Financial Crisis - 2013 - ????

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Saudi-Russia oil war collapses prices — and the US is in the middle

Michelle Lewis
- Mar. 9th 2020 9:32 am

127 Comments

Russia refused to cut oil output quotas by up to 1.5 million barrels per day at a failed meeting on Friday between OPEC and non-OPEC nations. So in retaliation, Saudi Arabia will produce 2 million barrels per day at $6 to $7 a barrel into an already oversupplied global market. As a result, oil prices have dropped by a third today.

How did this oil-price collapse happen?

Saudi Arabia wanted OPEC and Russia to make oil production cuts to support oil prices in light of the coronavirus outbreak, which has hurt the global economy. But Russia objected, saying everyone can produce whatever they want, so Saudi Arabia jacked up oil production to 2 million barrels per day and discounted its oil prices. Analysts say Saudi Arabia is punishing Russia for abandoning the two countries’ three-year supply pact. The oil market is already saturated.
Saudi Arabia plans to boost its crude output above 10 million barrels per day in April when the pact expires.
Where does the US come into this price war?

Officially, Russia said it wants to wait and see what the coronavirus’ impact is on the oil market before it makes a decision.

Unofficially, Russia is angry about US sanctions of Russian energy companies — the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Rosneft for transporting Venezuelan oil — and the US’ attempts to stop the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany.

Russia felt that cutting output would boost the US shale industry, which has stolen customers away from Russia. So Russia sees this as an opportunity to put a dent in the US shale industry.

Russia says it can cope with low oil prices for six to 10 years.

What’s the outcome?

Oil prices dropped Monday by as much as one-third — the biggest loss since the 1991 Gulf War.

Keith Barnett, senior vice president strategic analysis at ARM Energy in Houston, says via Reuters:

The timing of this lower price environment should be limited to a few months unless this whole virus impact on global market and consumer confidence triggers the next recession.

And as CNBC explains:

The industry is facing a three-sided attack: falling prices, a move of institutional investors to divest from fossil fuel companies, and crushing debt loads.
The US oil and gas industry has about $86 billion of rated debt due in the next four years, according to Moody’s.

What everyone does seem to agree on is that the shale industry, its employees, and its remaining investors are going to experience very sharp pain in the near term.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.


Russia Says It Can Weather $25 Oil For Up To 10 Years

by Tyler Durden

Mon, 03/09/2020 - 09:14

Now that both OPEC+ and OPEC no longer exist, and it's a free-for-all of "every oil producer for themselves" and which Goldman described as return to "the playbook of the New Oil Order, with low cost producers increasing supply from their spare capacity to force higher cost producers to reduce output", the key question is just how long can the world's three biggest producers - shale, Russia and Saudi Arabia...



... sustain a scorched-earth price war that keep oil prices around $30 (or even lower).

While we hope to get an answer on both Saudi and US shale longevity shortly, and once the market reprices shale junk bonds sharply lower, we expect the US shale patch to soon become a ghost town as money-losing US producers will not be solvent with oil below $30, assuring that millions in supply will soon be pulled from the market, moments ago we got the answer as far as Russia is concerned, when its Finance Ministry said on Monday that the country could weather oil prices of $25 to 30$ per barrel for between six and 10 years.

Iran's Oil Minister Wants OPEC+ Output Cut, Hopes for Russia Meeting Soon

The ministry said it could tap into the country’s National Wealth Fund to ensure macroeconomic stability if low oil prices linger. As of March 1, the fund held more than $150 billion or 9.2% of Russia’s growth domestic product.
Incidentally, this may explain why over the past two years, Putin has been busy dumping US Treasury and hoarding gold: he was saving liquidity for a rainy day, and as millions of shale workers are about to find out today, it's pouring.



https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/rus...5-oil-10-years

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Russia and Saudi Arabia right now #oilwar pic.twitter.com/AgDSc4una5

— Bonaldi Da Costa (@BonaldiDaCosta) March 9, 2020

#Saudi and #Russia have started an Oil war.

Russia’s total income from oil is just 35% of its revenues.

Saudi’s dependency is 87% of its revenues.

Who is dropping an Axe on their foot ? Figure it out yourself. #OilWar #OilCrash

— Mir Mohammad Alikhan (@MirMAKOfficial) March 9, 2020

#Russia broke from #OPEC on Friday, refusing calls to decrease #Oil production: https://t.co/gAB90NTkVH#oilprice #march9 #mondaythoughts pic.twitter.com/KxPKkzFBEF

— InsideOver (@inside_over) March 9, 2020

#BREAKING: The #Dow opens down more than 1,700 points on #oil and #coronavirus concerns. pic.twitter.com/b7PFUNNblq

— Jeremy Song (@tezuma75) March 9, 2020

Live: Trading halted on the New York Stock Exchange van KGWNews #Dow #Market #DowJones #stock https://t.co/pSUnDRwNom

— Richard Grune (@0406Guno) March 9, 2020

[vector7]

Flashback:
The Repo Market’s a Mess. (What’s the Repo Market?)

By Liz McCormick andAlex Harris

September 19, 2019, 10:22 AM MDT Updated on December 17, 2019, 9:17 AM MST

Kroszner: Markets Have Fragilities That Nobody Expected

When plumbing works well, you don’t need to think about it. That’s usually the case with a vital but obscure part of the financial system known as the repo market, where vast amounts of cash and collateral are swapped every day. But when it springs a leak, as it did in mid-September, it rivets the attention of the U.S. Federal Reserve, the nation’s largest banks, money-market funds, corporations and other big investors. It even gets airtime on National Public Radio. The Fed calmed things down by pumping in billions of dollars, but it may have a lot more work to do on the pipes -- and a lot more money to lay out.

1. What’s the repo market?

It’s where piles of cash and pools of securities meet, resulting in more than $3 trillion in debt being financed each day. Repo is short for repurchase agreements, transactions that amount to collateralized short-term loans, often made overnight. Repo deals let big investors -- such as mutual funds -- make money by briefly lending cash that might otherwise sit idle, and enable banks and broker-dealers to get needed financing by loaning out securities they hold in return. A healthy repo market is more than the world’s biggest pawn shop: It helps a wide range of other transactions go more smoothly -- including trading in the over $16 trillion U.S. Treasury market.

2. How is the Fed involved in it?


In a number of ways. For years, central banks around the globe have used their own repo markets to temporarily extend credit in tight markets, stabilize financing costs and guide interest rates. Many things have changed in the repo market since it melted down in September 2008, a crucial part of that year’s financial panic. Since then, the Fed has worked with other regulators to curb risk-taking and bolster liquidity requirements as a way of preventing a recurrence. And since 2013, the Fed has entered the repo market on a large scale, using transactions there to put a floor under rates.

3. What happened?

In the week of Sept. 16, a lot of cash flowed out of the repo pipes just as more securities were flowing in -- meaning that suddenly there wasn’t enough cash for those who needed it. That mismatch drove overnight repo rates to 10% on Sept. 17, from about 2% the week before. More alarming for the Fed was the way volatility in the repo market pushed the effective federal funds rate to 2.30%, above the 2.25% upper limit of the Fed’s target range -- just as the Fed was preparing to drop that ceiling to 2%.

4. Why did that all happen?

In one view, different events that acted as catalysts just happened to land at the same time and push in the same direction. A big swath of new Treasury debt settled into the marketplace, landing on dealers’ balance sheets just as cash was being sucked out by quarterly tax payments companies needed to send to the government. Many also say the weight of post-crisis regulations served to slow banks from adding more cash by jumping in to grab the windfall of higher repo rates. Researchers at the Bank for International Settlements, a kind of central bank for central banks, suggest there are deeper structural issues related to the concentration of repo activity among the top four U.S. banks and the fact that their portfolios of high-quality liquid assets are skewed more toward Treasuries relative to reserves. Analysts also pointed to the increasing use of the Treasury repo market by hedge funds.

5. What did the Fed do?

In its first direct injection of cash to the banking sector since the financial crisis, it laid out as much as $75 billion a day in temporary cash over four days to quell the funding crunch and push the effective fed funds rate down. In what are known as overnight system repos, the Fed lent cash to primary dealers against Treasury securities or other collateral.

6. Was that enough?

It did calm the markets, eventually bringing the rates down around 2% by Sept. 19. The following week, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York began extending these temporary loans for beyond one day, in what is known as a term operations, and provided a set schedule of their future repo plans. It has since beefed up its overnight operations and continued to offer swaths of longer-term repo funding. The central bank went on in October to buy Treasury bills from the marketplace, as a method to more permanently add reserves to the banking system. Those actions have quelled the mayhem yet market participants are wary issues will reappear at year-end and other key times when banks curtail repo lending due to regulatory-related balance sheet constraints. To prevent trouble around Dec. 31, 2019, the Fed is willing to inject up to half a trillion dollars of liquidity. But many strategists, economists and some former Fed officials have voiced the belief that the turmoil is a sign of larger problems that may require regulatory changes.

7. What do they think is wrong?

To some, one factor is that the rules regulators imposed to make the market safer led dealers to pull back on their involvement, reducing overall liquidity. And many think these distortions will continue as long as government spending and Treasury’s debt issuance continues to rise. But the broadest view is that the financial system has run low on bank reserves -- excess money that banks park at the Fed -- and that the current repo turmoil is a sign that the banking system lacks the buffers markets need in times of stress.

8. What does that mean?

It could mean that bank reserves, which top $1 trillion, still don’t amount to having enough money in the system. The Fed has been buying $60 billion of Treasury bills per month and has said that they will continue “at least into the second quarter” of 2020. Chairman Jerome Powell has repeatedly maintained these purchases of securities are not a resumption of quantitative easing, meant to support the broader economy, but are just to better control its policy rate.

9. And what does that mean?

As with any corporation, the Fed’s assets and liabilities must balance. As well as bank reserves, its main liabilities come in the form of currency in circulation, which has been growing in step with the economy. To prevent that growth from squeezing reserves going forward, some strategists predict the Fed will need to keep buying Treasuries.

10. What else can the Fed do?

It did one thing at its September meeting, and other steps are being discussed. The Federal Open Market Committee has reduced the interest rate it pays on so-called excess reserves -- the cash banks park at the Fed beyond what’s needed to meet regulatory requirements -- by more than their main interest rate to help quell the money-market stresses. Lowering the IOER rate gives banks an incentive to lend out more of their money, which would keep repo under control and the effective federal funds rate within the Fed’s target range.

11. What else might the Fed do?

Many market participants want the Fed to activate a new tool, called a standing overnight repo facility, that it’s been considering. The facility would amount to a standing offer to lend a certain amount of cash to repo borrowers every day. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard says the launch of this facility would be a sensible “endgame” to prevent more bouts of extreme volatility in money markets and keep the federal funds rate in its target range.

The Reference Shelf

• QuickTakes on the repo market, Jamie Dimon’s gripe about it and the interest on excess reserves rate.
• A Bloomberg News article on warnings of a shortage of bank reserves.
• A Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis paper, “Interest Rate Control Is More Complicated Than You Thought.”
• The BIS linked the repo blow up to big banks and hedge funds.

[vector7]

So Covid19 shows up out of China and shortly after Russia sparks an oil war sending markets tumbling all during an election year.

Pay attention and stay focused.

Russia pulling for Dems to take it back:
Putin Endorses the Democratic Party Establishment


How Russia Is Trying To Boost Bernie Sanders' Campaign


Russia is said to be interfering to aid Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders may want to praise Joseph Stalin, too


Sanders Wants New NATO with Russia


Bio weapon?
Bioweapons Expert Speaks Out About Novel Coronavirus


https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...AaAhjOEALw_wcB

Virus-hit Wuhan has two laboratories linked to Chinese bio-warfare program
Virology institute there has China's only secure lab for studying deadly virus

In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, a medical worker writes their colleague’s name on a protective suit to aid in identification as they work at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei Province, ...
By Bill Gertz - The Washington Times - Friday, January 24, 2020

The deadly animal virus epidemic spreading globally may have originated in a Wuhan laboratory linked to China’s covert biological weapons program, according to an Israeli biological warfare expert.

Radio Free Asia this week rebroadcast a local Wuhan television report from 2015 showing China’s most advanced virus research laboratory known the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Radio Free Asia reported.

The laboratory is the only declared site in China capable of working with deadly viruses.


Oil war taking down markets:
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/08/puti...e-victims.html

Putin just sparked an oil price war with Saudi Arabia — and US energy companies may be the victims

Published Sun, Mar 8 20206:34 PM EDT\Updated 31 min ago

Brian Sullivan
@SullyCNBC

Russia rejected a proposal by OPEC to cut 1.5 million barrels per day of production.

In response, Saudi Arabia not only cut its forward crude price to Chinese customers by as much as $6 or $7 per barrel, but is also reportedly looking to raise its daily crude output by as many as 2 million barrels.

The move by the Saudis is both a market share grab and a loud signal to Moscow that it’s done playing games.

American oil and gas workers and investors are caught in the middle of this epic ego battle...

[Ryan Ruck]

Oil war taking down markets:
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/08/puti...e-victims.html

Putin just sparked an oil price war with Saudi Arabia — and US energy companies may be the victims

It is interesting the effect this is seemingly having on US markets but, I have to wonder how much of that is also due in part to COVID economic impact fears since cheap oil, while not good for US energy companies, is good for every other sector of the economy.

[Ryan Ruck]

The market doesn't seem to be reacting positively to Trump's speech...

[vector7]

The Left is wanting to focus on the European travel ban for 30 days as the catalyst for the bear markets.
I think cancelling the NBA season was the real wake up call to most Americans last night.

Italy is now shut down because they didn't stop travelers coming in from heavily infected countries.



Look at how Democrats want to handle this pandemic now.

They want to grandstand a full blown disaster with as much collateral damage as possible during an election year.


House and Senate Democrats Focus on Ending Trump's Travel Bans on China, Iran



John Binder

11 Mar 2020

House and Senate Democrats are responding to the coronavirus outbreak in the United States by supporting measures to effectively strip President Trump of his authority to impose travel bans to protect American citizens.

While Trump has implemented travel bans on China and Iran — two of the most coronavirus-affected nations in the world — House Democrats are looking to roll back the president’s authority to enact travel bans from regions of the world.

The “No Ban Act,” introduced by Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) and co-sponsored by 219 House Democrats, would have prevented Trump from immediately implementing a travel ban on China once the outbreak of the coronavirus spread past its origins of Wuhan.

Instead, the No Ban Act would have allowed travelers from Wuhan to continue to arrive in the U.S. while the president received guidance from Congress.

“This bill imposes limitations on the President’s authority to suspend or restrict aliens from entering the United States and terminates certain presidential actions implementing such restrictions,” a summary of the legislation reads.

The legislation would mandate Trump “only issue a restriction when required to address a compelling government interest,” though that interest is not defined. Before imposing a travel ban, Trump would have to “consult with Congress,” the legislation dictates.

Likewise, Democrat Senators Christopher Murphy (D-CT), Christopher Coons (D-DE), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) have introduced legislation to stop Trump’s recent expansion of a travel ban on some legal immigration from Burma, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Sudan, along with Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen.

The legislation states:

The effort to end America’s ability to implement travel bans comes as the number of coronavirus cases hits 1,107 nationwide, including 32 deaths.

Democrats’ fight to keep U.S. borders open to the world during the spread of the coronavirus was echoed by 2020 Democrat presidential primary candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) this week when he explicitly said he would not close America’s borders to protect Americans from the coronavirus.

[B][I]John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...on-china-iran/

[Ryan Ruck]

Ended the day below 21k. I think 20k is a definite floor and if it drops below that we could be in trouble.

[Ryan Ruck]

After hours trading is not looking good. Already flirting with 20k

[Ryan Ruck]

Looks like after hours trading wasn't a good indicator and folks are picking up stocks on sale before the week's end but, we've seen this down-up-down-up plenty this week looking like 1 step forward and 2 steps back the whole way.

We do also have a Trump speech scheduled for 3pm ET. There's going to be movement one way or another.

In other news... Wow... Half a trillion dollars out of thin air for the banks.

Fed Pledges More Than $500 Billion to Keep Funding Markets Calm

March 11, 2020

The Federal Reserve is trying to get ahead of possible funding disruptions caused by the coronavirus, ramping up cash injections in the coming weeks to as much as $505 billion in a bid to keep short-term financing markets functioning smoothly through quarter-end.

The central bank’s New York branch said Wednesday that it would conduct additional repurchase-agreement operations that could take its support for this crucial corner of the financial markets beyond the total of $490 billion it offered over year-end. Policy makers are trying to avert a repeat of September, when short-term borrowing costs spiked amid imbalances in the supply and demand for cash.

The Fed’s announcement covers operations starting Thursday, and comes as stocks are plummeting on concern about the damage to the economy from the viral outbreak, which the World Health Organization is now calling a pandemic. Turbulence in Treasuries, where yields sank to record lows this week, may have played into the Fed’s approach. Volatility in spreads between the cheapest-to-deliver Treasury securities and their associated futures contracts appeared to draw a response from regulators, analysts said.

“The market moves have been so violent and disturbing,” said Jefferies money-market economist Thomas Simons. “That would suggest to me that if you’re the Fed you’d want to flood the market with liquidity ahead of time rather than play catch-up.”

On Monday, the New York Fed unexpectedly increased the size of this week’s repo offerings to $150 billion for the overnight action and $45 billion for the term as financial markets convulsed, up from $100 billion and $20 billion, respectively.

The Fed now plans to offer 14-day term repo operations twice a week through April 9 of at least $45 billion. It will also conduct three one-month actions of at least $50 billion beginning Thursday. The bank also boosted its overnight offering to $175 billion daily through April 13.

The Fed has been conducting repo offerings and Treasury-bill purchases in a bid to keep control of short-term rates and bolster bank reserves. The efforts have calmed markets since September, when overnight repo rates soared as high as 10%, and also helped quell concern about a potential cash crunch at the end of 2019.

The overnight rate was around 1.21% Wednesday afternoon, within the Fed’s target range of 1% to 1.25%.

[Ryan Ruck]

DOW down almost 3k today.

Still not at the bottom.

[vector7]

DOW down almost 3k today.

Still not at the bottom.

Nope.

This Is What A $12 Trillion Dollar Margin Call Looks Like

by Tyler Durden
Wed, 03/18/2020 - 16:00
TwitterFacebookRedditEmailPrint

'Mystery Chart' time...



No, it's not Volkswagen, or even Tesla.

This is the world's reserve currency soaring to an all-time record high...

00:16 / 03:11



..and this is what happens when a global margin call reveals there is a $12 trillion short squeeze.



This is the biggest 7-day gain for the USDollar since Black Wednesday in 1992 when George Soros "broke The Bank of England," crashing the pound and forcing Britain to withdraw from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.

It is also on par with October 1978's surge in the dollar when the Fed clamped down hard on monetary policy - after the signing of the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act, better known as the Humphrey-Hawkins Act, mandating The Fed to crack down on inflation (which Volcker then did by drastically raising rates) - sending the stock market into the infamous "October massacre."

As a reminder, according to JPMorgan's calculations - the global dollar short that has doubled since the financial crisis and was $12 trillion as of this moment, some 60% of US GDP.



And, as we noted previously, the events of last week so ominously demonstrated, the dollar shortage is back with a vengeance, as confirmed by last week's concurrent surge in both the Bloomberg Dollar index and the FRA/OIS spread, a closely followed indicator of interbank dollar funding availability.

And it may come as a shock to some but ever since the financial crisis nothing has been actually fixed, and instead the Fed stepped in at every market stress event to inject more liquidity, aiding the issuance of even more debt, and kicking the can while while helping mask the symptoms of the crisis, only made the underlying financial instability even more acute. Meanwhile conventional wisdom that the US banking system was rendered more stable now are dead wrong, with the public and countless financial professionals fooled by the nearly two trillion in excess reserves (we all saw what happened when this number dropped to a precarious "low" of "only" $1.3 trillion in September of 2019) injected by the Fed in recent years. All this liquidity upon liquidity has only made the system that much more reliant on the Fed's constant bailouts and liquidity injections.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/wh...gin-call-looks

Banks Are Going To Drown In An Ocean Of Defaults

The entire world has completely ‘misunderestimated’ the Coronavirus...

www.zerohedge.com


BIG SNIP...

Even now, after one of the worst stock market crashes in history, people are still woefully underestimating the effects.

And I’m not talking about the stock market (though there could easily be more losses ahead). I’m talking about something far more serious: banks.



Banks are about to drown in an ocean of defaults. I’ll talk about this a lot more in the coming days, but briefly:

• There’s $250 TRILLION in global debt right now– mortgages, credit card debt, business loans, government debt, etc.
• And banks own a large portion of that debt.
• This virus crisis is going to trigger a wave of defaults from consumers, businesses, and even governments.
• Think about it: tourism alone makes up 10% of global GDP. Revenue in that entire sector– hotels, airlines, cruise ships, etc. has collapsed, and many of those companies aren’t going to survive.
• The crash in oil prices is going to wipe out countless oil companies.
• Many large retail chains, which were already struggling in the age of e-commerce, will likely declare bankruptcy.
• Countless businesses around the world have ‘temporarily’ closed due to public health policies, and many of them will go out of business entirely.
• MOST of these businesses owe lots of money to the banks, whether it’s a small business working line, or the $34 billion in debt that American Airlines owes. So the defaults are going to be massive.
• On top of that, millions of people are going to lose their jobs and be unable to make payments on their credit card debt, auto loans, and even mortgages.
• Again, there’s $250 trillion in global debt right now. Total bank capital worldwide is less than $10 trillion.
• So if the coming defaults trigger a mere 4% loss in total debt, it will exceed the entirety of global bank capital.
• And this doesn’t even take into consideration the impact of the $1 QUADRILLION derivatives exposure.

Misunderestimate? Absolutely.

This looming wave of loan defaults over the next few months could spark a crisis in the global financial system that completely dwarfs what happened back in 2008.
I desperately want to be wrong.

And it’s possible that public health officials radically shift their positions in the coming weeks and tell all the young, healthy people in the world to go back to work, get infected, and start developing immunity.

They may be forced to do this to avoid destroying the global economy.

But at this point, every possible scenario is on the table. Nothing is out of the question… especially when the arithmetic is so obvious.

And continuing to misunderestimate the effects of this virus could be far more dangerous than the virus itself.

We’ll talk about this more in the coming days, along with some sensible suggestions to reduce risk.

* * *nking system was rendered more stable now are dead wrong, with the public and countless financial professionals fooled by the nearly two trillion in excess reserves (we all saw what happened when this number dropped to a precarious "low" of "only" $1.3 trillion in September of 2019) injected by the Fed in recent years. All this liquidity upon liquidity has only made the system that much more reliant on the Fed's constant bailouts and liquidity injections.

[Ryan Ruck]

Kudlow Projects Coronavirus Aid Package to Reach ‘Roughly’ $6 Trillion

March 24, 2020

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Tuesday projected that the total economic stimulus to be enacted by the federal government will reach $6 trillion.

Of the total, $4 trillion will come in the form of liquidity from the Federal Reserve, while the remaining $2 trillion will be part of proposed phase-three legislation from Congress. If the total assistance does reach $6 trillion, that would equal about 30 percent of U.S. GDP.

The phase-three legislation will be “the single largest Main Street assistance program in the history of the United States,” Kudlow said at a press conference Tuesday evening.

“We’re heading for a rough period, but it’s only going to be weeks, we think. Weeks [or] months, but it’s not going to be years, that’s for sure,” Kudlow added.

Lawmakers have not agreed on a final stimulus package as of Tuesday evening, despite optimism earlier in the day from Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin that a deal was within reach. Senate Democrats twice voted to deny cloture to debate the stimulus on the Senate floor, moves that received harsh criticism from Republicans.

Anticipation of a deal on the stimulus drove a stock market surge on Tuesday that saw the largest one-day gain for the Dow since 1933. Meanwhile, President Trump said he hoped the U.S. would be able to relax coronavirus containment measures by Easter (April 12).

“We’re opening up this incredible country. Because we have to do that. I’d love to have it open by Easter,” Trump said during a virtual Fox News town hall event.

Later on Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that while it might be possible to relax containment in some areas of the country, those decisions would be made according to data at the time.

“You can look at a date [to ease restrictions] but you’ve really got to be flexible,” Fauci told reporters.

[Malsua]

Wooooooooooo, wooooooooo, inflation train coming through!!!!

[vector7]

Hello 30 Trillion...


https://youtu.be/qFoqqYR6ntg?t=208

United States National Debt	$23,558,751,672,942.53
United States National Debt Per Person	$70,773.64
United States National Debt Per Household	$183,303.73
Total US Unfunded Liabilities	$123,273,835,646,804.84
Social Security Unfunded Liability	$15,108,208,662,089.44
Prescription Drug Unfunded Liability	$19,942,952,185,858.57
National Healthcare Unfunded Liability	$9,201,525,362,052.44
Total US Unfunded Liabilities Per Person	$370,331.86
Total US Unfunded Liabilities Per Household	$959,159.51
United States Population	332,873,972

http://www.USADebtClock.com/us-debt-clock-widget.php

http://www.USADebtClock.com/

[vector7]

• Washington State’s largest jail releases inmates to protect against virus spread of Coronavirus
  
• Local governments across the U.S. are releasing thousands of inmates
  
• Police nationwide ask criminals to halt activity during coronavirus outbreak

Stores Vandalized In Portland As Businesses Ordered To Close, Inmates Released, Police Ordered To Cite In Lieu Of Arrest

by Brock Simmons March 25, 2020 221 Comments



What happens when a governor orders businesses to close, jails release dozens of inmates, and police announce they will only respond to life threatening calls and issue citations instead of arresting people? Anyone with three functioning brain cells can see where this toxic combination is heading.

Sure enough, just one day into Oregon Governor Kate Brown’s order that all businesses deemed “non essential” are to close, vandals smashed out windows of seven businesses in Portland’s fancy pants Pearl District.

This has led to several businesses in the area to board up their windows.

KPTV reports:

“Yeah, I’m very worried about looting. I’m worried about a lot of things. Looting is definitely in the front of my mind right now,” said Ramzy Hattar, owner of River Pig Saloon. ” Especially cause it happened next door. And we’re two to three days into this closure, I can only image what’s going to happen in a month or two months into it.”

Just this past weekend, police did get reports of vandals throwing rocks and hitting seven different businesses near Northwest 10th and Lovejoy.

Michael Chown works in the Pearl District and was upset to see the glass windows covered by plywood.

“It’s scary honestly. Just driving down the street, no one is walking around, no one’s working, no one’s outside,” Chown said.

[Ryan Ruck]

Hello 30 Trillion...

I can honestly say, I think we're witnessing the single largest lurch in government growth any of us have seen in our lifetimes.

Everything ranging from insane, unprecedented spending, to executive orders banning "hoarding" and "gouging", to even talk of banning vaping and eCigs because of the respiratory danger combined with coronavirus, to the acceptance of universal income.

I don't think our nation ever recovers from this. The stock market and employment markets, maybe but we're officially fundamentally broken.

[American Patriot]

Gas was $1.47 today in NC.

[American Patriot]

China is broke as well... they have 1.7 BILLION people to feed, and no where from which to get food. They will go after everyone else for it. I suggest they start in Europe though, so we have a chance to get our shots off.... and obliterate their major cities.

[Ryan Ruck]

Who needs the security and stability of bonds in a highly volatile stock market...

McConnell Says He Favors Allowing States To Declare Bankruptcy

April 22, 2020

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday he favors allowing states struggling with high public employee pension costs amid the burdens of the pandemic response to declare bankruptcy rather than giving them a federal bailout.

“I would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route,” he said Wednesday in a response to a question on the syndicated Hugh Hewitt radio show. “It’s saved some cities, and there’s no good reason for it not to be available.”

The host cited California, Illinois and Connecticut as states that had given too much to public employee unions, and McConnell said he was reluctant to take on more debt for any rescue.

“You raised yourself the important issue of what states have done, many of them have done to themselves with their pension programs,” he said. “There’s not going to be any desire on the Republican side to bail out state pensions by borrowing money from future generations.”

His statements set up a conflict with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said on Bloomberg Television Wednesday a “major package” of aid for state and local government will be in the next stimulus legislation considered by Congress.

McConnell may also find himself in conflict with President Donald Trump. The president said Tuesday after meeting with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo that states will need assistance. “And I think most Republicans agree too, and Democrats,” Trump said. “And that’s part of phase four.”

McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, noted he blocked additional state and local aid in the latest relief package, which passed the Senate Tuesday and is set for a vote Thursday in the House.

“I said yesterday we’re going to push the pause button here, because I think this whole business of additional assistance for state and local governments needs to be thoroughly evaluated,” McConnell added.

The idea of allowing states to file for bankruptcy was raised in the wake of the last recession. It drew widespread disdain from Wall Street investors, public employee unions and both Republican and Democratic governors, who said it would unsettle the bond market and cause even the most fiscally sound states to face higher interest rates because of the risk the debt could be wiped out in court.

It was also criticized by U.S. lawmakers of both parties during a House hearing that was convened to discuss it in 2011 and was swiftly dropped.

The National Governors Association has said states and municipalities will need at least $500 billion in aid to deal with the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic as tax revenue falls and demands for resources escalate.

McConnell said there should be a “fulsome” discussion among all Republican senators on whether and how to send more aid to state and local governments and what that money should be spent on.

That will be one of the focuses for the next round of stimulus spending that Congress will be taking up, and McConnell’s reluctance signals that negotiation could be the most difficult one so far. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he expected aid to state and local governments would be part of that.

No state has defaulted on its debts since the Great Depression and even after the last recession only a handful of cities went bankrupt, since governments have broad ability to raise taxes.

The current economic contraction may leave states facing an even worse fiscal crisis than they did a decade ago, which has prompted growing calls from the nation’s states and cites for Congress to provide aid to help them make up for the taxes lost by the nationwide shutdown. Governors have requested $500 billion and cities and counties $250 billion.

The bond market, however, doesn’t appear to be pricing in much risk of defaults. While prices tumbled during a panicked sell-off last month, they’ve since rebounded, with returns roughly flat for the year.