Category: Zero Hedge

Authored by David Stockman via InternationalMan.com,

There is nothing more substantive than Bernanke’s original finger-in-the-air proposition that the Fed needed a 200 basis point cushion in the inflation rate in order to steer the economy clear of the dreaded 0.0% inflation line, the other side of which allegedly amounted to a black hole of deflationary demise.

But here’s the thing. There is not a shred of historical evidence that the US economy needs a 2.00% inflation guardrail to thrive, or any fixed rate of inflation at all.

For instance,

In surprising bit of candid investigative reporting out of mainstream media, The Times asked the question this week: who attacked the Nord Stream pipelines? In an honest and objective fashion, the premier British paper writes, “In this global whodunnit, the US, Russia and even Britain have all been suspects.”

Naturally, the collective West rushed to blame Russia for sabotaging its own natural gas delivery infrastructure in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 26 blasts underneath the Baltic Sea. 

The most important twist to

Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com,

Another warning shot across the bow just happened…

I warned my readers a few weeks ago about how the Federal Reserve, in cooperation with giant global banks, has launched a 12-week pilot project to test the message systems and payment processes on the new CBDC dollar.

A pilot project is not research and development. That’s already done. The pilot means that what I call “Biden Bucks” are here, and the backers just want to test the plumbing before they roll the system out on the entire population.

That project is due

New Yorkers will feel the wrath of Old Man Winter today as temperatures will plummet into the teens and single digits by this weekend. Heating demand will soar as millions turn up their thermostats to stay warm. The result so far has been the largest spike in New York natural gas prices in two decades. 

Bloomberg data shows next-day NatGas deliveries via the Iroquois Gas pipeline that transports Canadian NatGas into New York jumped to $164.80 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), a 14x increase from Wednesday prices.

There was a loud gasp from Wall Street strategists and economists after today’s job report printed, with the reactions more or less in line with sheer shock: anywhere from “wow, wow, wow“…

‘WOW! WOW!’ CNBC Anchor Stunned By Jobs Report Showing 517,000 Jobs Added — ‘A Blastoff of a Number!’ https://t.co/P8sxFQnJtG pic.twitter.com/WC4jMYt1Tr

— Tommy moderna-vaX-Topher (@tommyxtopher) February 3, 2023

… to “holy moly”

Holy moly what a report! Seasonal distortions & benchmarking aside people who want jobs can find them, and while the labor share of GDP

Authored by Martin Young via CoinTelegraph.com,

The crypto bank hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing, but prosecutors want to see how deep the dealings between the crypto bank and FTX went…

Crypto bank Silvergate is reportedly being probed by the United States Department of Justice fraud unit over its involvement with the bankrupt FTX exchange and its affiliates.

The probe is investigating Silvergate’s hosting of accounts linked to former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s businesses, according to a Feb. 3 report by Bloomberg, which cited “people familiar with the matter.”

The California-based

GOP lawmakers want to rescind unspent pandemic relief funds and apply them towards an eventual bill to resolve the debt ceiling.

According to government estimates, $4.61 trillion has been authorized for Covid-19 relief, while $4.12 trillion of it has been spent – leaving roughly $500 billion in theoretically unspent funds, although a portion of that is currently “obligated” to certain pots of money and may not easily be returned to the US Treasury.

The idea “certainly could” be included in a debt ceiling measure to avert

Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

Back in January 2020, I was pointing out that the coronavirus was going to wreak havoc on markets weeks before it ever happened.

As I’ve noted many times on this blog, those days were immensely frustrating.

I waited for a collective market ethos that only viewed the news through a backward looking rearview mirror, with the attention span of a fruitfly and the collective IQ of a wooden ping-pong paddle, to catch up to a news story that was unfolding and evolving, by the second, right

US military commanders have advised President Biden against shooting down a Chinese spy balloon flying over the US. 

Reuters said the US military took “custody” of the “high-altitude surveillance balloon” and deployed military aircraft, including stealth fighter jets, to observe it. 

Such balloons operate at an altitude of 15-22 miles, well above commercial air traffic. The balloon’s size is estimated to be equivalent to three buses. 

🚨#BREAKING: More video of the Chinese spy balloon⁰
📌#Montana | #USA

More video is coming out as
The Chinese high

Authored by Felicity Bradstock via OilPrice.com,

• Following the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act in the U.S., pressure grew on the EU to introduce its own legislation to help fund the clean energy push on the continent.
• Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resultant energy security issues in Europe have only added to the pressure on EU politicians to solve the bloc’s energy problems.
• The EC’s new draft proposal is designed to encourage companies to remain in the EU rather than move operations to the U.S. to take advantage