inflation is going to return to our 2% target. And until we have that, I think it is appropriate to keep the policy rate in restrictive territory.” So there wasn’t much to move the dial on market expectations, with the number of cuts priced in by the December meeting little changed at 41bps yesterday. Later today, we’ll hear from Fed Chair Powell as well, who’s speaking at an event with the ECB’s Knot.

We’ll have to see what happens today, but for now at least, the S&P 500 (-0.02%) barely budged, which still leaves the index just 0.6% beneath its all-time high from the end of March. It was a similar story in Europe as well, where the STOXX 600 (+0.02%) narrowly eked out another all-time high. Tech outperformance saw modest gains for the NASDAQ (+0.29%) and the Magnificent 7 (+0.28%), with the latter ending a run of four consecutive declines. But the mood was slightly negative otherwise, with 9 of the 11 S&P 500 sector groups down on the day.

Perhaps the most notable equity story of the day was a + 74.4% rise for Gamestop . This followed a post on X (after a long dormant period) by Keith Hill, who gained notoriety during the 2021 meme-stock frenzy under the moniker “Roaring Kitty”. Some of the other heavily shorted stocks also saw sizeable gains, with the high short interest basket within the Russell 3000 up as much as +6.7% intra-day (+4.55% by the close). To refresh your memory GameStop went above 10 in January 2021. Two weeks later at the height of the frenzy it was trading at nearly 90. Since then it's steadily and consistently fallen back to a low of 10 three weeks ago. Last night it closed above 30 again. Let's see if that speculative craze is going to be reignited.

For sovereign bonds, there was also a subdued performance yesterday, with little major movements in either direction yesterday. Indeed, US Treasuries saw one of the larger moves of the day, with the 10yr yield down -1.0bps to 4.49%. The 10yr yield had traded nearly -4bps down on the day early in the US session but then saw a gradual increase, helped along by the NY Fed inflation expectations release. The bond moves were even smaller moves in Europe, where yields on 10yr bunds (-0.7bps), OATs (-0.5bps) and BTPs (+0.7bps) all moved by less than a basis point.

In the commodity space, oil prices recovered, with Brent up +0.77% to $83.43/bbl after falling to an 8-week low on Friday. Meanwhile, copper posted another 2-year high, up +2.36% on the day and extending its year-to-date gain to +23.5%.

In Asia, Chinese stocks are trading slightly lower with the CSI (-0.15%), Hang Sang (-0.05%) and Shanghai Composite (-0.08%) all seeing minor losses. However, the Hang Seng Tech index (+1.10%) is bucking the trend powered by a rally in Chinese tech stocks with Alibaba and Tencent Holdings reporting earnings later today. Elsewhere, the KOSPI (-0.09%) is also struggling to gain traction whilst the Nikkei (+0.05%) is trading just above flat. US equity futures are very slightly lower.

To the day ahead, and central bank speakers include Fed Chair Powell, the Fed’s Cook, the ECB’s Knot and BoE chief economist Pill. US data releases include PPI inflation for April, along with the NFIB’s small business optimism index. Otherwise, we’ll get UK unemployment for March and the German ZEW survey for May.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/14/2024 - 06:33

UNC Chapel Hill Trustees Vote To Redirect DEI Money To Campus Safety

Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The board of trustees of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has unanimously voted to defund diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and instead use the millions of dollars to boost campus safety.

A barricade protects the American flag at Polk Place at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C., on May 1, 2024. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

At a special meeting on Monday morning to discuss budget plans, the board voted to divert the $2.3 million the university invests in DEI programs toward police and other public safety measures. The public university had an operating budget totaling more than $4 billion in the previous fiscal year.

“I think that DEI, in a lot of people’s mind, is divisiveness, exclusion, and indoctrination,” Marty Kotis, vice chair of the board’s budget and finance committee, said during Monday’s meeting. “We need more unity and togetherness, more dialogue, more diversity of thought.”

Mr. Kotis moved on to make the case for using the freed-up DEI dollars to improve campus security, highlighting the vandalizing of an administrative building by pro-Palestinian protesters just hours before the commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 11.

According to photos shared on social media by student newspaper the Daily Tar Heel, protesters defaced Chapel Hill’s South Building with red paint and chalk, leaving red handprints and messages saying “You Support Genocide” and “UNC Has Blood on Its Hands.”

The steps of the building were also covered in red paint, which has since been power-washed off.

“When you have warring groups or dividing groups, they can hurt each other, they can damage property like they did here in the South Building—red paint everywhere, stickers everywhere, things torn up,” Mr. Kotis told fellow board members. “Law enforcement is then forced to react to that. They do not have all the tools they need right now to keep the campus safe from a large threat.”

“It’s important to consider the needs of all 30,000 students, not just 100 or so that may want to disrupt the university’s operations,” he continued. “It takes away resources from us.”

Recent Campus Incidents

Saturday’s vandalism marked the latest incident in a series of pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have roiled UNC’s flagship campus in recent weeks and lead to dozens of arrests. On April 30, more than 30 protesters were detained for trespassing after they tore down barricades outside the campus’ main quad and took down the American flag on a flag pole to replace it with Palestinian colors.

Twenty of those individuals were unaffiliated with the university.

“When you destroy property or you take down the U.S flag and you have to put up gates around it—that costs money,” Mr. Kotis said at the budget meeting. “It’s imperative that we have the proper resources for law enforcement to protect the campus.”

The proposed diversion of funds would also help keep Chapel Hill align with existing state law, as well as a new equality and nondiscrimination policy that could lead to the elimination of DEI positions across all 17 UNC institutions—16 public universities and a public boarding high school, the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics.

The new policy, adopted April 17 by the UNC Board of Governors’ Committee on University Governance, replaces a 2019 policy that created DEI offices and implemented reporting requirements across the system.

Under the current DEI policy, all institutions within the system are required to employ at least one senior-level administrator who is tasked to oversee “policy development and strategic planning to promote and advance” diversity and inclusion goals.

The new policy’s wording indicates that those DEI positions do not “adhere to and comply with the strictures of institutional neutrality” as outlined in North Carolina law that prohibits public colleges and universities from participating in “political controversies of the day.”

The same policy change will be voted on in a full Board of Governors meeting next week.

If approved, the policy will be effective immediately and individual university chancellors will need to submit a report by September detailing their plans to comply with the institutional neutrality mandate. That includes reporting any “reductions in force and spending, along with changes to job titles and position descriptions undertaken as a result of implementing” the policy, and how those savings achieved from these actions can be “redirected to initiatives related to student success and wellbeing.”

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/14/2024 - 06:30

Transitioning Fleet Trucks To Electric Raises Costs By Up To 114 Percent, Report Warns

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Transitioning conventional truck fleets to electric vehicles (EVs) pushes up annual operational costs, which subsequently increases economic inflation, according to a recent report from transportation and logistics firm Ryder.

Florida-based Ryder analyzed the potential cost of transportation if internal combustion engine trucks are converted to EVs. There is a 5 percent cost increase for light-duty EVs and a 94–114 percent increase for heavy-duty trucks, the May 8 report states. For a fleet of 25 mixed vehicles—light-, medium-, and heavy-duty trucks—costs surge by 56–67 percent.

As transportation costs have a direct bearing on the price of goods sold in markets across the country, Ryder estimates such increases to eventually add about 0.5–1 percent to overall price inflation in the economy.

“There are specific applications where EV adoption makes sense today, but the use cases are still limited. Yet we’re facing regulations aimed at accelerating broader EV adoption when the technology and infrastructure are still developing,” said Karen Jones, executive vice president and head of new product development for Ryder.

“Until the gap in TCT [total cost to transport] for heavier duty vehicles is narrowed or closed, we cannot expect many companies to make the transition; and, if required to convert in today’s market, we face more supply chain disruptions, transportation cost increases, and additional inflationary pressure.”

In California, the annual TCT increase for a heavy-duty EV tractor was approximately $315,000, with the number rising to more than $330,000 in Georgia. In both cases, equipment costs were the biggest contributor to the increase, rising by 500 percent.

Ryder noted there were 16.4 million Class 3 to Class 8 commercial vehicles in operation in the United States, out of which only an estimated 18,000 EVs have been deployed.

“Therefore, if companies are required to convert to EVs in the near future, availability and production of EVs may be far less than the vehicles needed to run America’s supply chains,” the report states.

The report points to a statement made by Clean Freight Coalition (CFC) that there is currently no network in the United States where truck drivers can take rest breaks and charge their EV batteries at the same time.

CFC estimates that electrifying the United States’ current commercial vehicle fleet would necessitate a $1 trillion investment.

Moreover, the International Council on Clean Transportation calculates that almost 700,000 chargers will be required to accommodate the 1 million Class 4, 6, and 8 electric trucks expected to be deployed by 2030. This alone will consume 140,000 megawatts of electricity per day, which is equivalent to the daily electricity needs of roughly 5 million U.S. homes.

“Ryder’s analysis underscores the reasons EV adoption for commercial vehicles remains in its infancy. In addition to the limited support infrastructure and EV availability, the business case for converting to EV for most payload and mileage applications, is extremely challenging,” the report reads.

Robert Sanchez, chairman and CEO of Ryder, said that although the company is actively deploying EVs and charging infrastructure, it has not seen any “significant adoption” of this technology.

“For many of our customers, the business case for converting to EV technology just isn’t there yet, given the limitations of the technology and lack of sufficient charging infrastructure,” he said.

Stuttering EV Adoption

The Ryder report comes as the Biden administration announced last month that it plans to spend nearly $1.5 billion to make the U.S. freight industry “zero-emissions.”

As part of the program, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will offer $1 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act to cities and states “to replace Class 6 and Class 7 heavy-duty vehicles—which include school buses, trash trucks, and delivery trucks—with zero-emissions vehicles,” the White House said.

“Freight movement continues to represent a significant share of local air pollution, increasing the risk of asthma, heart disease, hospitalization, and other adverse health outcomes for the millions of Americans, especially overburdened communities, who live and work near highways, ports, railyards, warehouses, and other freight routes,” it stated.

The goal to transition to a zero-emissions freight sector “will prioritize actions to address air pollution hot spots and tackle the climate crisis, mobilizing a broad range of government resources, and reflect public participation and meaningful community engagement, furthering the President’s commitment to environmental justice for all.”

A recent report from consulting firm Roland Berger noted that full electrification of the U.S. commercial truck fleet would be an expensive affair. The cost of new electric trucks is twice or three times that of their diesel equivalents. A diesel Class 8 truck costs about $180,000, and a battery-electric truck costs more than $400,000.

Earlier, the EPA finalized the “strongest ever” greenhouse gas standards for heavy-duty vehicles, a move that attracted strong criticism from trucking organizations.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association called the standards an “assault on small-business truck drivers,” who make up 96 percent of commercial motor carriers.

On April 30, Nick Nigro, the founder of Atlas Public Policy, testified at a House hearing on fleet electrification efforts, supporting such initiatives. He insisted that such a transition is crucial to protect people’s health.

“We aren’t just racing against foreign nations to lead the development of 21st-century vehicle technology,“ he said. ”We’re also in a race to mitigate the worst effects of climate change on the planet and tailpipe pollution on human health.”

The American Lung Association estimates that transitioning to zero-emission trucks could result in $735 billion in public health benefits by 2050, he noted.

In his testimony at the hearing, Taki Darakos, the vice president of vehicle maintenance and fleet service at PITT OHIO, raised concerns about the high costs involved in electrifying fleets.

The upfront costs of zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) “are much higher than their diesel equivalent, making it difficult for fleets to embrace electrification until they see meaningful year-over-year upfront purchase price declines.”

The company incorporated some EVs in its fleet, and Mr. Darakos said: “Increased vehicle weight from the batteries reduced our payload and limited our usage of haul. These limitations have impacted the company’s timeline on how and when to transition to ZEV.”

The American Transportation Research Institute estimated that electrifying the entire vehicle fleet in the United States will consume 40 percent of the United States’ existing electricity generation while requiring a 14 percent overall increase in energy generation.

“Yet our aging grid can hardly meet current demands,“ Mr. Darakos said. ”In California, where rolling blackouts and brownouts are not uncommon, utilities would need to generate an additional 57 percent beyond their current output to support an electric vehicle fleet.”

He pointed out that a truck driver can refuel a new diesel truck within 15 minutes for a journey of up to 1,200 miles. However, charging an EV truck for two hours provides a range of only about 200 miles.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/14/2024 - 05:45

The Tide Turns: Research On COVID Vaccine Harms, Once A Taboo Subject, Now Appearing In Some Medical Journals

Authored by Joe Wang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

When COVID-19 took the world by storm in early 2020, I mostly relied on reading Nature Medicine, The Lancet, and a few other medical journals to learn the latest on this new disease.

A health care worker fills a syringe with COVID-19 vaccine in a file image. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

In March 2020, I read an article published in Nature Medicine titled “The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2” with great interest. Written by California-based Scripps Institute’s Kristian Andersen and four other well-known professors, it said SARS-CoV-2 binds to human cells much better than any computer programs predicted, and concluded that “SARS-CoV-2 is not the product of purposeful manipulation.”

Having been a scientist with the world’s largest vaccine company for more than 10 years, I took issue with this claim.

In a May 2022 commentary titled “Pandemic Lessons Learned: Scientific Debate Silenced, With Deadly Consequences” I wrote: “If SARS-CoV-2 infects people better than your computer predicts, then the only conclusion you can draw is that your computer sucks. How did these world-renowned scientists get the basic logic so wrong? And how did the prestigious publication Nature Medicine not catch that? Did anyone even read the paper before publishing it, not to mention peer review it?”

The Andersen article’s conclusion, as it turned out, was a complete flip-flop on Andersen’s Jan. 31, 2020, email to Dr. Anthony Fauci, then the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), in which he wrote that “some of the features (potentially) look engineered,” referring to the coronavirus.

The Fauci emails were made public in June 2021 via Freedom of Information Act requests.

Nevertheless, the Nature Medicine paper became the authority on the origin of COVID. It essentially excluded the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Dr. Fauci from any responsibility for the emergence of the virus. Any attempts to investigate or explore other possibilities were labelled conspiracy theories.

Andersen, and the article itself, were the subject of a U.S. Congressional Hearing by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in June 2023. The debate on how COVID originated is still ongoing today.

The Lancet and the Daszak Statement

Andersen and Nature Medicine weren’t the only ones trying to please the CCP and Fauci.

On Feb. 18, 2020, The Lancet, another top medical journal, published a political statement with no science in it. It was organized by Peter Daszak from EcoHealth Alliance, which was the middleman for channeling Fauci’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to a U.S. Congress report released on May 1 of this year.

The Daszak et al. statement dismissed as a conspiracy theory any suggestion that COVID was not of natural origin.

“We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin,” they wrote. “Conspiracy theories do nothing but create fear, rumours, and prejudice that jeopardize our global collaboration in the fight against this virus.”

The Tune Is Set

The Daszak statement, along with the Andersen article, set the tune for the officially accepted narrative. The narrative then expanded from “a natural origin of the virus” to “a COVID vaccine will flatten the curve and save the world.” Scientists, doctors, and journal editors who dared to challenge the narrative were cancelled and/or labelled conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers.

It has been four years and six months since the world first encountered SARS-CoV-2. Despite the claims by famous scientists like Fauci and Andersen, and despite the countless efforts by top virologists and public health professionals, evidence that the virus originated naturally has not been found.

More and more people now believe that the virus was leaked or escaped from a laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has been doing gain-of-function research on coronaviruses, and published such research in Nature Medicine in 2015, with NIH funding acknowledged.

The lab origin is no longer a conspiracy theory. The U.S. Energy Department and the FBI both now believe that the virus was more likely leaked from a lab than having developed naturally.

Encouraging Developments

Since the pandemic, The Epoch Times and NTD have been publishing documentary films on COVID origin and vaccine injuries. The first such documentary, Joshua Philipp’s “Tracking Down the Origin of the Wuhan Coronavirus,” was viewed over 100 million times on different platforms combined. However, such reports are rarely seen in other legacy media.

It has also been a taboo subject for scientific research and publication, but that may be starting to change.

Recently, I wrote a commentary about a new paper by five Japanese scientists that was published on Cureus, a peer-reviewed medical journal owned by the Springer Nature Group, the same company that owns Nature and Nature Medicine.

The scientists analyzed data collected from the entire 123 million Japanese population and concluded that the majority of the 115,799 excess deaths in 2022 was not due to COVID infection but rather vaccination, in particular the third COVID shot.

I was pleasantly surprised that a once-taboo subject was now published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, especially a member journal of the Springer Nature Group.

In another positive development, this month the International Journal of Biological Macromolecules (IJBM) published a paper titled “Review: N1-methyl-pseudouridine: Friend or foe of cancer?” linking a key ingredient in the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine with cancer development.

IJBM is owned by the Dutch academic publishing company Elsevier, which also owns renowned publications like The Lancet, Cell, and ScienceDirect.

May the Force Be With the Editors-in-Chief

In the spring of 2022, when more scientists started to challenge the accepted narratives and seek the truth, I co-wrote the commentary “May the Force Be With Them: Scientists Fight Back.”

At that time, these brave scientists needed all the help they could get. For example, when a journal published a well-researched, well-written, and fact-based scientific paper on the safety concerns of the mRNA vaccines, the editor-in-chief of that journal was ousted.

The journal was Food and Chemical Toxicology, another Elsevier publication, and the editor-in-chief was Dr. José Luis Domingo.

Two years later, I’m optimistic that the IJBM editors-in-chief won’t face the same treatment as Dr. Domingo.

Why? I believe the tide has turned.

A recent New York Times article on COVID vaccine injuries is also an encouraging sign. It cites the Food and Drug Administration’s former acting commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock as saying the injuries are “serious” and “life-changing,” and “should be taken seriously.”

“I’m disappointed in myself,” she added. “I did a lot of things I feel very good about, but this is one of the few things I feel I just didn’t bring it home.”

Among the reported injured is the editor-in-chief of the journal Vaccine, Dr. Gregory Poland. He has been suffering from tinnitus since his first shot. The Centers for Disease Control didn’t take his report on his personal experience seriously. He told the NY Times that he did not “get any sense of movement (from the CDC).”

“If they have done studies (on vaccine injury), those studies should be published,” Dr. Poland added.

The journal Vaccine is also an Elsevier publication, and as the editor-in-chief, Dr. Poland is well positioned to offer his encouragement on vaccine injury studies.

Yes, I believe the tide has turned.

However, as of today, the Daszak statement is still on The Lancet website and the Andersen paper is still on Nature Medicine.

I wonder when the Lancet and Nature Medicine will have the courage to retract them? And when will these two eminent journals start publishing research on COVID vaccine injuries?

References:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9

https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/pandemic-lessons-learned-scientifi…

https://www.theepochtimes.com/epochtv/new-email-reveals-what-fauci-knew…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/tony-fauci-ema…

https://www.scripps.edu/news-and-events/press-room/2023/20230404-anders…

https://oversight.house.gov/release/wenstrup-to-hold-hearing-with-proxi…

https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2820%2930418-9

https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024.05.01-SSCP-…

https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/expert-on-aluminum-toxicity-forced…

https://www.theepochtimes.com/author/aaron-kheriaty

https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/editor-in-chief-of-renowned-scienc…

https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985

https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-origin-china-lab-leak-807b7b0a

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/28/politics/wray-fbi-covid-origins-lab-chin…

https://www.theepochtimes.com/epochtv?utm_source=epochtv

https://www.ntd.com/

https://www.theepochtimes.com/epochtv/the-unseen-crisis-vaccine-stories…

https://www.theepochtimes.com/epochtv/documentary-tracking-down-the-ori…

https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/joe-wang-japans-excess-deaths-hit-…

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9012513/

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/14/2024 - 05:00

Mapping All The Countries Where Recreational Cannabis Is Legal

In 2024, Germany became the third European Union country to legalize cannabis for personal use, following Malta and Luxembourg.

Here, Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti maps the countries where recreational cannabis use is allowed as of April 2024, based on data from Wikipedia.

Limited to Few Countries

In total, only nine countries have legalized recreational cannabis use nationwide. However, just a few of them have licensed sales.

At the federal level, cannabis is still considered an illegal substance in the United States. That said, individual states do have the right to determine their laws around cannabis sales and usage. Currently, cannabis is allowed in 24 states, 3 territories, and the District of Columbia.

Interestingly, the oldest legal text concerning cannabis dates back to the 1600s—when the colony of Virginia required every farm to grow and produce hemp.

Since then, cannabis use was fairly widespread until the 1930s when the Marihuana Tax Act was enforced, prohibiting marijuana federally but still technically allowing for medical use.

Today, the U.S. cannabis market is a $30 billion business. By the end of the decade, that number is expected to be anywhere from $58 billion to as much as $72 billion.

Similar to the U.S., Australia does not allow the use at the national level, but cannabis can be used legally in the Australian Capital Territory, which includes the capital Canberra.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/14/2024 - 04:15

Poland's Border Fortification Buildup Has Nothing To Do With Legitimate Threat Perceptions

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz announced last week that his country will build bunkers and trenches along its border with Russia and Belarus, which was followed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirming that security will be bolstered, including on anti-illegal immigrant pretexts.

The reality though is that this development has nothing to do with legitimate threat perceptions since Russia isn’t going to invade Poland while Tusk’s liberal-globalist coalition government favors illegal immigrants.

The premier has sought to appeal to Polish patriotism since January in order to distract from his country’s domestic political crisis and its comprehensive subordination to Germany under his rule. To that end, he’s hyped up the Ukrainian cause in parallel with fearmongering about World War III, which he predicts could happen through an impending Russian invasion of NATO. What he always dishonestly ignores, however, is that the US has repeatedly reaffirmed its ironclad commitment to Article 5.

Moving along to debunking the illegal immigrant aspect of his justification for Poland’s border buildup, Sejm Speaker Szymon Holownia posed with an illegal immigrant who infiltrated Poland from Belarus under the guise of being a “refugee” during a January photo-op inside the parliamentary chambers. This attitude aligns with his coalition government’s liberal-globalist “values”, which are sold to the public in this context as a means for replacing its aging population and thus keeping the economy competitive.

To be sure, the previous conservative-nationalist government was also hypocritical with respect to the reasons behind its own border buildup, having also dishonestly ignored the US’ commitment to Article 5 and being responsible for legally bringing in 250,000 civilizationally dissimilar migrants to Poland. The first simply saw it hype up the Russian threat like Tusk is doing, while the second concerned the scandal that broke out last summer before the elections and was cynically capitalized upon by the opposition.  

Back to the incumbent government, they hope to rally patriotic Poles behind their leadership as the military-strategic situation continues worsening for the West in Ukraine, with the supplementary objective being to distract some of them from its enthusiastic embrace of illegal immigrants. By pretending to prioritize national defense in spite of surrendering large swaths of Polish sovereignty in this respect to the Anglo-American Axis and Germany, Tusk expects to defuse growing dissent at home.

He might also want to precondition the public for the possibility of Poland conventionally intervening in Ukraine, whether unilaterally or together with France and others in a “coalition of the willing”, with the innuendo that it would be driven by national security purposes intended to defend Poland from Russia. It’s premature to say with certainty whether that’ll happen, but it nevertheless can’t be ruled out after Tusk himself just admitted that NATO troops are already there, albeit supposedly in non-combat roles. 

All that can be known for sure is that the justification behind Poland’s latest border buildup, which continues the process that was hypocritically begun by the incumbent liberal-globalist government’s conservative-nationalist predecessor, has nothing to do with legitimate threat perceptions. False pretexts are being concocted to justify these massive investments of a largely, but not entirely, symbolic nature mostly aimed at dishonestly advancing a domestic political agenda.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/14/2024 - 03:30

From Matthew Graham at Mortgage News Daily: What You See Today Won't Necessarily Be What You See Tomorrow

With essentially nothing on the event calendar to start the new week, it was fair to expect a continuation of the same sideways drift that characterized last week. It's not the future can ever be predicted when it comes to markets, but we can say the flat trajectory is the least surprising outcome for Monday. That same trajectory will be increasingly surprising over the next 2 days, with a special focus on Wednesday (CPI day). Even Tuesday deserves some respect with the Producer Price Index and a moderated discussion from a European banking conference with Fed Chair Powell. Today's Fed-speak wasn't worth any volatility, but the NY Fed's consumer survey showed an uptick in inflation expectations and made for a modest intraday bump at 11am ET. [30 year fixed 7.12%]
emphasis added

Tuesday:
• At 6:00 AM ET, NFIB Small Business Optimism Index for April.

• At 8:30 AM, The Producer Price Index for April from the BLS. The consensus is for a 0.2% increase in PPI, and a 0.2% increase in core PPI.

• At 10:00 AM: Discussion, Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell, Moderated Discussion with Chair Powell and De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) President Klaas Knot, At the Annual General Meeting, Foreign Bankers’ Association, Amsterdam

• At 11:00 AM, NY Fed: Q1 Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit

Peter Schiff: Printing Money Is Not the Cure for Cononavirus



In his most recent podcast, Peter Schiff talked about coronavirus and the impact that it is having on the markets. Earlier this month, Peter said he thought the virus was just an excuse for stock market woes. At the time he believed the market was poised to fall anyway. But as it turns out, coronavirus has actually helped the US stock market because it has led central banks to pump even more liquidity into the world financial system. All this means more liquidity — central banks easing. In fact, that is exactly what has already happened, except the new easing is taking place, for now, outside the United States, particularly in China.” Although the new money is primarily being created in China, it is flowing into dollars — the dollar index is up — and into US stocks. Last week, US stock markets once again made all-time record highs. In fact, I think but for the coronavirus, the US stock market would still be selling off. But because of the central bank stimulus that has been the result of fears over the coronavirus, that actually benefitted not only the US dollar, but the US stock market.” In the midst of all this, Peter raises a really good question. The primary economic concern is that coronavirus will slow down output and ultimately stunt economic growth. Practically speaking, the world would produce less stuff. If the virus continues to spread, there would be fewer goods and services produced in a market that is hunkered down. Why would the Federal Reserve respond, or why would any central bank respond to that by printing money? How does printing more money solve that problem? It doesn’t. In fact, it actually exacerbates it. But you know, everybody looks at central bankers as if they’ve got the solution to every problem. They don’t. They don’t have the magic wand. They just have a printing press. And all that creates is inflation.” Sometimes the illusion inflation creates can look like a magic wand. Printing money can paper over problems. But none of this is going to fundamentally fix the economy. In fact, if central bankers were really going to do the right thing, the appropriate response would be to drain liquidity from the markets, not supply even more.” Peter explained how the Fed was originally intended to create an “elastic” money supply that would expand or contract along with economic output. Today, the money supply only goes in one direction — that’s up. The economy is strong, print money. The economy is weak, print even more money.” Of course, the asset that’s doing the best right now is gold. The yellow metal pushed above $1,600 yesterday. Gold is up 5.5% on the year in dollar terms and has set record highs in other currencies. Because gold is rising even in an environment where the dollar is strengthening against other fiat currencies, that shows you that there is an underlying weakness in the dollar that is right now not being reflected in the Forex markets, but is being reflected in the gold markets. Because after all, why are people buying gold more aggressively than they’re buying dollars or more aggressively than they’re buying US Treasuries? Because they know that things are not as good for the dollar or the US economy as everybody likes to believe. So, more people are seeking out refuge in a better safe-haven and that is gold.” Peter also talked about the debate between Trump and Obama over who gets credit for the booming economy – which of course, is not booming.

We are living in crazy times. I have a hard time believing that most of the general public is not awake, but in reality, they are. We've never seen anything like this; I mean not even under Obama during the worst part of the Great Recession." Now the Fed is desperately trying to keep interest rates from rising. The problem is that it's a much bigger debt bubble this time around , and the Fed is going to have to blow a lot more air into it to keep it inflated. The difference is this time it's not going to work." It looks like the Fed did another $104.15 billion of Not Q.E. in a single day. The Fed claims it's only temporary. But that is precisely what Bernanke claimed when the Fed started QE1. Milton Freedman once said, "Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program." The same applies to Q.E., or whatever the Fed wants to pretend it's doing. Except this is not QE4, according to Powell. Right. Pumping so much money out, and they are accusing China of currency manipulation ? Wow! Seriously! Amazing! Dump the U.S. dollar while you still have a chance. Welcome to The Atlantis Report. And it is even worse than that, In addition to the $104.15 billion of "Not Q.E." this past Thursday; the FED added another $56.65 billion in liquidity to financial markets the next day on Friday. That's $160.8 billion in two days!!!! in just 48 hours. That is more than 2 TIMES the highest amount the FED has ever injected on a monthly basis under a Q.E. program (which was $80 billion per month) Since this isn't QE....it will be really scary on what they are going to call Q.E. Will it twice, three times, four times, five times what this injection per month ! It is going to be explosive since it takes about 60 to 90 days for prices to react to this, January should see significant inflation as prices soak up the excess liquidity. The question is, where will the inflation occur first . The spike in the repo rate might have a technical explanation: a misjudgment was made in the Fed's money market operations. Even so, two conclusions can be drawn: managing the money markets is becoming harder, and from now on, banks will be studying each other's creditworthiness to a greater degree than before. Those people, who struggle with the minutiae of money markets, and that includes most professionals, should focus on the causes and not the symptoms. Financial markets have recovered from each downturn since 1980 because interest rates have been cut to new lows. Post-2008, they were cut to near zero or below zero in all major economies. In response to a new financial crisis, they cannot go any lower. Central banks will look for new ways to replicate or broaden Q.E. (At some point, governments will simply see repression as an easier option). Then there is the problem of 'risk-free' assets becoming risky assets. Financial markets assume that the probability of major governments such as the U.S. or U.K. defaulting is zero. These governments are entering the next downturn with debt roughly twice the levels proportionate to GDP that was seen in 2008. The belief that the policy worked was completely predicated on the fact that it was temporary and that it was reversible, that the Fed was going to be able to normalize interest rates and shrink its balance sheet back down to pre-crisis levels. Well, when the balance sheet is five-trillion, six-trillion, seven-trillion when we're back at zero, when we're back in a recession, nobody is going to believe it is temporary. Nobody is going to believe that the Fed has this under control, that they can reverse this policy. And the dollar is going to crash. And when the dollar crashes, it's going to take the bond market with it, and we're going to have stagflation. We're going to have a deep recession with rising interest rates, and this whole thing is going to come imploding down. everything is temporary with the fed including remaining off the gold standard temporary in the Fed's eyes could mean at least 50 years This liquidity problem is a signal that trading desks are loaded up on inventory and can't get rid of it. Repo is done out of a need for cash. If you own all of your securities (i.e., a long-only, no leverage mutual fund) you have no need to "repo" your securities - you're earning interest every night so why would you want to 'repo' your securities where you are paying interest for that overnight loan (securities lending is another animal). So, it is those that 'lever-up' and need the cash for settlement purposes on securities they've bought with borrowed money that needs to utilize the repo desk. With this in mind, as we continue to see this need to obtain cash (again, needed to settle other securities purchases), it shows these firms don't have the capital to add more inventory to, what appears to be, a bloated inventory. Now comes the fun part: the Treasury is about to auction 3's, 10's, and 30-year bonds. If I am correct (again, I could be wrong), the Fed realizes securities firms don't have the shelf space to take down a good portion of these auctions. If there isn't enough retail/institutional demand, it will lead to not only a crappy sale but major concerns to the street that there is now no backstop, at all, to any sell-off. At which point, everyone will want to be the first one through the door and sell immediately, but to whom? If there isn't enough liquidity in the repo market to finance their positions, the firms would be unable to increase their inventory. We all saw repo shut down on the 2008 crisis. Wall St runs on money. . OVERNIGHT money. They lever up to inventory securities for trading. If they can't get overnight money, they can't purchase securities. And if they can't unload what they have, it means the buy-side isn't taking on more either. Accounts settle overnight. This includes things like payrolls and bill pay settlements. If a bank doesn't have enough cash to payout what its customers need to pay out, it borrows. At least one and probably more than one banks are insolvent. That's what's going on. First, it can't be one or two banks that are short. They'd simply call around until they found someone to lend. But they did that, and even at markedly elevated rates, still, NO ONE would lend them the money. That tells me that it's not a problem of a couple of borrowers, it's a problem of no lenders. And that means that there's no bank in the world left with any real liquidity. They are ALL maxed out. But as bad as that is, and that alone could be catastrophic, what it really signals is even worse. The lending rates are just the flip side of the coin of the value of the assets lent against. If the rates go up, the value goes down. And with rates spiking to 10%, how far does the value fall? Enormously! And if banks had to actually mark down the value of the assets to reflect 10% interest rates, then my god, every bank in the world is insolvent overnight. Everyone's capital ratios are in the toilet, and they'd have to liquidate. We're talking about the simultaneous insolvency of every bank on the planet. Bank runs. No money in ATMs, Branches closed. Safe deposit boxes confiscated. The whole nine yards, It's actually here. The scenario has tended to guide toward for years and years is actually happening RIGHT NOW! And people are still trying to say it's under control. Every bank in the world is currently insolvent. The only thing keeping it going is printing billions of dollars every day. Financial Armageddon isn't some far off future risk. It's here. Prepare accordingly. This fiat system has reached the end of the line, and it's not correct that fiat currencies fail by design. The problem is corruption and manipulation. It is corruption and cheating that erodes trust and faith until the entire system becomes a gigantic fraud. Banks and governments everywhere ARE the problem and simply have to be removed. They have lost all trust and respect, and all they have left is war and mayhem. As long as we continue to have a majority of braindead asleep imbeciles following orders from these psychopaths, nothing will change. Fiat currency is not just thievery. Fiat currency is SLAVERY. Ultimately the most harmful effect of using debt of undefined value as money (i.e., fiat currencies) is the de facto legalization of a caste system based on voluntary slavery. The bankers have a charter, or the legal *right*, to create money out of nothing. You, you don't. Therefore you and the bankers do not have the same standing before the law. The law of the land says that you will go to jail if you do the same thing (creating money out of thin air) that the banker does in full legality. You and the banker are not equal before the law. ALL the countries of the world; Islamic or secular, Jewish or Arab, democracy or dictatorship; all of them place the bankers ABOVE you. And all of you accept that only whining about fiat money going down in exchange value over time (price inflation which is not the same as monetary inflation). Actually, price inflation itself is mainly due to the greed and stupidity of the bankers who could keep fiat money's exchange value reasonably stable, only if they wanted to. Witness the crash of silver and gold prices which the bankers of the world; Russian, American, Chinese, Jewish, Indian, Arab, all of them collaborated to engineer through the suppression and stagnation of precious metals' prices to levels around the metals' production costs, or what it costs to dig gold and silver out of the ground. The bankers of the world could also collaborate to keep nominal prices steady (as they do in the case of the suppression of precious metals prices). After all, the ability to create fiat money and force its usage is a far more excellent source of power and wealth than that which is afforded simply by stealing it through inflation. The bankers' greed and stupidity blind them to this fact. They want it all, and they want it now. In conclusion, The bankers can create money out of nothing and buy your goods and services with this worthless fiat money, effectively for free. You, you can't. You, you have to lead miserable existences for the most of you and WORK in order to obtain that effectively nonexistent, worthless credit money (whose purchasing/exchange value is not even DEFINED thus rendering all contracts based on the null and void!) that the banker effortlessly creates out of thin air with a few strokes of the computer keyboard, and which he doesn't even bother to print on paper anymore, electing to keep it in its pure quantum uncertain form instead, as electrons whizzing about inside computer chips which will become mute and turn silent refusing to tell you how many fiat dollars or euros there are in which account, in the absence of electricity. No electricity, no fiat, nor crypto money. It would appear that trust is deteriorating as it did when Lehman blew up . Something really big happened that set off this chain reaction in the repo markets. Whatever that something is, we aren't be informed. They're trying to cover it up, paper it over with conjured cash injections, play it cool in front of the cameras while sweating profusely under the 5 thousands dollar suits. I'm guessing that the final high-speed plunge into global economic collapse has begun. All we see here is the ripples and whitewater churning the surface, but beneath the surface, there is an enormous beast thrashing desperately in its death throws. Now is probably the time to start tying up loose ends with the long-running prep projects, just saying. In other words, prepare accordingly, and Get your money out of the banks. I don't care if you don't believe me about Bitcoin. Get your money out of the banks. Don't keep any more money in a bank than you need to pay your bills and can afford to lose.











The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks trends and forecasts , futurists , visionaries , free investigative journalists , researchers , Whistelblowers , truthers and many more













The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks trends and forecasts , futurists , visionaries , free investigative journalists , researchers , Whistelblowers , truthers and many more

The FBI released a summary of its file from the Hillary Clinton email investigation on Friday, showing details of Clinton's explanation of her use of a private email server to handle classified communications. The release comes nearly two months after FBI Director James Comey announced that although Clinton's handling of classified information was "extremely careless," it did not rise to the level of a prosecutable offense. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced the next day that she would not pursue charges in the matter. "We are making these materials available to the public in the interest of transparency and in response to numerous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests," the FBI noted in a statement sent to reporters with links to the documents. The documents include notes from Clinton's July 2 interview with agents, as well as a "factual summary of the FBI's investigation into this matter," according to the FBI release. Throughout her interview with agents, Clinton repeatedly said she relied on the career professionals she worked with to handle classified information correctly. The agents asked about a series of specific emails, and in each case Clinton said she wasn't worried about the particular material being discussed on a nonclassified channel.