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Keep in mind

Eric Schmidt's (Google) vast influence. Look at his relationship with Jared Cohen and the deep ties to State Department, Obamas, Clintons, the Council on Foreign Relations...it goes on and on. Juluan Assange wrote a long essay about Schmidt and Cohen, great read.

That may not seem relevant until you add to the mix Google's partnership with Mayo clinic.

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Good point, Dave. Schmidt visited the Obama regime many many times as did FB’s Zuckerberg and other social media moguls in joint operation with Obama were plotting the censorship and propaganda programs to divide the country. Alastair Crooke lays it out the conflicts in the West very astutely in his latest essay at SCF. This is a revolution top down, not from bottom up. Every structure in America and the West in general is oriented toward the idiotic notion of social justice which is the inverted form of true justice. The medical industry with big pharma has been weaponized against the common man to eradicate him in order to eliminate the prejudices that are attributed only to the white Christians who are not sufficiently woke.

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Niall Ferguson: "Russia is getting stronger - Western support is fading away - and there won't be any break through"

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I’ve read many of Fergusons books, but haven’t seen much of his commentary lately. Where was this article found, Mark?

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I saw that quote in a tweet, but earlier in the day I had been listening to Mercouris who discussed an actual article about/by Ferguson at some length. The tweet quote and Mercouris' account fit well. Mercouris made it clear that Ferguson was pretty much an enthusiast for the war, but is now disillusioned. I believe this is the article:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-09-24/ukraine-offensive-against-russia-is-too-slow-for-us-uk-and-eu

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Thank you, Mark!

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The "hospitalized patients" disinformation is even worse than it seems. Unlike IVM, HCQ is only effective in the viral phase, since all it does is inhibit viral reproduction. Almost all patients who get to hospitalization are past or nearly past the viral phase, so it's too late for HCQ to do much of what it's meant for. As Mark says, as a prophylactic or very early after infection is the time to take it. After that, there are far better treatments available.

We are governed and run by demons working for the devil. Seriously, this evil is biblical.

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Tx!

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September 25, 2023
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‘Meanwhile, the Fauch and others insisted that a double blind study was needed,…’ Amazingly, they dropped their supremely virtuous research requirement for this experimental, 1st of its kind ‘vaccine’, even changing the definition of ‘vaccine’ to shoehorn mRNA into the accepted fold. Fauci quacks me up. He is a ducktor after all.

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Not very good at any thing veering towards a conspiracy.

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Working backwards, the US$ is bid vs all comers not because of anything Yellen said, but fleeing disasters in the making, elsewhere. In the EuroZone alone, merchants of Kosovo, which is not a member, but uses the Euro as their local currency, are no longer looking for fake euro pieces as they've been flooded with counterfeits. They're using the fakes as legal tender, thus debasing the euro. And Nooo ECB interest to stop it, yet. If there's a banking crisis coming there, recall that the ECB prefers to use depositor funds to make up for the losses.

People are voting with their feet, as far as their savings are concerned.

Yield curve steepening for a whole host of reasons, including quarter end, too foggy to point at any single catalyst here.

Lastly, ReverseRepo REMOVES cash from the banking sector. Obliquely related to government funding. It has everything to do with the removal of tradable collateral in Leverage Land, since there were 99 participants in today's RRP, but there are only 23 Primary Dealers, who nominally would be lending out the securities they got in the RRP. Who are the other 76 participants? Money Market Funds, who lend to nobody, because of their bylaws forbidding it.

This is the source of The Street's angst. No friends and family to lend to because of no collateral available to lend. Thus softly removing leverage from the overall trading community. A most healthy development.

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"Money Market Funds, who lend to nobody, because of their bylaws forbidding it."

That looks like a device to reduce liquidity. To deflate a bubble?

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Removes excess leverage from the system.

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Aren't MMFs basically supposed to be 'risk-free' intermediaries...that's why they are forbidden to lend?

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The official admissions over Covid are coming out at the same reluctant and glacial pace as they are about Ukraine. But at least they are coming out.

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As a Canadian, I felt intense shame and horror when I heard about what happened in Parliament the other day. The Canadian government, under the direction and control of the WEF/globalists, has spent $9 billion and counting KNOWINGLY supporting Nazis.

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Trudeau knows a Nazi when he sees one.

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Yes every day when he looks in the mirror.

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September 26, 2023
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I luv that. NATO is fraying.

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September 25, 2023
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I disagree to this extent: I think *your* account is by far the most understandable I've read. Perhaps you could address what I made a stab at--the relation between Powell's policy of removing liquidity from the system and Yellen's draining of RRP. The two seem, to my uninformed eye, to be related. Don't Powell's rate increases remove liquidity, forcing Yellen's tilt to short term/high yield? Her alternative, of course, is fiscal restraint, which Powell appears to be trying to force. But Yellen's ploy, according to the quoted tweets, can only continue for a limited time. Perhaps you could expand/clarify. It's fuzzy to me, but I'd really like to get a handle on it.

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September 25, 2023
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Let’s get a few shibboleths slain here:

One: The US Treasury Secretary has absolutely nothing to do with the mechanics of RRP, as it is solely a Fed/Securities market participants closed circuit transaction space. The only interaction between the Fed and the Dept of Treasury is when the Fed remits its “profits” back to the Treasury Dept, and that hasn’t happened in months. Not booking losses on securities positions is something the Fed CAN choose to do, unlike someone like First Republic, which cannot, or not for long.

Two: Powell’s Fed rate hikes, functionally, are extremely short term, as in exclusively overnight rates, their only working space or tool box, as it were. Those who “borrow short to lend long”, a k a fractional reserve banks, which is how most US banks operate are impacted at this new “cost” level. Where the mortgage rate kicker comes in is After the banks set their Prime Rate for short term loans, and scale out the curve from there. The long rates are usually set by mortgage brokers, because of free mkt demand. As such, the housing market is NOT about affordability as much as the lack of desire to move from a very affordable 3% mortgage to a 7-9% rate. This part of the public inoculated itself from rate hikes, until it becomes an “Estate” issue. Smart ZIRP, as opposed to buying condos in hot VRBO zones on ZIRP. Now those markets (I.e. Austin -40%) are in free fall.

Back to overnight rates, and where the Powell Fed’s moves matter most, Margin Rates, which are also overnight rates, calculated daily, and what large banks live for, as Prime Rates are usually Fed Discount +3%. Margin Rates are set individual to individual and are internal to trading “risk desks”, or Fed Discount plus whatever risky behavior you may plan that we don’t want to risk you blowing up. Former employees and their funds would get the “Friend and Family” rate, institutions another, and Joe off the street getting laughed at. Anything under 30% is legit, depending on state law.

The ECB works largely the same way, but with some very back door twists that would make a brothel madam blush. If they didn’t hike in concert with the Fed hikes, LaGarde would be letting the euro self destruct, with all of their banks.

The BOJ, on the other hand, went ZIRP in ‘93 and hasn’t let up, for a number of structural reasons, fear being one of them. The global “Carry Trade” is built on this, and is what LaGarde has been trying to dodge getting trapped into.

More later, but maybe your clarifications aren’t helping.

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September 26, 2023
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As I have consistently stated, the Powell Fed has raised rates in a fashion to take the excess leverage out of the economy, not to "cool the economy", two distinctly different things.

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@Melinda

@L

Very interesting and helpful back and forth. Don't stop.

Perhaps you guys could address how Yellen and Powell (although perhaps not acting in concert) manage to deliver a 'soft' landing. And by saying soft I mean anything that is not cataclysmic.

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Tx! Very helpful.

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September 26, 2023
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"RRP interest rate is Fed Funds Rate plus 5 basis points, not just 5 bp as stated earlier."

This is saying the same thing, as a "bp" is a "basis point" and equal to 0.01 of a percentage point.

I will be responding to Mark going forward, not you. Best of luck.

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RRP has been around for decades. What was new was letting the Money Market Funds in, instead of just Primary Dealers, this time. The mechanics of the ReverseRepo is selling WILLING participants Treasuries, and other securities, that remain on the Fed's Balance Sheet from earlier QE efforts, thus removing loose cash from the banking and money market system. This has little to do with Excess Reserves, a separate Fed Facility.

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What was behind that? Removing liquidity?

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Removing the real currency of trading, collateral, from markets. This move by Powell alone, has earned my respect. Like pushing the valve stem on a tire to slowly bleed the air out, as opposed to letting something burst, and really cause damage, this was smarter than any other tactic to take excess leverage out of the system, infront of China's credit bubble popping, and thus largely inoculating US market participants from any real contagion.

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doesn't Luongo actually address the effect on the US stock market when he states that it will rise due to capital flowing out of Europe? I've heard him say it many times: we don't have to be healthy, just healthier than the competition.

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Correct, and is indeed already happening. Maybe a tad "concentrated" where it's landing, but that's their problem.

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Yes, I've heard him say that many times, too.

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September 25, 2023
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Great thread, thanks for this.

Isn't a big part of the 'origin story' of this financial war housed in the US movement off LIBOR to SOFR?

It was kind of the first salvo.

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September 25, 2023
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And never mind that Russia was arguably our best friend from the founding through the civil war. What a shame that we chose to adopt our nemesis Britain's foreign policy.

Make America unBritish Again!

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Brian Berletic, in his video today, actually pulled up the Wikipedia WW2 page to show that Russia was an ally against the Nazis. Larry Johnson wrote today: "These Canadian members of Parliament take stupid to a new low." I heard another Einstein quote. When asked the difference between intelligence and stupidity he replied: Intelligence is limited.

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Chrystia Freeland's grandfather was a full throated Nazi, too.

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Absolutely. She's lying.

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And Justine's father's name is Fidel, not Pierre.

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Keep em barefoot fat and ignorant

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