36 Burst results for "Treasury Department"
Coin Stories with Natalie Brunell
A highlight from News Block: Did SBF Try to Pay Trump Billions Not To Run? U.S. Debt Hits $33 Trillion, Chase UK Banning Crypto, Honda Now Accepts Bitcoin
"Welcome to the CoinStories news block. I'm Natalie Brunell, and in the span of just 10 minutes, roughly the same time it takes to mine a new Bitcoin block, I'll provide you with concise, insightful updates on Bitcoin and the global financial landscape so you're well informed on the week's top stories. Everything you need to know in one place, in one block. Let's go. Bitcoin has been on the move this week, breaking out above its 200 -day moving average and climbing back above $28 ,000 a coin for the first time since mid -August. Despite its volatility, Bitcoin is now up 68 % on the year as it enters October. And October, by the way, has garnered the nickname, Uptober. It has typically been one of Bitcoin's best performing months. It's gone up an average of 22 % in October over the last 10 years. Some believe Bitcoin's recent price performance is related to increased awareness about the unsustainable nature of the US debt. Our national debt recently hit a concerning milestone when it crossed $33 trillion for the first time in history. According to the Treasury Department, this is a result of fiscal spending increasing nearly 50 % from 2019 to 2021. In other words, government officials went on a spending binge the last couple of years. And given the rise in interest rates, the US government is now spending more to pay interest on our $33 trillion in debt than it does on national defense. Billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio, who has written extensively on how we are about to reach the end of the long -term debt cycle, is warning that we might be close to a deleveraging event. The long -term debt cycle refers to the idea that over long time periods, typically 50 to 75 years, economies accumulate larger and larger amounts of debt with each short -term business cycle. This all culminates in a peak where the debt becomes unsustainable and sparks a large deleveraging period marked by reduced spending, falling asset prices, slower economic growth and debt reduction. In a recent interview, Dalio was quite blunt. We're going to have a debt crisis in this country soon. How fast it transpires, I think is going to be a function of that supply demand issue. And so I'm watching that very closely. The reality of the debt problem was all too apparent in a recent report from the Institute of International Finance that showed that global government debt has hit a record $307 trillion, the title of the report, In Search of Sustainability. Now, Bitcoiners have been sounding the alarm about the debt problem for many years, but now the narrative appears to be going mainstream. Bloomberg published a short documentary titled America's Looming Debt Spiral. So the media seems to be waking up to the fact that this debt is unpayable. The solutions, well, they can choose to default, which would be catastrophic and politically untenable, or they can choose to try to print their way out, which would devalue the dollar even more. Scarce assets like Bitcoin will ultimately be the beneficiaries as the debt spiral continues and investors are finally starting to recognize Bitcoin as an asset to protect themselves from the debt doom loop. All right, shifting gears, much of the focus this week will be on FTX and its founder Sam Bankman -Fried, whose criminal trial is set to begin this week. SPF faces seven counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the collapse of FTX. If found guilty on all charges, SPF could spend the rest of his life behind bars. FTX customers, investors, and employees will all be testifying in the trial against the infamous former poster child for crypto. In a 60 Minutes interview Sunday, author Michael Lewis, who's famous for The Ranging Interview about SPF and the book he's releasing about his rise and fall titled Going Infinite. Lewis had spent more than six months traveling with and interviewing SPF in the lead up to FTX's collapse. A letter from a talent agent from Creative Artists Agency said that Lewis likened SPF to the quote, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader of crypto. Clips from that interview went viral on social media, including one in which Lewis says SPF was trying to pay former President Donald Trump billions of dollars not to run again in 2024. He also said there is an SPF shaped hole in the universe that now needs filling and that FTX was quote, a great real business. Overwhelming consensus on Bitcoin X, Twitter was Michael Lewis was casting FTX and SPF in a favorable light, despite operating one of the largest frauds in financial history. And heading into the trial, the timing and tone of this interview raised some eyebrows given that Lewis said the book was a quote, letter to the jury, which appears to suggest the jury should read the book potentially influencing the outcome of the court case. The trial will be dominating headlines for the coming months as the industry and millions of victims follow it closely to see what happens. FTX is still a topic of discussion in Washington DC, where the company came up in a hearing in front of the House Financial Services Committee. That's where SEC Chairman Gary Gensler was grilled for more than five hours on SEC oversight. Much of the conversation revolved around its enforcement actions toward the broader crypto industry. Democratic Senator Maxine Waters, who strangely called Bitcoin, Bitcoin during the hearing, asked Gary Gensler about ways he would protect investors from frauds like FTX and Terra Luna. Now I have to mention this was the same senator who met with SPF on multiple occasions prior to FTX collapse and even commended SPF for his candidness and willingness to talk to the public after the company went bust. Gensler and the SEC have also come under heavy criticism from Congress for meeting with FTX behind closed doors and also for the lack of clarity around the regulatory approach to the crypto industry. One notable exchange during the hearing was when Gary Gensler was asked directly by Republican Congressman Patrick McHenry whether or not he considered Bitcoin a security. This was Gensler's response. Well I think the staff of the SEC have also ended prior to the hearing. I'm just asking you this question and this is not a gotcha. I thought there's going to be an easy softball into harder questions. Do you think Bitcoin is a security? No, I think I've said this in the past that I think that it doesn't mean a Howey test. I'm asking to answer my question now. This is not supposed to be hard. I know I said it does not meet the Howey test which is the law of the land about being an investment contract. So it doesn't meet it's a commodity. Is that fair? I would say it's not a security and then the test is otherwise for other laws. Many of the questions directed at Gensler were around the SEC continuing to reject multiple spot Bitcoin ETF applications. Despite the congressional pressure for an ETF approval, the SEC continues to delay them. In the last week the Commission delayed its decision on several prominent ETF applications including ones from BlackRock, Bitwise, ARK Invest and Invesco. These delays came earlier than many expected and the SEC noted that the announcement was expedited due to the risk of a government shutdown that was narrowly avoided over the weekend. The next date to watch will be January 10th when the SEC will have to make a decision on ARK Invest's filing. And finally this week Bitcoin has not only been the topic of courtrooms but boardrooms as well. Companies continue to take different approaches when it comes to embracing or rejecting this new monetary technology. We saw two major companies take very different stances this past week. The first came from Chase Bank in the UK when it put out a notice to customers that it will be banning crypto linked payments and transfers citing the fraud and criminal activity associated with crypto. Chase UK justified this censorship announcement by stating that the bank is keeping its clients money safe and secure. Now it's no surprise to see Chase taking the stance given that Bitcoin threatens its core business as a financial intermediary. With Bitcoin there's no need for Chase to be a middleman and take fees with every transaction. Meanwhile Honda appears to be making moves to accept Bitcoin for payment. The Japanese car giant has entered a partnership with a blockchain payment system called FCF Pay. This partnership will allow customers to use cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to purchase or lease Honda products in lieu of traditional fiat currencies. In the coming years I think companies will continue to be forced to make a decision on how they will approach the growing demand for Bitcoin. Some companies like Honda will benefit from embracing the tech while others like Chase will probably lose ground to competitors that do recognize the benefits that Bitcoin can bring to their business. That's it for the news block your subscribe to coin story so you never miss an episode. This show is for educational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice. Until next time keep stacking.
Coin Stories with Natalie Brunell
Fresh update on "treasury department" discussed on Coin Stories with Natalie Brunell
"Welcome to the CoinStories news block. I'm Natalie Brunell, and in the span of just 10 minutes, roughly the same time it takes to mine a new Bitcoin block, I'll provide you with concise, insightful updates on Bitcoin and the global financial landscape so you're well informed on the week's top stories. Everything you need to know in one place, in one block. Let's go. Bitcoin has been on the move this week, breaking out above its 200-day moving average and climbing back above $28,000 a coin for the first time since mid-August. Despite its volatility, Bitcoin is now up 68% on the year as it enters October. And October, by the way, has garnered the nickname, Uptober. It has typically been one of Bitcoin's best performing months. It's gone up an average of 22% in October over the last 10 years. Some believe Bitcoin's recent price performance is related to increased awareness about the unsustainable nature of the US debt. Our national debt recently hit a concerning milestone when it crossed $33 trillion for the first time in history. According to the Treasury Department, this is a result of fiscal spending increasing nearly 50% from 2019 to 2021. In other words, government officials went on a spending binge the last couple of years. And given the rise in interest rates, the US government is now spending more to pay interest on our $33 trillion in debt than it does on national defense. Billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio, who has written extensively on how we are about to reach the end of the long-term debt cycle, is warning that we might be close to a deleveraging event. The long-term debt cycle refers to the idea that over long time periods, typically 50 to 75 years, economies accumulate larger and larger amounts of debt with each short-term business cycle. This all culminates in a peak where the debt becomes unsustainable and sparks a large deleveraging period marked by reduced spending, falling asset prices, slower economic growth and debt reduction. In a recent interview, Dalio was quite blunt. We're going to have a debt crisis in this country soon. How fast it transpires, I think is going to be a function of that supply demand issue. And so I'm watching that very closely. The reality of the debt problem was all too apparent in a recent report from the Institute of International Finance that showed that global government debt has hit a record $307 trillion, the title of the report, In Search of Sustainability. Now, Bitcoiners have been sounding the alarm about the debt problem for many years, but now the narrative appears to be going mainstream. Bloomberg published a short documentary titled America's Looming Debt Spiral. So the media seems to be waking up to the fact that this debt is unpayable. The solutions, well, they can choose to default, which would be catastrophic and politically untenable, or they can choose to try to print their way out, which would devalue the dollar even more. Scarce assets like Bitcoin will ultimately be the beneficiaries as the debt spiral continues and investors are finally starting to recognize Bitcoin as an asset to protect themselves from the debt doom loop. All right, shifting gears, much of the focus this week will be on FTX and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried, whose criminal trial is set to begin this week. SPF faces seven counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the collapse of FTX. If found guilty on all charges, SPF could spend the rest of his life behind bars. FTX customers, investors, and employees will all be testifying in the trial against the infamous former poster child for crypto. In a 60 Minutes interview Sunday, author Michael Lewis, who's famous for The Ranging Interview about SPF and the book he's releasing about his rise and fall titled Going Infinite. Lewis had spent more than six months traveling with and interviewing SPF in the lead up to FTX's collapse. A letter from a talent agent from Creative Artists Agency said that Lewis likened SPF to the quote, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader of crypto. Clips from that interview went viral on social media, including one in which Lewis says SPF was trying to pay former President Donald Trump billions of dollars not to run again in 2024. He also said there is an SPF shaped hole in the universe that now needs filling and that FTX was quote, a great real business. Overwhelming consensus on Bitcoin X, Twitter was Michael Lewis was casting FTX and SPF in a favorable light, despite operating one of the largest frauds in financial history. And heading into the trial, the timing and tone of this interview raised some eyebrows given that Lewis said the book was a quote, letter to the jury, which appears to suggest the jury should read the book potentially influencing the outcome of the court case. The trial will be dominating headlines for the coming months as the industry and millions of victims follow it closely to see what happens. FTX is still a topic of discussion in Washington DC, where the company came up in a hearing in front of the House Financial Services Committee. That's where SEC Chairman Gary Gensler was grilled for more than five hours on SEC oversight. Much of the conversation revolved around its enforcement actions toward the broader crypto industry. Democratic Senator Maxine Waters, who strangely called Bitcoin, Bitcoin during the hearing, asked Gary Gensler about ways he would protect investors from frauds like FTX and Terra Luna. Now I have to mention this was the same senator who met with SPF on multiple occasions prior to FTX collapse and even commended SPF for his candidness and willingness to talk to the public after the company went bust. Gensler and the SEC have also come under heavy criticism from Congress for meeting with FTX behind closed doors and also for the lack of clarity around the regulatory approach to the crypto industry. One notable exchange during the hearing was when Gary Gensler was asked directly by Republican Congressman Patrick McHenry whether or not he considered Bitcoin a security. This was Gensler's response. Well I think the staff of the SEC have also ended prior to the hearing. I'm just asking you this question and this is not a gotcha. I thought there's going to be an easy softball into harder questions. Do you think Bitcoin is a security? No, I think I've said this in the past that I think that it doesn't mean a Howey test. I'm asking to answer my question now. This is not supposed to be hard. I know I said it does not meet the Howey test which is the law of the land about being an investment contract. So it doesn't meet it's a commodity. Is that fair? I would say it's not a security and then the test is otherwise for other laws. Many of the questions directed at Gensler were around the SEC continuing to reject multiple spot Bitcoin ETF applications. Despite the congressional pressure for an ETF approval, the SEC continues to delay them. In the last week the Commission delayed its decision on several prominent ETF applications including ones from BlackRock, Bitwise, ARK Invest and Invesco. These delays came earlier than many expected and the SEC noted that the announcement was expedited due to the risk of a government shutdown that was narrowly avoided over the weekend. The next date to watch will be January 10th when the SEC will have to make a decision on ARK Invest's filing. And finally this week Bitcoin has not only been the topic of courtrooms but boardrooms as well. Companies continue to take different approaches when it comes to embracing or rejecting this new monetary technology. We saw two major companies take very different stances this past week. The first came from Chase Bank in the UK when it put out a notice to customers that it will be banning crypto linked payments and transfers citing the fraud and criminal activity associated with crypto. Chase UK justified this censorship announcement by stating that the bank is keeping its clients money safe and secure. Now it's no surprise to see Chase taking the stance given that Bitcoin threatens its core business as a financial intermediary. With Bitcoin there's no need for Chase to be a middleman and take fees with every transaction. Meanwhile Honda appears to be making moves to accept Bitcoin for payment. The Japanese car giant has entered a partnership with a blockchain payment system called FCF Pay. This partnership will allow customers to use cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to purchase or lease Honda products in lieu of traditional fiat currencies. In the coming years I think companies will continue to be forced to make a decision on how they will approach the growing demand for Bitcoin. Some companies like Honda will benefit from embracing the tech while others like Chase will probably lose ground to competitors that do recognize the benefits that Bitcoin can bring to their business. That's it for the news block your subscribe to coin story so you never miss an episode. This show is for educational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice. Until next time keep stacking.
Mark Levin
House Speaker McCarthy Launches Biden Impeachment Inquiry
"The Treasury Department alone has more than 150 transactions involving the Biden family and other business associates that were flagged as suspicious activity by U .S. banks. Even a trusted FBI informant has alleged a bribe to the Biden family. Biden used his official office to coordinate with Hunter Biden's business partners about Hunter's role in Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company. Finally, despite these serious allegations, it appears that the president's family has been offered special treatment to own administration, treatment that not otherwise would have received if they were not related to the president. These are allegations of abuse of power, corruption, and they warrant further investigation in business. Now, I can understand why Democrats reject this because they hate our country and they want power for themselves. So they're not to be taken seriously. They're dangerous a group that reprobates miscreants and malcontents. But I cannot understand a single Republican who would say no, no, there's not enough information there. Whether it's the Hunter Biden deal, which was really intended to protect Joe Biden, even the current, likely, they say, indictment on gun charges again, as I've explained from day one, intended to protect this president from any tax issues or other related issues. The cover -up the by mob boss, the so -called Attorney General of the United States, the IRS whistleblower testimony about obstruction into their
Bankless
A highlight from Surveillance Finance 101 with Seth Hertlein and Michael Mosier
"Hey, Bankless Nation. I put out a tweet last week that said this, who can come on bank lists and explain the modern financial surveillance apparatus? FADF, FinCEN, AMLKYC, OFAC, the Blacklist, the Graylist. How does it all work? Who makes the rules? But in the space for years, I still don't understand these dark corners. That's very much how I felt coming to this episode, needing the financial surveillance 101. I knew it was an octopus, knew it was this multi -headed hydra. I had no idea how deep its roots actually go, and today we unpack this with legal experts. Seth Hirtline, he's the VP of Global Policy at Ledger, and also Michael Mosier. He actually has spent some time in the belly of the beast at both FinCEN and OFAC. Now he's on our team. He's the guy inside the house. Yeah, and now he's on Team Crypto, so he's got some insider baseball that he's going to tell us as we make sense of this. This was a really fantastic episode. I know I want to get your comments on this episode, but before we do, we've got a message from our friends and sponsors over at Ave. David, what does Ave want bankless listeners to know? Ave wants you to know that Ave V3 is here. I mean, it's been here. It's been here for six months. So why does Ave want you to know that V3 is here? Well, because apparently over a billion dollars of capital doesn't know that because it's still in Ave V2. Not only that, but there is a button for migrating your capital to Ave V3. So Ave, if you are an Ave V2 enjoyer, which you are free to because it is permissionless open source technology, they still want you. Everything gets better if all of the liquidity goes to the same place. So if you are using Ave but you are using Ave, an old version of Ave, perhaps consider joining the rest of the crew in Ave V3. It has more liquidity than Ave V2, but also some extra features as well. So power asset isolation mode and compartmentalize your risks. It's got some gas optimizations. It's got some extra bells and whistles. It's just a better version of Ave. App .Ave .com. But then also there is Ave Grants. If you are a builder building on Ave, especially their brand new stablecoin Go, there are grants available to you. So overall, there's a bunch of things to do in the Ave ecosystem, and there's a link in the show notes to get started with all of them. Yeah. My favorite, I would say both of our favorites, lending and borrowing protocol and crypto. They've been around since the very beginning. Ave is just fantastic. David, I know this episode was my idea. It's kind of like geeky, wonkish stuff, but I felt like it was so important, especially on the back of developers getting arrested in tornado cash. Like what is going on? I just realized one day I don't even understand what all of these are institutions and what gives the financial surveillance system their apparatus. What did you think of this episode? Yeah, I definitely would categorize this one as a Ryan episode. I was definitely in listening mode for the majority of this podcast. I mean, I guess that's what it's like to be a listener. You're in listening mode, so I guess telling listeners to enter listening mode, I guess doesn't help them. I learned a lot. It felt like story time, a little bit about American history. One of these episodes that we frequently do on Bankless every now and then about just like, hey, how did just the state of laws come to be in the way that they are and how are they downstream from the original American values that this country was founded on? What about the current settling of the dust around this new player in the world of, in this universe called cryptography? How is that disturbing the equilibrium and how do we need to extend American values into this new world? Because if we don't do that, then non -American values will take over. I think that's kind of the through line that I would, that will anchor Bankless listeners is that there's this new field in territory. We can have freedom enter and establish itself legally, or we can have authoritarian interests enter in that same field. And I mean, I think everyone knows which side that we want to win. We need to actually fight for that and fighting for that starts with understanding. And so I think that's why I enjoyed this episode is it helps tell that story. Yeah. And anytime David says American values, if you're outside the U S and you're like American values, just, just think of liberal values, like lowercase L values, right? Civil liberties you know, freedoms of citizens to, to express themselves and to transact without the surveillance of the government. That's really what we're talking here. And that's what's at stake more than anything. I think this episode impressed upon me that unchecked, this is just an octopus. This is just like a tree structure that will, I don't know, it's not an octopus slime mold. It will grow. Exactly. And, and it is growing and it has grown since like the 1970s. Anyway, absolutely fantastic episode guys. Stay tuned for this. But before we do, we want to tell you about our friends over at Kraken, which is our number one recommended exchange. Go check them out. Kraken pro has easily become the best crypto trading platform in the industry. The place I use to check the charts and the crypto prices. Even when I'm not looking to place a trade on Kraken pro, you'll have access to advanced charting tools, real time market data, and lightning fast trade execution, all inside their spiffy new modular interface. Kraken's new customizable modular layout lets you tailor your trading experience to suit your needs, pick and choose your favorite modules and place them anywhere you want in your screen with Kraken pro. You have that power, whether you are a seasoned pro or just starting out, join thousands of traders who trust Kraken pro for their crypto trading needs. Visit pro .kraken .com to get started today. Mantle formerly known as Bitdao is the first Dow led web three ecosystem, all built on top of mantle's first core product, the mantle network, a brand new high -performance Ethereum layer two built using the OP stack, but uses Eigen layers data availability solution instead of the expensive Ethereum layer one. Not only does this reduce mantle networks gas fees by 80%, but it also reduces gas fee volatility, providing a more stable foundation for mantle's applications. The mantle treasury is one of the biggest Dow owned treasuries, which is seeding an ecosystem of projects from all around the web free space for mantle. Mantle already has sub communities from around web three onboarded like game seven for web three gaming and by bit for TVL and liquidity and on -ramps. So if you want to build on the mantle network, mantle is offering a grants program that provides milestone based funding to promising projects that help expand secure and decentralized mantle. If you want to get started working with the first Dow led layer two ecosystem, check out mantle at mantle .xyz and follow them on Twitter at zero X mantle. Arbitrum is accelerating the web three landscape with a suite of secure Ethereum scaling solutions. Hundreds of projects have already deployed on Arbitrum one with flourishing defy and NFT ecosystems. Arbitrum Nova is quickly becoming a web three gaming hub and social daps like Reddit are also calling Arbitrum home. And now Arbitrum Orbit allows you to use Arbitrum secure scaling technology to build your own layer three, giving you access to interoperable customizable permissions with dedicated throughput. Whether you are a developer, enterprise or user, Arbitrum Orbit lets you take your project to new heights. All of these technologies leverage the security and decentralization of Ethereum and provide a builder experience that's intuitive, familiar and fully EVM compatible, faster transaction speeds and significantly lower gas fees. So visit arbitrum .io where you can join the community, dive into the developer docs, bridge your assets and start building your first app with Arbitrum experience web three development the way it was always meant to be secure, fast, cheap and friction free. Bankless nation. We are super excited to host two legal minds on our show today. Seth Hurtline is the vice president global head of policy at ledger and Michael Moser. He's the building ex ante. Um, he's formerly been at FinCEN and the treasury chief technical council at T analysis. So he's seen a thing or two in the space. Uh, welcome Michael. Thanks. All right guys. Uh, so what we're going to attempt to do on today's episode is give kind of the everyman explanation of financial surveillance. I feel like this is an episode. Um, maybe for me, it's, it's kind of a selfish episode because I feel like here I am in crypto and I've heard all of these, you know, four or five letter agencies. Uh, and it's recently started to impact my life with like tornado cash. I'm not entirely sure what these agencies are. I'm not entirely sure what's legal and what's not. I'm not entirely sure what powers each of these agencies actually have over my financial life. And I'm looking for like the one Oh one, I'm looking for like the, the explainer when we call it, talk about fat if, uh, and we're talking about OFAC, we're talking about whitelists and gray lists and we're talking about, you know, can I use tornado cash or not? And I can't because I'm an American. I just don't know what, uh, what every like what's going on here. So I feel like we need the one Oh one episode. So if you guys are game to do that, that's what, uh, this we're going to try to accomplish today. So I'm good. Great. Absolutely. Well, let's, um, let's kind of start domestic, uh, from sort of the U S perspective if we will, and then, then go international to kind of the rest of the world. But I want to start with maybe a working definition. So I'm thinking of this episode as like a financial surveillance one Oh one episode. And I'm wondering if you guys could sort of describe financial surveillance when I use that term, what does it mean to you? What is kind of happening behind the scenes? Who are some of the main agencies that hold the power? I'll throw this one to you first, Seth. Okay. Um, well, I, you know, I think, you know, for the purposes of this episode, let's, uh, you know, sort of carve out, you know, private sector or sort of corporate surveillance. Um, uh, let's, let's sort of limit the scope of today's conversation to, uh, to government surveillance. But I, you know, I think the, uh, you know, a good working definition could be, um, you know, information that is, uh, collected by, uh, or, uh, required to be reported to, uh, the, uh, the federal government or an agency thereof, uh, either by individuals or, um, uh, by, by service providers, intermediaries, uh, that they use for, uh, their everyday financial lives. So just to check that definition, Seth, I hear hearing two parts. One is the legally mandated reporting requirements, which if you don't do it, you get like something like fines and jail. And then there's additional information, which it would seem that the powers that be are able to just collect by their own visual, uh, mechanisms as in like it's information that's out there and they collect that information because it's available for them to collect. So that's two types of data. I mean, you know, Mike, I'd be curious your, your thoughts on this. I think it sort of converges effectively into, uh, more or less the same thing. Um, so, so maybe not a need to draw that particular distinction. Um, yeah, I think, I think it's a, I think it's a collective approach. It sort of, um, I think for two reasons, one is, you know, some of that will come into play, David, as we're, as we think about challenges, including constitutional challenges, uh, as courts have, have made a distinction between, uh, when you put your trash out, um, have you relinquished control of it? And if somebody goes through it, they just go through that through it, um, versus, uh, somebody coming in your house and going through your papers, which is the sort of genesis of the fourth amendment. Um, and I think as Seth's pointing out, we're, we're in a space here with, with web one, two, and now three, where there's tremendous amount that's, that's in this gray area between what's public and what isn't. I think even, even the concept of like what's public information at this point, um, is, is a lot more of a fine tuned, uh, fine nuanced issue, uh, including, I should say, like in a way that, that also these same government agencies that are, that are collecting it for various reasons. I mean, the, the mission of all of this, uh, and I think this is important is something when, when I was at FinCEN, we would say to the people on the Hill, making the laws too, sometimes without asking us first, uh, was that the primary mission is countering exploitation here. And so you have to factor into that, that the fact that this information out there and being collected in any form is also subject to creating greater exploitation. Uh, and that, that includes people's, you know, honeypots of people's data that gets hacked. Um, some of this recently coming up in FTX and Kroll, um, coming out of the bankruptcy. Uh, and that's something that, that I think there's the policymakers and the politicians, and then there's also the, operators out there, including at FinCEN and DOJ are saying, actually we don't need more cases and more victims. Uh, so can we protect some of this too? It's partly why we brought in privacy experts and did initiatives on zero knowledge proofs and homomorphic encryption at FinCEN. So I do think it's really important that we're, that we're talking about that very holistically. There's a lot out there. So already we're talking about FinCEN and DOJ and treasury and all these kinds of institutions. I want to get some working definitions on, but, but while we're, while we're talking about, um, this, this term, financial surveillance, all right, let's just get a grasp of what sort of data is generally being collected. And like, when is this primarily like, uh, intermediaries that are required to submit this? Because, um, as a, you know, a citizen of the US, I don't often have to, I guess I'm not like conscious of times that I'm like filing paperwork with treasury or FinCEN, but maybe I am through an intermediary and I, I just don't know it. So what sort of things are being tracked and, uh, surveilled and why? I'm happy to take that first. Yeah, I think, I mean, so it's true. You're not, although I will say there's, there's, uh, there's legislation out there, particularly in the tax space that could make you a reporter, Ryan, whether you like it or not, and whether everyone around you likes it or not. Uh, speaking of honeypots, like you may be collecting and reporting on others, but I think as, as in a traditional stand from the, from a FinCEN perspective in the Bank Secrecy Act, um, you're absolutely right. It would be intermediaries. Uh, and in fact, this goes back to some of the constitutional issues that, and the third party doctrine that Seth mentioned, but it's really transactional information. Um, and historically, in fact, the, we can talk through a little bit if you want the history of the Bank Secrecy Act, but it was exactly this. It was around, uh, reporting requirements basically, uh, coming up through the seventies. Um, and basically at the time it was purely, it was basically large cash. Um, law enforcement was seeing large cash deliveries to banks. I'm pretty sure it was organized crime. And when they would go to a bank, the bank would say, I don't know, I don't know why, um, Bugsy Siegel dropped off, $100 million. Uh, and so the other piece of that was that there was foreign Swiss banks, uh, at the time. And so this was the foreign transactions reporting piece of it too. Um, that had Swiss bank, Swiss secrecy, uh, Bank Secrecy, which is where the Bank Secrecy Act comes from. Um, and so the US would say, okay, well, we'll go to Switzerland where some of this money is getting sent from the bank that was brought in in cash. And they'd go to the Swiss and say, okay, you tell me about what's going on here. And they would say, there's nothing we can say. There's a secret, there's bank secrecy here. And so part of it was going to the US banks and saying, we need you to collect more information at the time. It was really just information of like, who's collecting it. Um, give me their, their, basically their, their bank opening information. Where do they live? What's their phone number? What's their, um, what's their occupation? What's their source of income, that sort of thing. It evolved over time to suspicious activity reports, which is much more, I think what, what you're thinking through, which is, okay, now a bank is making a determination. Seth came in the other day. He didn't just drop off a bunch of cash. He's, he's making anomalous, uh, deposits that don't make sense to us. Uh, this seems suspicious. He said he was, uh, he said he was a reporter, but he makes a million dollars a day. Um, what's going on here. And so they would file a suspicious activity report that would lay out, who is it? What did he say it came from? Um, and what is it that's suspicious about it? And I, and I should say like, you know, back in the day that would have been, he brought in a bag of cash, um, net, then it would evolve to checks and check numbers. Then it would evolve to trans, uh, wire transfers and the wire transfer information about every piece of that transaction who the correspondent bank was in the crypto space. That could be all sorts of things. What wallet address was connected? What time? Uh, if it's a, if it's a public ledger like Ethereum or Bitcoin, that might be, here's a graph of everything that that wallet touched, um, historically, uh, depending on what the platform is, they may collect the IP address, even the device identifier that Seth used to connect. Um, so there's a tremendous amount of data and metadata that could be collected in that. Can we, Michael, so can we go back to kind of the history here, uh, with you guys to make sure I understand it. So there wasn't, and we're still domestic, so we're still talking about the U S and we'll expand international after this. So, um, prior to like the 1970s, am I right to say there wasn't much financial surveillance? And then in the nine 1970s, is that, is that correct? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So that's correct. And then in the 1970s, basically to kind of fight crime, maybe organized crime, you know, the mafia was sort of one, uh, one organization that was in the cross hairs. Uh, the U S came out with a bank secrecy act and this started sort of the, the surveillance, financial uh, apparatus. And, and so this, is this the reason basically for AML KYC, which is like, I have to be identified before I can like, you know, with a government ID, let's say before I can open a bank account. And this is the reason when I go to like transfer money or take out a large deposit from my bank, uh, the bank teller will say, what are you doing with that? Like, how are you using that money to ask these questions? I'm always like, why, why do you need to know this? Uh, you know, and it's almost couched as if, well, we want to protect you from frauds and scams and you know, maybe that's part of it. It seems like more of it is, is, is kind of this financial surveillance apparatus. So that's why I have to present an ID. That is why they are asking questions like, what are you doing with the money? And can you tell me more about, uh, the source of the funds? These are all questions. I'm, I know many bankless listeners have, have seen from their banks and it all, all emanated from this legislation from the, the 1970s and the bank secrecy act is that, is this correct? Yeah. So it started, uh, bank secrecy act was enacted in 1970. Um, and you know, at, at that time it was, uh, you know, a much smaller version, uh, you know, than it is now. Uh, right. So in 1970 I had two, uh, two core provisions, title one, title two, title one basically said banks have to, um, record, uh, transactions of their customers. They have to keep an internal log of all the transactions their customers made. Title two said the banks have to report, uh, transactions over a certain size to the treasury department. And in 1970, that, that threshold was set at, at 10 ,000 us dollars. Um, and so that created, um, one of these forms that, uh, the reports get made on called a CTR or currency transaction report. Uh, importantly, the, uh, that threshold, that $10 ,000, uh, hasn't ever been adjusted. Right. So if you, if you go back and you adjust the CTR threshold, uh, back to, to 1970 dollars, it's the equivalent of about $79 ,000 today. Wow. And what that amounts, yeah. What amounts that amounts to is, uh, you know, a gradual but constant tightening of the noose of, uh, transaction reporting of, uh, you know, the American people. Uh, and, you know, and so that's where it started. Um, you know, but, you know, both as, as sort of Mike and, and Ryan, your, your, your comments alluded to, there's this sort of creeping nature of it where it all, it just expands. Right. So first it was just the CTRs and the record keeping, you know, now it's, uh, SARs or suspicious activity ports that were added in 1992. Um, there was a, a vast expansion of the scope of the types of transactions it just really quick SARS. So suspicious activities report, is that basically incumbent on sort of the bank teller or bank employee to be like, Hey, there's something fishy about this transaction and I'm going to report it up. Is that right? Exactly. Exactly. Okay. Um, and, um, you know, so interesting stat on, on suspicious activity reports, um, somewhere North of 2 million SARS get filed with Vincent every year. Um, uh, you know, again, curious for your, for your insider take on this mic, but, uh, you know, testimony, uh, presented to Congress is that FinCEN reviews less than 1 % of the SARS that are actually filed. Um, and, you know, and, and there are, you know, way more CTRs filed than SARS filed. So, you know, most of this information goes into, uh, you know, basically just a government database and sits there waiting to be queried. Um, and, uh, you know, but so, uh, these things keep getting added on to the BSA, right? So it, it grows over time and there was a huge expansion in scope. BSA bank secrecy act. And so there was a big expansion in scope, um, as part of the Patriot act, uh, after nine 11, uh, that added a lot of new types of information that had to be gathered and reported and, uh, new intermediary types that are responsible for gathering and reporting that information.
Simply Bitcoin
A highlight from Parker Lewis | Why Bitcoin is Inevitable | Simply Bitcoin IRL
"Hello everybody, welcome to another episode of Simply Bitcoin IRL. Today we have a very special guest and someone who I've been looking forward to have on the show for the first time, Parker Lewis. But before we start the show, I want to give a very special shout out to the Bitcoin company that makes this show possible, Swan Bitcoin, best place to build your Bitcoin stack, it's being built by Bitcoiners, it's for Bitcoiners, they incentivize dollar cost average and they incentivize self -custody, definitely check out swanbitcoin .com today if you haven't already done so. Alright everybody, no more delay, let's jump straight into it, let me bring Parker up on stage. Hey Parker, how you doing? Doing well, glad we could finally get together to do this and sorry it took me so long to be here but I'm very excited. Well no dude, I'm a super fan of your work and your essays, some of them that I remember you dropped while you were at Unchained and it really, really made me kind of rethink about, there was this piece, basically it was called The Great Definantialization, sorry English is my second language. It's a word I made up I think, so it's not readily available. But it was, it explains a lot, it explains a lot, right? It was very, very kind of influential in my perspective of the world and my Bitcoin journey as well. But before we get into all of that, I really want to ask you about what's your take on the ruling FASB's today in terms of, basically this was one of the three things that Michael Saylor said would be necessary in order to take Bitcoin to the next level. So what's your take on that? Yeah, I mean I think that it's, one it's a very logical move, it was a no brainer. I think that I didn't read too much about it today but I did see the news and I believe the vote was unanimous, I'm not sure exactly how many votes there are, but that it was very clear that it was the right thing to do. I think that it reduces a source of friction without doubt, Michael Saylor's talked about this quite a bit, but ultimately for those people who are not familiar, what the rule in certain types of companies, and there's different standards for public companies and private companies, but the standard that public companies had adopted was, I think it was treated as an indefinite life intangible, and effectively what that meant was that companies that held Bitcoin on their balance sheet would have to market it effectively the lowest value it had ever traded at, and basically impair the Bitcoin, and then as it traded back up they couldn't write the asset back up. And so what the FASB basically changed today was saying that companies could mark Bitcoin on their balance sheet at fair value. So as it goes down, they market down, as it goes up, they market up, rather than only marketing down and never marketing it up. I think the reality of the situation is that that does, I think, reduce some friction for some companies. I think if somebody was valuing a square who has Bitcoin on their balance sheet, or a micro strategy, they were probably looking past that and being like, okay, they disclose how much Bitcoin they have, how much is actually worth, so I think the market was probably treating it from a market, mark to market basis anyways, but I think for accountants and for finance departments, treasury departments that are considered about their borrowing basis and their balance sheets, there's certain things that are tested against their balance sheets. So I do think that it reduces friction, particularly for large companies, large public companies to putting it simplifies things for them. And yeah, and I have been following it for for for quite a while. Right. And it put them like in this kind of predicament, right, where they couldn't they couldn't accurately report a loss on the downturns. And it was it just became accounting. It was an accounting nightmare. So it de -incentivized companies to put Bitcoin on their balance sheet. Now, the other two things that Michael Saylor brought up, which would be major catalyst number one, was the Bitcoin spot ETF. Right. So we all know what's been going on with BlackRock in the news. We've been hearing it, you know, we hear rumblings coming out of the SEC, how, you know, it seems to me like they're running out of road, like they're running out of excuses. They can only delay this for so long. The grayscale lawsuit, you know, they got defeated there. So what's your take on this whole situation? Do you believe it's it's politically motivated from the SEC? Why do you think why do you think they're taking so long to approve a spot Bitcoin ETF? Yeah, I think that that I don't know if it's yeah, I guess in some way politically motivated or state motivated, I don't want to say politically motivated in the sense that I don't think it's one party versus another. I think it's more of the interests of the federal government and particularly the Fed Treasury impacting the SEC. And so I think that what I would say is it does feel like they're they're getting at the end of the road in terms of excuses and that the conventional wisdom with the likes of BlackRock coming in is that an ETF will get approved very soon. I'm someone who is just cautious around that. I think that there are very large, powerful interests that ultimately do not want Bitcoin to continue to even incrementally gain ground and kind of be a potential future threat to the dollar. I think that is ultimately what it is, not in a threat in a bad way, but in terms of competition, it's providing an option for people to opt out of endless fiat debasement like everybody is paying attention to Bitcoin is figured out. But that has consequences for the Federal Reserve, for the Treasury Department, for FinCEN. And I think that currently the SEC is basically the fall guy or the front man for other interests within the federal government that would rather not see Bitcoin proliferate via an ETF. And so even though typically BlackRock gets what BlackRock wants until an ETF is approved, I'm skeptical that it will happen in the short term. And I don't think people should necessarily or people should not be making investment decisions as to whether or not an ETF is or isn't going to get approved. Like maybe it's inevitable in the long run, but Bitcoin replacing the dollar is also inevitable in the long run.
The Breakdown
A highlight from The Treasury's Broker Definition Could Crush US Crypto
"Welcome back to The Breakdown with me and LW. It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. What's going on, guys? It is Monday, August 28th, and today we are talking about the new broker definitions from the US Treasury and all of the scuttlebutt around them. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying The Breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit .ly slash breakdown pod. Hello friends, hope you had a great late summer weekend. Today we are getting into news that broke just before the beginning of the weekend but has continued to reverberate throughout. The US Treasury has finally released their definition of a broker as part of broader crypto tax reporting rules. The nearly 300 -page rule proposal was published on Friday to codify language in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The rule would require centralized crypto exchanges, payment processors, and other entities that regularly redeem crypto issued by them to report customer transactions to the IRS in a similar way to stockbrokers. Now the issue is that the definition of broker is so broad that it captures some hosted wallet services, some DeFi applications, and potentially much more. In addition to the reporting requirements, the rulemaking introduces a new dedicated tax form, the 1099 -DA, which settles confusion around which form crypto brokers should file. Miners and validators are expressly excluded from the reporting requirements, but the rules seek to capture essentially all other web -based services that provide access to trading platforms within their own user interface. Now of course, this set of rules was controversial from the start. In late 2021, as the infrastructure bill was being negotiated, there was an industry outcry that the rulemaking instructions as drafted would be unworkable. These concerns were shared by many lawmakers, including a small group of pro -crypto -democrats. Still the loudest complaint came from Republican Patrick McHenry, who said the current language is completely unacceptable, it needs to be fixed. The major concern in 2021 was that the loose language would be used to put reporting requirements on miners, validators, and self -hosted wallet providers, who plainly did not have the personal information and transaction data required to comply. As the bill moved towards a vote, the Treasury attempted to ease nerves. One source told Bloomberg that the Treasury Department wasn't looking to go after businesses that don't have transaction data, however they noted that much of the lobbying was aimed at limiting the Treasury Department's authority to collect legitimate tax information. This was viewed as an indication that the rules were not intended to place an unworkable reporting burden on miners and validators. The Treasury has stuck to their word on this end and ensured that the rules do not apply to those groups within the crypto ecosystem. Alexis Goldstein, Financial Policy Director at the Open Markets Institute, and frequent anti -crypto witness at Congressional Testimonies, argued that DeFi protocols should not be given a carve -out from the new rules. She said at the time, Ultimately, an eleventh -hour effort to amend the language in the bill was snuffed out by an unrelated procedural quirk which forced an unamended vote. Crypto lobbyists recognized that the rules would need to be objected to once published. Since then, there have been multiple legislative efforts to repeal the rules before they were issued but none have progressed. The rulemaking is being justified as a measure to close the tax gap. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that these provisions would raise up to $28 billion in additional tax payments over the next decade. The Biden Administration and the IRS under them view unpaid taxes on digital asset trading as a major contributor to the tax gap which is the difference between taxes owed and taxes collected. Some estimates put this overall tax gap issue in the ballpark of $500 billion per year. The Treasury directly addressed this issue as the reasoning behind the rulemaking and stated that it was an effort to crack down on tax cheats while helping law -abiding taxpayers know how much they owe on the sale or exchange of digital assets. This isn't really the main point but obviously the crypto industry as a source of tax revenue looks very different to the way it looked in mid -2021 when the infrastructure bill was passed. And what's more, even if somehow this rulemaking brought in the entire $28 billion in additional revenue over the next 10 years, which most think is extremely overzealous, it would still barely make a dent in the $1 trillion price tag for the Infrastructure Act. Maybe because of that, the Treasury gave the impression that funding the Infrastructure Act was a secondary consideration. Now, speaking of Patrick McHenry, he said that he was Other than that, however, he was disappointed in how broad the rulemaking was. He stated that However, it fails on numerous other counts. Any additional rulemaking related to the other sections from the law must adhere to congressional intent. McHenry also directly called out the White House for yet another piece of bad faith policy, adding that Now on the flip side, Elizabeth Warren, leader of course of the anti -crypto army, didn't think the Treasury went far enough. She said in a statement Kristin Smith, the CEO of the Blockchain Association, noted that by overreaching, the Treasury has presented both an unworkable set of rules and failed to execute on policy which could lower the burden of calculating taxes for everyday crypto users. If done correctly, she said, these rules could help provide everyday crypto users with the necessary information to accurately comply with tax laws. However, it's important to remember that the crypto ecosystem is very different from that of traditional assets, so the rules must be tailored accordingly and not capture ecosystem participants that don't have a pathway to compliance. Another concern was the cost of implementation and the sheer difficulty of compliance, even for well -established centralized exchanges. Coinbase Vice President of Tax, Lawrence Latkin, said in a statement The practicality of the IRS's requirement to report, let alone enforce this incredible minutiae of taxpayer data, is questionable at best. Miles Fuller, head of government solutions at crypto tax software company Taxbit, was a little more credulous about the feasibility compliance for large firms, stating that Quote, There's obviously an immediate investment cost to brokers that will have to implement this and digest and figure out how to do it, but the longer -term outlook in my view is good for the industry because it'll help bring more mainstream adoption. Still, by far the most common discussion point on Twitter was that these rules were overly broad and capture far too much of DeFi infrastructure in their definition of a broker. Crypto commentator Spreak writes, So to recap the new proposed tax rules, Metamask is a broker and has to KYC and report all users unless it removes swaps. Uniswap is a broker and is required to update its UI to a new KYC version. Anything with a multisig is a broker and required to add KYC. For completeness, the proposed definition of a broker includes A person who, in the ordinary course of a trade or business, operate a non -custodial trading platform or website that stands ready to affect sales of digital assets for others by allowing persons to exchange digital assets directly with other persons for cash stored value cards or different digital assets, including by providing access to automatically executing contracts, protocols or other software that automatically affects such sales.
CoinDesk Podcast Network
A highlight from MARKETS DAILY: Featured Story | Tornado Cash Devs Charged With Helping Hackers Launder $1B, Including Infamous North Korean Attacks
"This episode of Markets Daily is sponsored by Kraken. It's Saturday, August 26, 2023, and this is Markets Daily from CoinDesk. Hi, I'm Michelle Musso here with your featured story. On today's show, we're taking a look at cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash. As always, just a reminder, CoinDesk is a news source and does not provide investment advice. Today's piece comes from CoinDesk's Nick Day. We'll be using WonderCraft AI to read the story. The piece is titled Tornado Cash Devs Arrested for Allegedly Helping North Korean Hackers Launder $1 Billion. Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Roman Semenov face allegations of money laundering and sanctions violations. The Department of Justice has already arrested Storm. The DOJ alleges more than $1 billion in transactions moved through the mixing service, which tries to obscure who is behind crypto transactions. The Tornado Cash developers were charged with money laundering and sanctions violations tied to their work with the privacy mixer that the DOJ alleges, quote, facilitated more than $1 billion in money laundering, including hundreds of millions, end quote, for North Korea's Lazarus Group. The mixer, which obfuscates the origin of funds transacted through it, was sanctioned last year by the U .S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control, or OFAC, after allegations that Lazarus had laundered the funds from multiple crypto hacks through it. OFAC sanctioned Semenov as well on Wednesday alongside eight Ethereum addresses he allegedly controls. In a statement, U .S. Attorney Damian Williams said Tornado Cash and its operators, quote, knowingly facilitated money laundering. The U .S. Attorney said, quote, while publicly claiming to offer a technically sophisticated privacy service, Storm and Semenov in fact knew that they were helping hackers and fraudsters conceal the fruits of their crimes. Continuing, today's indictment is a reminder that money laundering through cryptocurrency transactions violates the law, and those who engage in such laundering will face prosecution, end quote. In a statement, Brian Klein of Waymaker LLP, an attorney for Storm, said the case hinged on a, quote, novel legal theory. Storm's attorney said, quote, we are incredibly disappointed that the prosecutors chose to charge Mr. Storm because he helped develop software, and they did so based on a novel legal theory with dangerous implications for all software developers. The attorney continued, Mr. Storm has been cooperating with the prosecutors' investigation since last year and disputes that he engaged in any criminal conduct. There is a lot more to this story that will come out at trial, end quote.
Markets Daily Crypto Roundup
A highlight from Featured Story | Tornado Cash Devs Charged With Helping Hackers Launder $1B, Including Infamous North Korean Attacks
"This episode of Markets Daily is sponsored by Kraken. It's Saturday, August 26, 2023, and this is Markets Daily from CoinDesk. Hi, I'm Michelle Musso here with your featured story. On today's show, we're taking a look at cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash. As always, just a reminder, CoinDesk is a news source and does not provide investment advice. Today's piece comes from CoinDesk's Nick Day. We'll be using WonderCraft AI to read the story. The piece is titled Tornado Cash Devs Arrested for Allegedly Helping North Korean Hackers Launder $1 Billion. Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Roman Semenov face allegations of money laundering and sanctions violations. The Department of Justice has already arrested Storm. The DOJ alleges more than $1 billion in transactions moved through the mixing service, which tries to obscure who is behind crypto transactions. The Tornado Cash developers were charged with money laundering and sanctions violations tied to their work with the privacy mixer that the DOJ alleges, quote, facilitated more than $1 billion in money laundering, including hundreds of millions, end quote, for North Korea's Lazarus Group. The mixer, which obfuscates the origin of funds transacted through it, was sanctioned last year by the U .S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control, or OFAC, after allegations that Lazarus had laundered the funds from multiple crypto hacks through it. OFAC sanctioned Semenov as well on Wednesday alongside eight Ethereum addresses he allegedly controls. In a statement, U .S. Attorney Damian Williams said Tornado Cash and its operators, quote, knowingly facilitated money laundering. The U .S. Attorney said, quote, while publicly claiming to offer a technically sophisticated privacy service, Storm and Semenov in fact knew that they were helping hackers and fraudsters conceal the fruits of their crimes. Continuing, today's indictment is a reminder that money laundering through cryptocurrency transactions violates the law, and those who engage in such laundering will face prosecution, end quote. In a statement, Brian Klein of Waymaker LLP, an attorney for Storm, said the case hinged on a, quote, novel legal theory. Storm's attorney said, quote, we are incredibly disappointed that the prosecutors chose to charge Mr. Storm because he helped develop software, and they did so based on a novel legal theory with dangerous implications for all software developers. The attorney continued, Mr. Storm has been cooperating with the prosecutors' investigation since last year and disputes that he engaged in any criminal conduct. There is a lot more to this story that will come out at trial, end quote.
The Breakdown
A highlight from Tornado Cash Arrests: Attack on Terrorism or Attack on Privacy?
"Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW. It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. What's going on, guys? It is Thursday, August 24th, and today we are talking about tornado, cash and some big announcements of arrests yesterday. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying The Breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit .ly slash breakdown pod. Well, friends, a bit of a big announcement yesterday. On Wednesday, the Justice Department unsealed charges against two tornado cash co -founders. Roman Storm, who lives in Washington state, has been arrested and Roman Semenov, a Russian citizen, remains at large and is believed to be currently residing in Dubai. In addition to the charges, Semenov has been added to the Office of Foreign Asset Control Specially Designated Nationals list, which is the list of sanctioned companies and individuals. The pair are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money -transmitting business. A third co -founder, Alexey Pertsev, you will remember, was arrested in the Netherlands in August of last year, and Pertsev is currently awaiting trial on money laundering charges from home detention after spending over six months in jail. Ofack said in a statement that, quote, tornado cash has been used to launder funds for criminal actors since its creation in 2019, including to obfuscate hundreds of millions of dollars in virtual currency stolen by Lazarus Group hackers. Alongside Semenov being personally added to the sanctions list, eight Ethereum wallet addresses were identified as belonging to him. According to Elliptic, these addresses have processed more than $11 .5 million in crypto transactions. Now, the DOJ claims that tornado cash has, quote, facilitated more than $1 billion in money laundering, including, quote, hundreds of millions for North Korea's Lazarus Group. The key to the case, according to U .S. Attorney Damian Williams, is that the pair here charged, quote, knowingly facilitated money laundering. He said in a statement, while publicly claiming to offer a technically sophisticated privacy service, Storm and Semenov in fact knew they were helping hackers and fraudsters conceal the fruits of their crimes. Today's indictment is a reminder that money laundering through cryptocurrency transactions violates the law and those who engage in such laundering will face prosecution. Now, Storm's lawyer claimed that the case hinged on a novel legal theory. He said in a statement, Now, let's take a step back and put this in the context of what happened last year. In August of last year, tornado cash was placed on the sanctions list. The use of sanctions to prohibit the use of anonymizing services was controversial within the crypto industry. Both Coin Center and a group of individuals backed by Coinbase have sued the Treasury Department over the sanctions, with each lawsuit claiming that the sanctions impinge on U .S. protections around the execution of computer code. In addition, they claim that autonomous smart contracts cannot be the subject of sanctions law as they are not the property of a sanctioned individual or group. Last week, however, the Coinbase lawsuit was dismissed, with the judge writing in their decision that smart contracts are analogous to vending machines in the way they carry out their predetermined task. The judge wrote that, Now, let's dig into the charges a little bit. The newly unsealed charges explain the functionality of tornado cash and how Storm and Semenov established a token system around the protocol in order to profit from its operation. Tornado cash allows users to deposit ETH to be mixed with other depositors. Users receive a secret note, which can be redeemed for the deposited ETH at a new, unrelated address. In order to facilitate the withdrawal of ETH to fresh wallets that could not pay gas fees, tornado cash established a system where users could use relays to process withdrawal requests using the smart contract. Relays would take a fee for providing this service. This process makes private transactions possible on the Ethereum network, breaking the ability to trace funds through blockchain analytics. Storm and Semenov, the government accused, would frequently give instructions on how to maximize the anonymity provided by the service, including waiting several days before withdrawing to ensure that transactions couldn't be linked. Nine months after the launch of tornado cash in August of 2019, the developers updated the smart contract to remove their private keys. This made it impossible for the code to be further modified and relinquished any ability to control its operation. In December 2020, the founders created the tornado cash DAO to make governance decisions around the protocol. The DAO issued torn tokens and distributed them with 8 % of the supply going to each founder and 6 % going to venture capital backers. The DAO then used these tokens to create an incentive scheme to encourage relay to compete to process transactions and to incentivize users to deposit funds to increase the anonymity set for the protocol. The indictment alleges that the founders profited from the price appreciation of the torn token, ultimately cashing out for $2 .6 million each in August of 2022. Now where the nuance in this case comes in is the question around were these charges for writing code or were they charges for some other type of activity that the government sees as beyond the pale. Obviously, when we're talking about something where the implications are the big thing that matters, these sort of details are essential to really understand. And indeed, in this case, the charges against Storm and Semenov go deeper than just writing and publishing the code underlying tornado cash. In fact, the DOJ appears to be much more focused on the actions taken by them to support, promote and profit from the protocol after its initial deployment. The indictment claims that the developers were aware and indifferent to the use of tornado cash to launder the proceeds of crime from the beginning. As far back as November 2021, the government says the developers considered whether they should implement KYC and anti -money laundering features into tornado cash and chose not to. This consideration became more serious after the $552 million Ronan Bridge hack in March of 2022, given that the following month the attack was attributed to the Lazarus Group, which had been on the sanctions list since September 2019. The stolen funds were very publicly identified as being laundered using tornado cash. According to encrypted chats disclosed in the indictment, Storm sent a message to his fellow developers as the news broke in April stating, Guys, we are effed. The tornado cash team then implemented some perfunctory controls on the protocol's front end, such as the website used to access tornado cash would now block deposits from wallet addresses on the sanctions list. However, in encrypted chats, the developers acknowledged that these controls would be quote easy to evade by interacting with the smart contract directly. The indictment also introduces evidence that the developers were aware of just how rampant money laundering was on tornado cash. In encrypted chats, they shared an article which claimed that more than 90 % of transactions through the service were related to criminal acts. In the three months that followed the Ronan attack, as much as 15 % of volume was attributed to the laundering of those funds. The key allegation in the indictment is that, quote, Throughout this time period, the Tornado Cash founders continued to operate the Tornado Cash service and facilitate the Lazarus Group's money laundering and sanctions evasion, including by paying the U .S.-based web hosting service to continue to host the Tornado Cash website, continuing to maintain and keep the UI accessible to customers, and promoting the Tornado Cash service in public statements. Moreover, they maintained the Relayer algorithm and the Relayer registry, which allowed them to profit financially from the continued use of the Tornado Cash service by the Lazarus Group. As to the charges, the developers have been charged with three counts each. Conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. As you might imagine, the crypto legal community has a lot to say about whether the facts alleged in the case established that Tornado Cash or the system of relays around it legally qualify as a money transmitting business. Peter van Valkenburg, the director of research at CoinCenter, said, The factual allegations of unlicensed money transmission are in conflict with FinCEN's longstanding guidance that a, quote, anonymizing software provider is not a money transmitter. In an accompanying article, Valkenburg says that the only part of the indictment that indicates the developers were operating an unlicensed money transmission business is that they, quote, engaged in the business of transferring funds on behalf of the public. According to Valkenburg's analysis of the law, this falls short of the legal definition which requires acceptance of funds from a customer for the purposes of transmission. The implication is the same one that Tom Emmer has been putting forward in his blockchain regulatory certainty bill that, quote, if you don't custody consumer funds, you are not a money transmitter. However, Preston Byrne, a lawyer at Brown and Rudnick, noted that there is some legal nuance in the way the DOJ went about charging the developers. He said, The feds don't need to show that they accepted or received funds because defendants aren't charged with the underlying offense, they're charged with conspiracy. Preston expanded that thought, There is a huge difference, he wrote, between a, merely publishing code for discussion purposes which could be used unlawfully, and b, running an unlawful business which monetizes that code. After reading the tornado cache indictment, if things are as alleged, it was the latter. For the purposes of 18 USC 1960, the publication of protocols on GitHub isn't the same thing as operating a whole damn system, including hosting a UI and bolting on a shitcoin to it, where the returns from the coin are linked to the provision of liquidity for the system. I think it is that involvement with the essential functionality of the system which makes it not subject to the network access carve -out from the definition of money transmitter. Do we need privacy in crypto? Absolutely. Are there ways for people to run code that does this lawfully? Yes. Was tornado cache the way? No. Now of course, as much nuance as there might be in the specifics of how the defendants were charged, one of the big concerns is the chilling effect on privacy norms in open source development that it might have no matter what the charges actually are. In a rare moment of speechlessness, Jake Travinsky, the chief policy officer of the Blockchain Association said, I'm struggling to think of something, anything, useful to say about the tragic mistake that is the DOJ's decision to treat privacy in speech as crimes. I'm blank. Later, he followed up, Privacy is normal. Code is speech. The right to anonymity is essential to a free society. These are fundamental principles embodied in the U .S. Constitution. In time, I'm confident they will be confirmed by the judiciary, even if today they were ignored by the executive. Chris Bleck wrote, The arrest of Roman Storm and Roman Semenov of Tornado Cache isn't about money laundering. This is an attack on privacy. It's an attempt to chill the open source community into compliance. The government does not want you to do anything that it's unable to observe and judge. Dystopia Breaker writes, Take a moment to consider the broad and absurd implications of writing software that is used in a bad way makes the author legally responsible for every bad use would mean. No signal. No privacy tools. Total handover of power to centralized orgs and illegalization of privacy. Ultimately, this position is so absurd that it seems unlikely to be accepted. It's remarkable that they went with it. Masari's Ryan Selkis said, We are so far from our founding principles, we just jailed a software developer for building encryption tech and daring to empower citizens to transact freely. Utterly disgusting. We need a total evisceration of our political police state and D .C. No reform. Mass layoffs. And Udi Wertheimer really summed up many people's feelings when he said, Today is a sad day for America and for freedom. Privacy is for everyone, and it is crucial that as an industry we keep fighting for it, no matter the setbacks. No one else is going to. At this point, I think in crypto, we're almost anesthetized to more government actions against the industry. But I think this one is worth holding aside and putting in a slightly different category. The conversation here isn't really about cryptocurrency, except in so far as it was used as a reward mechanism for people who are promoting this protocol. Obviously, the much bigger questions are about the nature of privacy, about the rights of software developers, about the responsibilities of software developers, about the tools that the government uses to fight money laundering and terrorism. They are, in other words, emblematic of bigger concerns and bigger questions. It's reasonable to have contradictory feelings about this, but that's exactly why we need regulatory clarity, not just for crypto, but for software development. And guess what? In a world of AI, these questions are coming up all over again. The question in particular of whether the developers of software can be held accountable for how it's used is becoming an even bigger question than it ever has been in the past. In other words, this one is worth considering for far more than the implications for just this industry, but for the very basis of the technology -driven society that we live in. Anyways, guys, that is going to do it for today's breakdown. I will, of course, keep you updated as the situation evolves. Until next time, be safe and take care of each other. Peace.
The Breakdown
A highlight from Tornado Cash Sanctions Upheld In Court
"Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, N .L .W. It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. What's going on, guys? It is Saturday, August 19th, and that means it's time for the weekly recap. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying The Breakdown, please go subscribe to it. Give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit .ly slash breakdown pod. Now, today we are catching up on a ton of legal updates that have happened this week. This continues to be the big theme of this bear market is legal cleanup, legal proceedings, legal blah, blah, blah, which unfortunately is just sort of part of the phase that we have to get through before we get to the exciting stuff like, you know, usage and excitement and whatever, anything that isn't just legal stuff. But here we are. However, I want to start with something that is a little bit more on the market structure side, given the dump that we had on Thursday. So in the middle of the week, the block started reporting that yet another crypto market maker was pulling back. Apparently, longtime crypto market maker GSR has been scaling down operations during the bear market. Now, this is a firm that has been active in crypto order books since 2013. They had already conducted two rounds of layoffs and appeared to have also lost multiple executives and department heads. The firm's chief financial officer, Jonathan Hu, has been the highest profile departure. He joined the firm in 2021 and helped build out the company's finance department. Anonymous sources speaking with the block criticized the firm for expanding too rapidly during the height of the bull market. GSR brought on scores of traditional financial professionals to help expand the firm. In 2020, the firm had just 25 employees, but the number went up to more than 300 at its peak. One source said, quote, The executive team is mostly friends, and I think it threw off a lot of the momentum GSR built in the previous cycle. They hired a lot of corporate Wall Street executives that came in at the top with the bull market, which ended up costing the firm dearly. Another source said, quote, Some of the leadership is out of touch with true crypto. Now, a spokesperson for GSR said, Our business operations and strategy have evolved naturally to respond to changing market conditions, and there has been no restructuring. GSR president Rich Rosenblum took this even farther. On Wednesday, he wrote, Regarding the block's reporting yesterday, we worked with the reporter in good faith, but it's clear the story was always intended to be a negative one regardless of the facts. Here is some additional color on GSR. GSR's business is strong. We have navigated three volatile bear markets successfully without raising outside capital. The firm has a solid balance sheet. We continue to be profitable and increase our market share regardless of market conditions. The article tries to suggest that departures over 18 months are more than bear market norms. We've had many personnel changes over the last decade, but juxtaposing it alongside strategy changes in a bear market to write a sensational piece is irresponsible. We aren't going anywhere, and we continue to be very bullish. We are one of the longest operating and one of the best funded companies in the space. We stand stronger and better positioned now than at any other point in our history. Obviously, this has gotten very quickly into a he -said -she -said, but mostly why it's worth paying attention to, at least with a little bit of side -eye, is what Noelle Acheson wrote, More market -maker scalebacks is not great for crypto market liquidity, which is already low. With that, though, let's move into the legal stuff. First, a group of investors and developers have lost a lawsuit which challenged the legality of the tornado cash sanctions. The litigation, which was funded by Coinbase, claimed that the US Treasury had exceeded its authority in dealing with tornado cash using sanctions law. In coming to their decision in a district court in Texas, the judge found that tornado cash itself was sufficiently coherent in operation to be considered an entity capable of being sanctioned. The Treasury Department can only sanction entities such as individuals, companies, or unincorporated associations. The judge found that the Treasury had identified an entity when it designated tornado cash as including the developers and the DAO which governed the operation of the mixer. The judge wrote that, The DAO is an entity unto itself that, through its voting members, has demonstrated an agreement to a common purpose. As the government notes, the structure is not unlike that of stockholders of a corporation who may not intend to vote in a shareholder meeting without this affecting the structure of the entity. They ultimately found that adding tornado cash to the sanctions list was not plainly inconsistent with its regulations. The judge also rejected the argument that there was no property which could be the subject of sanctions. Litigants claimed that the tornado cash entity, whatever that constituted, does not have property rights in the smart contracts identified by the Treasury. Sanctions can only prohibit US citizens from transacting with sanctioned entities in relation to property, so their use to prohibit interacting with a smart contract was a novel application of the law. The litigants also made an argument that the sanctions violated First Amendment rights to free speech. The tornado cash sanctions were somewhat unique in that they prohibited US citizens from transacting in a privacy -protected manner. The Treasury is not allowed to sanction US individuals, so there was an argument that prohibiting them from using tornado cash was unconstitutional. Now, the tornado cash sanctions drew widespread criticism from the industry when they were put in place last August. The measure was taken ostensibly to deal with North Korean hacking group Lazarus. However, critics said the sanctions were too much of an impingement on privacy and crypto. Coin Center have filed their own legal challenge to the sanctions which is yet to be heard. Next up, the SEC has been allowed to move forward with an appeal in the Ripple case. The regulator is attempting to appeal the parts of the case which were decided against it. Namely, that the programmatic sales of XRP tokens and distributions to employees and contractors were not to be considered the sale of securities. The SEC requested leave to file a motion to appeal last week, to which Ripple objected, claiming that The judge has now granted this leave to file the motion. Once filed, the court can either accept or reject the SEC's reasoning to appeal the decision. If successful, the appellate court would also need to agree to hear the case and then determine whether the SEC is successful in their appeal. Bill Hughes tried to sum up some of this extreme legal complexity saying, The court has not granted leave to appeal. It granted leave to file a motion for leave to appeal. The court just decided, yeah, we can deal with this issue. Again, guys, this is the kind of minutiae that we're dealing with right now. Ultimately, it's important, but I don't think any of us will be sad for the days when we get to focus on other things. Speaking of other things, the Federal Reserve has brought an enforcement action against Farmington State Bank, which used to be known as Moonstone Bank. Moonstone was the tiny bank in rural Washington which accepted an $11 .5 million investment from Alameda Research in March of 2022. The thing that made that investment notable and weird was that it was more than double the bank's entire net worth at the time. Moonstone also had ties to Deltech Bank Executives, which is the Bahamas bank that notoriously dealt with stablecoin issuer Tether as a customer. Moonstone was one of the smallest federally chartered banks in the country. Indeed, last year photos circulated of its headquarters, which appeared to be a farm shed with a pickup truck parked out in front. In January, the microbank announced that it would be stepping away from plans to offer banking services to digital asset and cannabis companies. But, apparently unimpressed with this concession, the Fed has now ordered the bank to wind down in a manner that protects the bank's depositors and the deposit insurance fund. Farmington has also been prohibited from distributing any dividends or assets without approval from regulators. Caitlin Long writes, Wow, Moonstone Bank, aka Farmington Bank, is liquidating after the Fed issued a cease and buy a small existing bank and chain business plan, currently underway by crypto or crypto -adjacent companies. Bitcoin or TBH joked, Both residents of Farmington are quite concerned about this turn of events. Caitlin Long again responded and said, That's what happens with charter strips. Companies search for tiny banks, acquire them, and change the entire business plan thereby skirting all the requirements of starting a De Novo bank. Fed policy favored charter strips by holding them to a far, far lower standard than De Novo's. Speaking of Alameda and FTX, FTX and Genesys have reached an agreement on lending arrangements between the two firms and the disposal of collateral. Genesys will pay $175 million to Alameda Research to settle their claims. Genesys lawyers wrote in a court filing that, The settlement will, among other things, significantly smooth the path to confirmation of the Genesys debtors' Chapter 11 plan of reorganization, as well as eliminating the risks, expenses, and uncertainty associated with protracted litigation among the FTX debtors. FTX had originally filed the claim for $4 billion in May, Genesys counterclaims stating that they had $175 million stuck on FTX after it collapsed. In other words, both firms had outstanding loans with each other at the time of their respective bankruptcies. Genesys interim CEO Darar Aslim said, The terms of the settlement agreement provide significant and near -term benefits to the Genesys debtors and their creditors, in contrast to the uncertainty and expense of fulsome litigation of the FTX claims and Genesys claims. This settlement will extinguish all claims between the firms, which is potentially problematic given that they are significantly less than FTX had originally claimed from Genesys. Adam Cochrane wrote, Barry paid $175 million on a $4 billion debt position, and it means that Genesys claims from FTX are settled and can't go back to DCG and Grayscale? This is a damn good deal for DCG but horrible deal for FTX creditors. And indeed, FTX creditors are not happy. At a FTX creditor on Twitter says, FTX asked court to settle Genesys dispute for a $175 million Genesis claim, the release of a $175 million customer claim and near -worthless Alameda claims. Down from first $3 .9 billion to $2 billion asserted, this must be the worst deal to date, especially in the light of the new DCG -Genesis -DOJ investigation. Genesys claims are currently worth more than FTX's even as Genesys lender balances are inflated by the interest they earn from lending, among others, to Alameda. Genesys was repaid by Alameda quote -unquote with billions of FTX customer funds in 2022. Coins they hold may be directly traced to FTX customer deposits. We expect the UCC to object to this quote -unquote deal. Now, there is, of course, a different interpretation than just Barry negotiating a great deal. Napgener tweets, Again, my timeline is way off here. Everyone is raging at the FTX estate. I mean, basically, FTX is not going to settle for that little unless Genesys is truly cooked. Barry Silbert is in big trouble. Now, obviously, we don't know the answer to that, but it certainly doesn't look good and feels like a pretty reasonable open question. Lastly, today, we'll end on a little bit of a positive note. Coinbase had been granted approval to offer crypto futures to U .S. customers. Nearly two years after applying, the National Futures Association granted a license to Coinbase, which will now be authorized to operate CFTC -regulated futures markets. Coinbase joins the CME and the recently approved CBOE in offering the products legally onshore. Andrew Sears, the CEO of Coinbase Financial Markets, said, Offering U .S. investors access to secure and regulated crypto futures is key to unlocking growth and enabling broader participation in the crypto economy. CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith -Romero said, I have been vocal about the benefits of bringing appropriate crypto activities into the regulated space in order to protect customers but in a way that supports oversight, accountability, transparency and risk management. JP Morgan analyst said the license will open up new revenue opportunities and demonstrated, quote, the staying power of crypto markets in the U .S. They estimated that futures trading could represent hundreds of millions in new business to Coinbase. Coinbase product executive Greg Tussar said, We believe this is a watershed moment to be able to bring regulated crypto products to U .S. customers. Where regulations are clear and sensible, we will work with regulators to receive the authorizations needed to offer products that align with our purpose of using crypto to update the financial system to advance economic freedom and opportunity. Congrats to Coinbase on that license. And thank you to them for giving me something to close the weekly recap on that isn't just a legal decision. Anyways, guys, hope you are having a great late summer weekend. Enjoy it. Soak it in. I know for many of you, summer is the best. For me, it's always all about fall. So with that, I leave you to go grab some old painting from a goodwill so that I can do the ghost painting trend on TikTok with my family this weekend. Until next time, be safe and take care of each other. Peace.
The Crypto Overnighter
A highlight from 634: IRS Crypto Tax Rule Delay, BitStamps Growth, and PayPals Stablecoin Trojan Horse?
"Good evening and welcome to the crypto overnighter. I'm Nicodemus and I will be your host as we take a look at the latest cryptocurrency news and analysis. So sit back, relax and let's get started. And remember, none of this is financial advice. And it's 10 p .m. Pacific time Tuesday, August 8th, 2023. Welcome back to the crypto overnighter, where we have no sponsors, no hidden agendas and no BS. But we do have the news. So let's talk about that. Tonight, we delve into the mysterious world of the IRS and its delayed cryptocurrency tax rules, raising more questions than answers. We'll then shift our gaze across the Atlantic to the Bank of England and its power play with systemic stable coins. From there, we make a stop in Brazil, where the central bank has unveiled Drex, its forthcoming digital currency. Then we'll dissect the launch of PayPal's Ethereum -based stablecoin, PYUSD, and its potential implications on the crypto landscape. We'll also keep an eye on Bitstamp's ambitious expansion plans into derivatives trading. And finally, we'll wrap up with a surprising revelation about the global adoption of the U .S. dollar coin. So strap in, it's going to be an enlightening ride. The IRS's long awaited crypto tax rule was supposed to overhaul how crypto investors and their brokerages report their taxes. It was supposed to, but it still hasn't even been proposed. The rule was written and completed months ago, even passing a formal internal review at the White House. However, it has not been issued publicly yet. This has led to speculation that the White House may be delaying the process while other crypto policy questions are being addressed in Washington. The proposed rule will dictate how crypto firms report information about their customers' tax positions. This is similar to how traditional brokerages file 1099 forms that outline gains and losses. The industry is concerned about whether businesses will be asked to provide information they don't have access to, or whether it will include crypto companies that don't have a customer relationship, such as mining operations. On the one hand, the rule could potentially eliminate one of the main objections to crypto, the difficulty of figuring out taxes. If crypto taxes are handled the same way as other financial instruments, it could be seen as a step toward proper government oversight in the U .S. However, the delay in proposing the rule has caused frustration and uncertainty in the industry. The IRS has assured the industry that it can continue under existing laws and regulations until the new tax rules are finalized. The delay in implementing the rule could mean that it slips another year. This would be beyond the 2023 tax season, even though it was meant to be in place this year and ready for the 2024 filings. The delay has led to criticism from U .S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. They've argued for the Treasury Department to act swiftly to implement strong tax reporting rules for cryptocurrency brokerages. The crypto industry is impatiently waiting for these rules. They want to know what to report and they are ready to comply. The delay in the proposal and the uncertainty it creates is a clear example of the government's inefficiency and lack of understanding to the crypto industry. It seems to me that the problem is while the industry is ready to comply, the government is not ready to regulate, perfectly exemplifying the gap between the innovative crypto industry and the slow moving government machinery. But as we navigate the choppy waters of U .S. tax policy, let's set sail for the UK. The Bank of England is making waves with its stablecoin plans. If you're enjoying the voyage, make sure to like this episode.
Divine Naples Podcast
A highlight from Rich asked where all the LARD is going and Matt had to think about it. Irish thing to do is to give a kid 3 first names to make life easy. Kiss that did not change the frog into a prince. Episode #402 August. 1st. 2023
"And hello on Tuesday August 1st, 2023 episode 402 from This Mike Ridge and from This Mike Ridge. It's the day after my birthday. I survived. And I even shaved for you. I know and you're wearing a sporty red shirt. Yeah, you said I haven't. Don't talk about the red shoes. I retired. You said I have one tire. The red shirt hides the tire. Man, you're getting in shape though. I need to take that back. You're all right. You're all right. You know what? It's not like I called you fat. Exactly what you called me. It doesn't matter what it is. You have one which is yellow. Let me see what it is. It's chocolate you have. I like chocolate, but you know I eat chocolate all the time. No, not yet. Really? It looks like it's got chocolate in too. Hazelnut. Yeah, that's mine. Oh my. You know how much I love hazelnut. I can't do that on purpose. That's too bad. What country is this from? Well, you can tell them. You can read the manual in the bag or the bird's head ticket. That's pretty good. I just see a bunch of ingredients. You've got to fold this thing all over to try to find it. That's the bird's head ticket. I don't see it. That's a European. That doesn't have an evil in it. Dude, I can't even read this language. That's fine. So this is made. Well, let's see. Well, I can tell you right now. This is just read the name. I don't know how you write. You just read the way you write. Tatranka. Tatranka. Tatranka. Tatranka. Tatranka. Oh, there I got it now. It doesn't sound Russian to me. No, it's not. But go ahead and stuff your face. Why don't I see? Is it from the Balkans? No, it's not. It doesn't matter. It's country. We're not going to say where Alan is from. Say Alan, thank you. Alan, this is delicious. There's not many people that think about us like this. Oh my gosh, that's delicious. I'm so happy he brought it in and he enjoyed our forecast, you know. I mean, when we had shut down and Fauci virus, people, you know, appreciated. They brought us cookies. That's why we have two tires now. No, you're down to one. Yeah, you're down to one. But that was really nice. I stopped chewing because you started rebuking me yesterday. You know what? Telling everybody, hey, if you hear a bunch of noise in the background through the mics, it's him munching on his cake. Yeah, because he sounded like that animal. It is you that brought me the birthday cake while we're taping. It's the appropriate thing to do, right? Right, but you don't scold somebody and give them a bunch of guff because he's eating during the show. That doesn't mean you have to bury your face in it like a piglet in the ground. I actually did that thing. Exactly what happened. That spoon was like a shovel right in the mouth. I didn't stop. That whipped cream was delicious. I tell you what. Episode 402. Four hundred two. I still cannot like the four on the beginning. Is it 402 or is it 401? That was yesterday. Are you sure? Yeah, I know what's going on here. You don't know. You just come here to feed yourself and get a coffee. Occasionally you open your pie hole and you say something smart. And you sound really good on that. Yeah, so we have a lot of things. Just stick with this. We have a lot of things that we found in the news. And we want to share with you what's going on in Naples and what's going on around here. But before we start, we have to say Julian Bruce again. Thank you for the music. We've been singing in your intro because we just love that energy. We love the Divine Naples song and we love us in our life. Official sponsor or unofficial sponsor, whatever you want to say it. The sponsor of the show is beachesos .com. And that's the only service that you're going to get if you go to the beach and you forget something. Or you're hungry on ice cream or you need drinks. Alcohol, cocktails, beers, wines, champagne. You know, whatever you wish for. There's 250 items to choose from. Plenty of sandwiches. I think 75 different sandwiches. Can you believe it? We've got croissants, desserts, everything. Yeah, everything. Snacks. We bring it swiftly in what? Our red fire truck with a big, huge Julius Meinl coffee cup on top. You can't miss it. And another thing, if you need to print some money, you can do it at home. Yes, you can. And legally without a federal government being involved with that. And it's called coupons. That's because it's not called legal tender. It's a coupon. And we have $500 in savings for you and a website. divineapals .com forward slash discount dash coupon. Again, divineapals .com forward slash discount dash coupon. Yep. So go ahead and print them off and you won't have any visitors from the Treasury Department knocking on your door. Yeah, we don't get on bank to anything, you know, the weather because that's just nonsense. I've been repeating same numbers every single day and every single day is more than those numbers. Let me guess. It's going to start out 91. Yeah, that's what I say. But when you get outside, it's like somebody slap your face with a heated hand. You know, it's like you get this, you know, like somebody take iron and just slap your face with the iron. Oh my God. That's a little rough. Well, that's how it feels like. It does. Maybe to you. I kind of like it. You do. Yeah, but I'm kind of a different type guy. Yeah. And when end of the day, like when you're on the outside all day, do you have any greasy spots on your clothing? No. No? So you're not melting away? No. No? No? Well, that's funny. Not at all. Yeah. Well, it's... So where is that lard going then? Maybe because it's all disappeared. Oh yeah, vaporizing it. It's vaporizing. I don't think so. I don't think so. You got something? No, you said you had a few things to share with us. I have so much. Later, I have a few national days I want to share with everybody if you're all right with that. So you want good news or bad news? I... You know, I... I have one bad news. Okay, one bad news. Go ahead. We don't really want you to do this, but I think paying tribute to some very important people that have been through our lives in history and we just shouldn't just forget about them. We need to acknowledge them and maybe hopefully before... What did you say today if you die one day? I said... It's like a epitaph on your stones and it's like, here lies Matt. He made a difference. I mean, just make a difference in people's life. What did I say? There's a Matt, clean your shoes. You're not supposed to step on somebody's grave and you're told to walk on you. But just your name itself, you know, you have three first names in your life. It's an Irish thing, you know, I don't know. Maybe they just got confused. Matt, Patrick, Kenny. Which one is it? And you have no idea. Sometimes the times I get called, hey, Kenny, like that's my first name. And then, you know. It was like there was one policeman, a very good friend of ours, he moved away. His name was Chris Travis and everybody called him, hey, Travis, that's your last name. Because it could be, Travis is the first name too. And he goes like, yeah, I'm used to it, you know. I don't think you would want to walk around with your last. I'm not going to say it. My last name? Yeah. It's simple. Yeah. Say it. But you're not going to. It's not Mueller. You don't even know who. Yeah, that just reminds me of Ferris Mueller. It's Miller. Ferris Mueller's day off. It's German name, Miller. Yeah. Yeah, that's what it is. Okay. So don't screw my name. I won't. Please. Yeah. I have class. I won't. What class? Well, I have class. I don't have any class. You made the class like, am I going to school somewhere? Or the type of class like, you know. Yeah, you probably confused because you went to class and now you think you have class. No. You barely have any class. Yeah. You are able to destroy everybody with your tongue very quickly. No problem with that. Oh my God. You do it your way. I tell you, I have to give you credit. Very intelligently, if somebody has not that level, they really don't know what you said. Right. But when they do, they know. Yeah, then they know what's up. They know what time it is. So, let me bring the bad news and that is, you know, PV actor? Pee -wee Herman? No, I don't. What happened? Well, his name is Paul Reubens. Yeah, Paul Reuben. Unfortunately, we have to announce that he died yesterday of cancer at 70 years old. Really? Pee -wee Herman. Yeah. What show? I mean, what shows? It was a movie, but I think it was some kind of morning show that it started. We'll have to. I tell you what. I see his picture and just like, I don't know. I think he had that character in the movie and he was living that character for the rest of his life. The haircut and everything else. So, unfortunately, we lost another one. We lost Pee -wee Herman. What am I going to do? I don't know. We can replace him. It should be easy to have that look. Thanks a lot. Now you say I look like Pee -wee Herman? That should bring me all the ladies in to find out who this single guy is behind here. Hey, let's go. I'm going to go date Pee -wee Herman. Yeah, exactly. But anyway, I like his stuff was pretty funny. What was the name of the guy that we celebrated the other day? The exercise guy? Richard? Richard Simmons, man. Between Richard Simmons and this Pee -wee Herman, you probably get idea what he's mad. Oh, thanks a lot. Something in the middle. Oh, that's great.
Divine Naples Podcast
A highlight from Rich asked where all the LARD is going and Matt had to think about it. Irish thing to do is to give a kid 3 first names to make life easy. Kiss that did not change the frog into a prince. Episode #402 August. 1st. 2023
"And hello on Tuesday August 1st, 2023 episode 402 from This Mike Ridge and from This Mike It's the day after my birthday, I survived. And I even shaved for you. I know and you're wearing a sporty red shirt. Oh yeah, you said I haven't. Don't talk about the red shoes. I don't, I was tired of them. You said I have one tire so I red, the red shirt hides the tire. Man, you're getting in shape though. I need to take that back. You're all right. You're all right. Well, you know, you know what? It's not like I called you, you're fat. Exactly what you called me. It doesn't matter what it is. You have one. Let me see what it is. It's chocolate. I like chocolate, but you know, I eat chocolate all the time, but what do you really, it looks like it's got chocolate into the hazelnut. Yeah, that's mine. Oh my, you know how much I love hazelnut on purpose. That's too bad. What country is this from? Well, you can tell them, you can read the manual in a bag or a bird's ticket. That's pretty good. I just see a bunch of ingredients. You got to fold this thing all over to try to find it. I don't see it. That's a European. That doesn't have an evil in it. Dude, I can't even read this language. That's fine. So this is made, well, let's see, well, I can tell you right now, this is just read the name. I don't know how you write. You just read the way you write. Tatranka. Tatranka. Yeah. Tatranki. Tatranki. Oh, there I got it now. Yeah. It doesn't sound Russian to me. No, it's not. Go ahead and stuff your face. Why don't I see, is it from like, is it from the Balkans? No, it's not. It doesn't matter. It's country. We're not going to say where Alan is from. Say Alan, thank you. I tell you this. Alan, this is delicious. There's not many people that think about us like this. Oh my gosh, that's delicious. I'm so happy he brought it in and he enjoyed our forecast, you know, I mean, when we had shut down and Fauci virus, people, you know, appreciated. They brought us cookies. That's why we have two tires now. No, you're down to one. Yeah, you're down to one. But that was really nice as take, I stopped chewing cause you started rebuking me yesterday. You know what? Telling everybody, Hey, if you hear a bunch of noise in the background through the mics, it's him munching on. Yeah. Because he sounded like that animal. Did I bring, it is you that brought me the birthday cake while we're taping. It's the appropriate thing to do, right? Right. But you don't scold somebody and give them a bunch of, uh, guff because he's eating during the show. That doesn't mean you have to bury your face in it like a piglet in the ground. I actually did that thing. Exactly what happened. That spoon was like a shovel right in the mouth. I didn't stop. That whipped cream was delicious. I tell you what, episode 402, 402, I still cannot, like the four on the beginning. Is it 402 or is it 401? That was yesterday. Are you sure? Yeah. I know what's going on here. You just, you don't know, you just come here to feed yourself and get a coffee, you know, occasionally you open your pie hole and you say something smart and you sound really good on that. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. So we have a lot of things. Just stick with this. We have a lot of things that we found in news and we want to share with you what's going on in Naples and what's going on around here. But before we start, we have to say Julian Bruce again, thank you for the music we've been singing in your intro because we just love that energy. We love the Divine Naples song and we love us in our life. Official sponsor or unofficial sponsor, whatever you want to say it. The sponsor of the show is beachesos .com and that's the only service that you're going to get if you go to the beach and you forget something or you're hungry or ice cream or you need drinks, alcohol, cocktails, beers, wines, champagne, you know, whatever you wish for. There's 250 items to choose from. Plenty of sandwiches. I think 75 different sandwiches. Can you believe it? We've got croissants, desserts, everything. Snacks. We bring it swiftly in our red fire truck with a big, huge Julius Meinl coffee cup on top. You can't miss it. And another thing, if you need to print some money, you can do it at home and legally without a federal government being involved with that and it's called coupons. That's because it's not called legal tender, it's a coupon. And we have $500 in savings for you and a website, divinenapels .com forward slash discount dash coupon. Again, divinenapels .com forward slash discount dash coupon. Yep. So go ahead and print them off and you won't have any visitors from the treasury department knocking on your door. Yeah. We don't get on banks or anything, you know, the weather because that's just nonsense. I've been repeating the same numbers every single day and every single day is more than those numbers. Let me guess, it's going to start out 91. Yeah, that's what I say. But when you get outside, it's like somebody slab your face with a heated hand, you know, it's like you get this, you know, like somebody take iron and just slab your face with the iron. Oh my God. That's a little rough. Well, that's how it feels like. It does? Maybe to you. Not you? I kind of like it. You do? Yeah, but I'm kind of a different type of guy. Yeah. Well, and when end of the day, like when you're on the outside all day, do you have any, any greasy spots on your clothing? No. So you're not melting away? No. No. No? No. It's not at all. It's yeah. Well, it's. So where is that lard going then? Maybe because it's all disappeared. Oh, yeah. Viperizing.
The Eric Metaxas Show
A highlight from Michael Gibson
"Welcome to the Eric Metaxas show. They say it's a thin line between love and hate, but we're working every day to thicken that line, or at least make it a double or triple line. Now here's your line jumping host, Eric Metaxas. Hey there, folks. As you know, on this program, we always try to give you a little hope. You know, we talk about all kinds of subjects and every now and again, something comes across the transom that I say, what the heck is this? This is really cool. I'm holding in my hands a book called Paper Belt Fire. on That'll intrigue you, right? Paper Belt on Fire, how renegade investors sparked a revolt against the university. If you listen to this program, you know, I'm all about that. I love that idea. On the back of the book is a blurb, an endorsement, an encomium from Peter Thiel, whom some of you know just through my Socrates in the City event or from the culture at large, probably. But Peter Thiel says about this book, Paper Belt on Fire, part adventure tale, part manifesto, Paper Belt on Fire is a battle cry for anyone who ever dreamed of resting power back from corrupt institutions or of nailing the truth to the cathedral door. You may know that I wrote a big book about Martin Luther, who nailed something to a cathedral door about 500 years ago. I am thrilled to have the author and the perpetrator of the aforesaid events. His name is Michael Gibson as my guest. Michael, welcome to the program. Thanks for having me on. It's great to be here. Big fan. This is, well, you're really kind. This is a huge concept, what you've done. So I want my audience to understand it because I barely do. Tell us, I mean, first give us the short version so we can track with you. What is it that you and a group of investors did? Well, let's start with the Reformation and Martin Luther. So, you know, funny enough, and then that's Peter being clever with the blurb because we started a venture capital fund and we were thinking about naming it. Names are very important in the book and in what we do. And what we realized is that modern universities, there's a historical analogy with the state of the church or the Catholic church in the 16th century. And the geeky analogy we like to draw was that at the time the church was selling a piece of paper at great cost and told people it was a way they could save their souls. All you had to do was fork over some cash to the church. And when Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door and, you know, what he was protesting against was mainly the sale of these indulgences. And so the analogy we like to draw is that, you know, nowadays there's an institution, they're selling a piece of paper. They're telling you it's the only way you can save their soul. And instead of the indulgence, it's called the diploma. Okay, that is brilliant. That is absolutely brilliant. And listen, as somebody with a diploma from Yale University, I know better than anybody that what you're saying is true. These are corrupt institutions, corrupt on a number of levels, intellectually very, very corrupt. But the idea that you perceived that and you could frame it so neatly that, you know, yes, in 1517 we were protesting selling a piece of paper, which is a sham, and that lo and behold, secular institutions today, five centuries later, doing exactly the same thing. So kudos to you just for thinking of that. But when you started your firm, this was in your mind. Right, yes. So we named the fund 1517 after the year Luther nailed the theses to the church door. And what's great about numbers is, we put them on t shirts and stuff and, and people right away say 1517 What does that mean? You know, and then I get to tell some story like I just did. I did that. That's how we started the fund in 2015. But before that, you know, we, so I worked for Peter Thiel, I helped him launch a fellowship in 2010. So five years prior to the fund, and these are the events recounted in the book. And we initially started a nonprofit, we gave $100 ,000 to 20 individuals a year. But there were two conditions that were noteworthy. One was that you had to be 19 and under to apply. And the second newsworthy condition was that you had to drop out of school or not be enrolled. And so we gave out these grants over the years and, and some of the big success stories that some of your listeners or people watching might have heard of, like in 2012 2013, we discovered the young man Vitalik Buterin helped him launch the cryptocurrency Ethereum. There's another more recent Adobe bought a company called figma for 20 billion, we helped the founder start that company in 2012. So we had been doing this nonprofit, and we decided, wait a second, we, we could be making money doing this. So I wanted to tell this business story that by investing in people who don't have college degrees, who don't have credentials, can we show that there is a fulfilling path to a successful career without that credential? I mean, it goes way beyond that, because not only are most people wasting a lot of money, and a lot of time getting a piece of paper that's essentially worthless, if it were merely worthless, they'd be wasting time and money. But it's worse than worthless. It is usually a ticket to decades of ideological confusion. And that has become increasingly true over the decades. It was true when I was at Yale in the 80s. It was already very true then. But it's become increasingly true when Buckley wrote about Yale in his 1951 book, got a man at Yale, he's writing about the Yale of the late 40s. So this has been part of the academic world, but it's gotten worse and worse and worse and worse. So for you guys to be encouraging people not to go to college and to do these things, I just want to say thank you for that. So what exactly - Well, it's been fun to pick those fights. Yeah, so I wanted to, so we've talked about higher education as this institution that relies on a piece of paper. The title of the book, Paper Belt on Fire, that expands that theme. So a friend of mine, we were just jamming one night, trading ideas. And we thought, and this is back 2012, 2013, we thought just as the Rust Belt defines the Midwest and the hollowed out industries that are left barren due to either globalization or technological change, we thought there were some technological trends and political trends that were going to cause trouble for what we decided was the paper belt. Now this is from Washington DC to Boston. In DC, they print money, laws, regulations on paper. In Delaware, that companies incorporate on paper. In New York, there's media and advertising on paper, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Madison Avenue. And then we thought Boston as the pinnacle of the arch symbol of American higher education, Harvard and MIT are printing diplomas on paper. So what all these institutions have in common that are paper -based is that I think in terms of computer security, I'm very influenced by the cypherpunks. And what they notice is that if you're using a piece of paper, you need an institution to validate it and authenticate it, to validate that one, it's real, and two, that whatever information it's signaling is accurate and true and reliable. And so we can think of the Federal Reserve, for instance, and the Treasury Department, they tell us that these dollar bills they print are worth something and they authenticate whether they're real. And likewise, we've been trusting universities to print diplomas and authenticate them and say, hey, this is real. But what I've noticed is that in any of these institutions over the last 40, 50 years, the people running them are either incompetent or have become corrupted. Whether it's collusion inside, insiders against outsiders, or just plain old, hey, we don't know what we're doing, it's clear that the performance of these institutions have declined over time. So that's higher ed, the media, and even the Federal Reserve, you name it, we could go across the board. Well, I say I say often that the all these legacy institutions are dead. And people need to wake up to the fact that they're dead. Yale is dead. Harvard is dead. The New York Times is dead. They're dead. Whatever they once were. They are now decidedly not that they have been sliding. They had been sliding for a long time. But they weren't like really fully dead until recently. It wasn't until recently that I could say the New York Times is mostly trash. I could say five or 10 years ago, there's a lot there that I don't like. They're leftward leaning. But they have really become horrible. Not just ideologically off, but really horrible. I know for me, I used to read the Sunday Times just for the magazine and the book review. And like you, I know like the book reviews were excellent. And then all of a sudden, six, five years ago, that got terrible. We've got a lot more to talk about, folks. The book is Paper Belt on Fire. Michael Gibson is my guest. Don't go away. Every day, the parallel economy grows bigger and bigger. It's powered by everyday Americans who are sick and tired of all the propaganda being jammed into every product they consume. Big mobile companies are no different. For years, they've been dumping millions into leftist causes. And we had to take it because you needed a cell phone, probably thought there was no alternative. But now there is. Patriot Mobile is America's only Christian conservative wireless provider offering dependable nationwide coverage on all three major networks. So you get the best possible service in your area without the woke politics. Their 100 % U .S.-based customer service team makes switching easy. Keep your phone, keep your number too. Just go to patriotmobile .com slash Metaxas, free activation today with the offer code Metaxas. Ask about their coverage guarantee while you're there. Get the same dependable service and take a stand for your values. Make the switch today. Patriotmobile .com slash Metaxas or call 878 -PATRIOT. Legacy Precious Metals has a revolutionary new online platform that allows you to invest in real gold and silver online. In a few easy steps, you can open an account online, select your metals of choice and choose to have them stored in a vault or shipped to your door. You'll have access to a dashboard where you can track your portfolio growth in real time, anytime. You'll see transparent pricing on each coin and bar. This puts you in complete control of your money. The platform is free to sign up for. 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The Breakdown
Wait, Crypto Caused the Fentanyl Crisis?!
"Moving over to crypto, the US discourse continues to be defined by toxic politicians. Elizabeth Warren has found yet another way to jam her anti -crypto agenda into the limelight, this time unbelievably blaming crypto for the opioid epidemic. During a Senate banking hearing where senior administration officials were assembled to discuss how to counter China across national security, economic security, and foreign policy, Warren took the opportunity to question a Treasury official about crypto's use in purchasing fentanyl precursor chemicals from Chinese manufacturers. According to recent data, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic identified 90 China -based firms willing to supply fentanyl precursors and found that around 90 % of those firms accepted crypto payments. Elizabeth Rosenberg, the US Treasury Department's Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes, answered Warren's question about the trade by acknowledging that quote, The reason why they would find this appealing is the same reason that other financial criminals would find it appealing, which is to say there's an element of pseudonymity that they seek. Now, getting to her real point, Warren responded with a renewed call for lawmakers to reconsider her digital asset anti -money laundering act, stating that the bill would be reintroduced in this Congress. Warren's bill would, of course, put in place onerous restrictions on the use of crypto to the point that some suggest it amounts to an attempt to ban the technology from US shores. Now, the Senator has precious little support for such draconian legislation, reportedly unable to even find sufficient sponsors among her colleagues to bring the bill to the Senate floor. Warren put a stamp on her point, saying crypto is helping fund the fentanyl trade and we have the power to shut that down. It's time. Lady of Crypto writes, Saying crypto funds fentanyl trade is baseless and an obvious play on people's fears. Cash has been used to fund drug trade for centuries. Not only is cash used to facilitate drug transactions, you can also roll it up and snort some drugs. Cash is the perfect tool for buying and using drugs. Ban cash. But crypto? A blockchain is a public ledger, which makes it far less attractive for facilitating drug transactions.
AP News Radio
Debt ceiling talks making progress, McCarthy says, as deadline nears
"Talks have narrowed toward reaching a budget deal as the deadline for avoiding a potentially catastrophic debt default approaches. I thought we made progress last night. As he entered the capitol. We got to make more progress now. House speaker Kevin McCarthy said there is more work to do in reaching an agreement with White House negotiators, both sides are getting closer on a two year deal that would both curb federal spending and lift the debt ceiling. We know it's a crunch time. The Treasury Department warns it could run out of money to pay the nation's debts as soon as next Thursday. McCarthy and President Biden are hoping to reach a compromise this weekend. Sagar Meghani, Washington.
AP News Radio
Debt ceiling talks teeter on the brink, as lawmakers leave town for weekend without a deal
"House Republicans are pushing debt ceiling talks to the brink. The nation now stands a week from the so called X date when the Treasury Department says it may start running out of cash to pay its bills and face a first ever debt default. House speaker Kevin McCarthy says there are still outstanding issues and reaching a budget deal with The White House. And I've directed our teams to work 24/7 to try to solve this problem. While McCarthy says every hour matters. It is unfortunate that House Republicans have chosen to get out of town before sundown. Top House democratic team Jeffries blasting a decision to depart for the holiday weekend. Lawmakers are tentatively not expected back until Tuesday, just two days from the X date, Sagar Meghani, Washington.
AP News Radio
Debt ceiling talks stuck on classic problem: Republicans demand spending cuts and Democrats resist
"Debt ceiling talks yesterday showed few outward signs of progress with Republican negotiators accusing The White House of wasting precious time in the bid to avoid a debt default. The lack of urgency here is apparent. GOP negotiator Patrick mchenry's criticism drew a fast response. There's a ridiculous statement for them to be making. From White House spokeswoman karine Jean Pierre. There's an urgency. We want to see this done as soon as possible. And while House speaker Kevin McCarthy says they're not there yet. I believe we can still get there and get there before June 1st. When the Treasury Department says America may run out of cash to pay its bills, triggering up perhaps catastrophic default. The GOP's insisting the government roll back spending next year, which is the key sticking point. McCarthy says negotiators are looking at creative cuts, all sides can accept Sagar Meghani, Washington.
AP News Radio
No debt ceiling agreement in White House meeting, though Biden and McCarthy call talks productive
"Debt ceiling talks continue on capitol, hill after the latest meeting between President Biden and House speaker Kevin McCarthy, as they began talks in the Oval Office. We're optimistic we may be able to make some progress. And afterward. I felt we had a productive discussion. We don't have an agreement yet. Both men called the talks productive and praised the other seriousness, but there are still basic differences. Make sure the wealthy pay their fair share. I think really matters. No, we're not looking at revenues. McCarthy says it's not a revenue problem. It's a spending problem. The time of spending just spending more money in America and government is wrong. The speaker said negotiators would work through the night and he and the president would talk daily with 9 days left until the Treasury Department says it's highly likely the government will run out of cash to pay the nation's bills. Sagar Meghani, Washington.
Bloomberg Radio New York
"treasury department" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Stay with us for life? You've said it all. Jeff Bellinger, Bloomberg radio. And I'm Susanna Palmer in the Bloomberg newsroom. We're hearing Credit Suisse group's investment banking and trading operations are said to be a key sticking point in the government brokered talks for rival UBS group to take over Credit Suisse. Our source says UBS is worried about the balance sheet risk associated with the investment bank, which has seen a string of losses and scandals in recent years. UBS declined to comment. Meantime, we're hearing UBS is asking the Swiss government to take on certain legal costs and potential future losses in any deal, like a backstop. We're hearing that the U.S. is taking a keen interest in a potential tie up of the two Swiss banks, U.S. authorities are working with their Swiss counterparts as they seek to hammer out a deal for UBS group to buy all or part of Credit Suisse. A tie up between the two banks would be of interest to Washington regulators because both lenders have operations here in the U.S. and are considered systemically important in Switzerland. Our source says American officials may seek to weigh in on matters that may impact final terms of any deal. The Treasury Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. And there are others who might be interested or hearing Deutsche Bank is monitoring the situation at Credit Suisse group for a potential opening to acquire certain businesses. Investors will have a lot to digest this week ahead, including whatever happens with Credit Suisse and a meeting of the Federal Reserve policy makers to discuss the direction of interest rates. As we've been reporting, former president Trump's longtime personal lawyer believes his claim that he will be arrested on Tuesday. Attorney Michael Cohen said he doesn't think Trump would have posted the claim unless he had information from the Manhattan district attorney's office. This morning, Trump posted on truth social that he will be arrested Tuesday in connection to the case involving hush money paid to a former adult film star. Trump also called on his supporters to protest in response to the possible indictment. Here's Cohen. It's eerily similar to the battle cry that he put out, just prior to the January 6th insurrection. You know, especially including the call for protest. Speaking of the former president, a new Stanford University study shows people are golfing more than ever and whenever they want. We hear more from Bloomberg's and moss do. Thanks to remote work, researchers use geolocation data near golf courses in the U.S. and found there were 278% more people playing golf at 4 p.m. on a Wednesday in August 2022 than in August 2019. And there were 83% more golf games being played on a weekday in August 2022 than in August 2019. They looked at more than 3400 golf courses nationwide, and moss too Bloomberg radio. Global news 24 hours a day powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. I'm Susanna Palmer. This is Bloomberg. It's time for today's stem
Bloomberg Radio New York
"treasury department" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Not stop at this. We'll do whatever is needed. Now this started Friday, as you know, with the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley bank, marking the biggest failure since the 2008 financial crisis, the Treasury Department is moving to ensure all SVB deposits will be paid in full with depositors able to access those funds today. The bombshell news followed up yesterday by federal regulators announcing the closure of New York based signature bank because what they call systemic risk. Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren is blaming Congress for the recent Silicon Valley bank failure in an op-ed published in The New York Times, the Democrat argued the collapse of the bank was enabled by a 2018 law easing regulations put in place following the 2008 financial crisis, she says the bank was one of many lobbying Congress to pass the bipartisan bill that scaled back parts of the Dodd Frank act. It's been three years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a worldwide pandemic. Serious illness and hospitalizations are down, and experts estimate more than 20 million Americans still suffer lingering effects of having had the virus, which is commonly known as long COVID. Doctor rich besser is the president and CEO of the Robert wood Johnson foundation. What are some of the triggers for this? What are the causes? Is an immune reaction? Is it a direct effect from the infection itself? And most importantly, what can be done to help people recover from this? Doctor besser of the Robert wood Johnson foundation tells ABC News that there's a $1 billion in research money dedicated to answering the questions associated with long COVID just to find a cure. Global news, 24 hours a day powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. I'm Amy Morris and this is Bloomberg, Paul and met. All right, Amy, thank you so much. Bloomberg markets
Bloomberg Radio New York
"treasury department" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Demak reports from Istanbul. Bloomberg radio on the ground everywhere. And I'm Doug prisoner of Bloomberg world headquarters in New York. Let's check the sours top business stories of the markets, U.S. financial regulators have moved to protect depositor funds following the collapse of Silicon Valley bank and the feds have set up a new financial box stop. We have more from Bloomberg Susanna Palmer. Our source says the fed and the Treasury Department are considering an emergency lending program to backstop demands by bank customers to withdraw money. This as the U.S. seeks to stave off a deeper crisis after SVB financial group's failure. The measure which would come in addition to easing terms for the fed's discount window would be made under the fed's emergency lending authority. The fed has approved invoking that authority and is awaiting final approval from the treasury. Representatives from the Federal Reserve and the treasury either declined to comment or didn't immediately respond to messages seeking comment. That is Bloomberg, Susanna Palmer, by the way, a senior official at the Treasury Department said the steps did not constitute a bailout since equity and bondholders at SVB and signature would be wiped out. Meantime, Bloomberg opinion columnist Muhammad el Arian says that American banks can contain contagion risk and system stress, and he told us the slump in SVB would not necessarily be a sign of financial instability. The correct statement that the banking system is sound as a whole doesn't mean that every bank is strong. We are seeing the correct statement that if your bank sensitive to both and I want to stretch both interest rate risk and credit risk, then you have a more difficult outlook. That is Muhammad el Arian Bloomberg opinion columnist he went on to tweet that contagion risk can be easily contained by careful balance sheet management combined with avoidance of more policy mistakes. In China, several top economic officials were reappointed in a leadership reshuffling over the weekend, PBOC governor Yi gong will remain in his post and the ministers of both finance and commerce will stay in their positions. These steps are giving markets a sense of continuity as Beijing overhauls financial regulation. We check markets every 15 minutes here on Bloomberg. Right now in Hong Kong, the hang seng is up by 1.4% on the Chinese mainland Shanghai composite higher by four tenths of 1%. We're seeing a rally in the yen against the dollar one 34 30 and as a result, weakness in the Japanese equities with the nikkei down 1.6%, US Treasury yields moving lower at the short end of the curve with a two year down 15 basis points to 4.43%. The ten year at three 70. Global news 24 hours a day powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. This is Bloomberg.
Bloomberg Radio New York
"treasury department" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Has been indicted Graham Bonham Carter and he's fighting extradition? That's right. He faced in the UK, grand bottom Carter, and he was working for oled dairy Pascal and the prosecutors alleged that while he was based in the UK, he contacted an auction house in New York and tried to pass off dairy tuskers artworks as he's owned. He tried to have them shipped from the auction house in New York to London, which would have been a clear violation of trade sanctions. It was actually the auction house that raised red flag in the first place that went through their records and saw that the artwork had actually been purchased from under the name of Michelle company, which was linked to their more than ten years ago. And they challenged Graham Bonham powder on this and he tried to push back. He said, just give me a little bit more time and I'll come out with some to show that it is mine and he's my credit card statement showing that I'm paying for the shipping, but it just wasn't enough to convince the auction house that the outlets were in fact used. And I ended up reporting it to Osaka, which is a part of the Treasury Department in the U.S. that looked after the sanctions list. So have all the major auction houses cooperated with subpoenas and requests for information? Nice to them said that yes, we do corporate with law enforcement when they ask. And from what I heard from talking to different sources in the industry and legal sources as well, they do hand over the information when prosecutors are asking for it. It's not good for business to be violating trade sanctions. It comes with massive fines and it was already a lot of attention on the art world in particular. There was a Senate report in 2020 that looked at money laundering on the art world and it highlighted a very high profile example where to brothers from Russia, the rottenberg's very wealthy individuals managed to evade trade sanctions and purchase some pieces of artwork from U.S. based auction houses by using a shell company. One of the big debates that was sparked by the government report was whether the art industry should be subject to the same banking and wanted to regulation requirements as the risk of the financial industry. So that would be the same as some of the big banks and the art industry, different auction houses, private sellers would have to create money laundering programs, which are very time intensive cost intensive and it would impose a lot, especially on some of those smaller sellers, which don't have the same resources as the big financial institution. That hasn't happened yet. So some of the big auction houses say that they make a concerted effort to try and figure out who the ultimate beneficial owner is of a piece of artwork. They don't want to miss any red flags. But they're doing that voluntarily. This has echoes of the monuments men in World War II. And it's interesting the same U.S. attorney's office in the southern district of New York has had a few successful investigations in seizing artwork that was stolen by the Nazis. And they've used the same proceeding and sort of the same approach, I guess, and these cases feel asset forfeiture, sort of interesting to see whether they have the same results here. Thanks, Ava. That's Bloomberg, legal reporter, Ava Benny Morrison, coming up Priscilla Presley challenges her daughter's will. This is Bloomberg. Bloomberg. When you go on holiday, there is no finer
Bloomberg Radio New York
"treasury department" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"But a contingency plan in case we actually hit the ceiling. The Washington Post reports the plan still preliminary in terms of its being drafted and detailed, almost certain a call on the Treasury Department to keep making interest payments on debt But would call on the Biden administration to make only the most critical federal payments if in fact we got to this point. Prioritizing spending. Something that Korean Jean Pierre, the press secretary at The White House, did not need to be asked about today. It was part of her opening remarks. Listen. This so called prioritization scheme makes Republicans priorities pretty clear. Crystal clear if I may add, they want to put wealthy bondholders over ordinary Americans who want safe food, safe skies, safe communities, and secure borders. And it does not, it does nothing. Absolutely nothing to change the fact that failing to deal with the debt limit would cause economic catastrophe. A prioritization scheme, she calls it. Let's reassemble the panel jeanie chansey and Rick Davis are here. This is a new wrinkle on the whole debt ceiling conversation. Here, Jeannie, I don't know if it's if it's something that could become law. They would have to pass this in the house. I don't know that would ever go anywhere, but it certainly is giving The White House fodder as they try to stare down Republicans on this issue. It is. And to your point, it is there are so many questions about whether this can actually even be done. We're hearing that there was talk of doing it, but can the treasury actually prioritize and pay only some bills, you know, some of your bills versus others and then how would they do that and which ones would be paid? And of course, to your point and the reason the press secretary was talking about it today, it raises real challenges. I mean, the reality is the debt ceiling needs to either be suspended or lifted or we need to get rid of it all together. You simply can not default on the debt or say we're only going to pay certain parts certain bills. And Kevin McCarthy has to take responsibility for that, and he's going to keep seeing this push from The White House on this until and unless he does. House Republicans, according to the post Rick, may also stipulate the Treasury Department continue making payments on social security, Medicare, and veterans benefits. It's the agencies she's talking about, the FAA, take grab one if you want. That apparently would not be part of this plan. Is this real or is this just to get people like us talking? I think it's really gamesmanship. I mean, could you imagine the fallout if the government makes a unilateral decision before the debt ceiling does hit that they're going to just stop writing checks? They're assuming that the debt ceiling is not going to be done in time and that we go into a default. So it's just a game. I think they're sounding a little bit desperate over at The White House. I mean, Kevin McCarthy walks into a press conference and says, hey, I want to have a conversation with the president and the other Senate leaders about how we solve this problem before it happens. Well, most normal people think, oh, that sounds reasonable. And then the president's response is I'm not meeting with that guy. That doesn't sound like a productive outcome for The White House this week. And then they come up with this gimmick, which would be to try and force the events of a default onto Congress months before they're actually is one. I got to believe this is advantage McCarthy. I mean, the idea that somehow nobody wants to talk about this until the last minute makes no sense. And you wonder why the Edelman trust barometer says that the government officials are so much in disdain held in disdain because these are the kinds of games that people they'll see some of this in their living rooms tonight on the news. I'll talk about it and it worked tomorrow. And every business, every family has to figure out ways of paying their bills and they can't figure out the people of America, why Congress can't do the same thing. It's really not as hard as everybody's making it out to be. I would say the real question from McCarthy is is he just posturing, or is he really prepared to sit down and talk? And if so, why doesn't he present a plan that he would like to get done? I know he's got a few members who prefer that he not even get into this with the Biden administration, but The White House line a genius. We've played for you repeatedly from Korean Jean Pierre even in the last week. No negotiating. We are not negotiating. She said it more times than I could count again in today's briefing. And it's only January. Is that the right line for The White House to take? You know, I don't think it's the right line for them to take, that they're not going to negotiate. What I would suggest that they say not that they care is that we will not let the United States go into default. So we will address this issue however we can. We will work across the aisle. I mean, that was, after all, Joe Biden selling point at all these campaigns has been he can work across the aisle. That said, politically, they do believe this works for them because let's not forget if Republicans decide that they're going to cap or freeze, they are going to be responsible for dramatic cuts to defense and or discretionary spending of things like social security and Medicaid. And Democrats want them to go their politically because they feel that's going to help them in 24. So there's a lot of gainsmanship on both sides of this. The problem is they're playing with all of our fiscal and economic lives, and I am not as confident as some people seem to be that this is going to be resolved nor do I believe that Kevin McCarthy can do it unilaterally on behalf of Republicans who are very clearly saying that they don't want him working with Democrats. They apparently, according to this report, left details of the plan unsettled in the initial agreement, Rick. Reality check here is there any chance this actually becomes law and if not, this is a non factor, right? Yeah, I can't imagine this becoming law making it a non factor. It's a negotiating ploy early on. I would say the bright scene of the bright spot in today's discussions is people like Brian Fitzpatrick, a reasonable problem solving caucus member. Said, look, I'm committed to there being no default. If we have to work out a deal with Democrats, we'll figure out a way to do that. And so even though it looks like a strong hand by Kevin McCarthy, he's got a caucus that's behind him to try and get something for this. If it doesn't look like something like that's going to happen, it wouldn't surprise me that a coalition of Republicans and the Democrats can pass the debt limit. And then McCarthy has left hanging out there with nothing. So it's dangerous game. It's all posturing right now. As you pointed out, Joe, it's relatively early it's only January. But we're going to see this every single day between now and June. Yeah, we got what? We've got 9 months of talking about this. What are we going to hit this thing in September Genie? One thing that Kevin McCarthy also said and he said it very quickly and kind of quietly kind of mumbled the words that he's going to be giving George Santos or his party will a committee assignment he will be in fact allowed to serve on committees. Are you surprised to hear it? I am not surprised to hear it, but you know I don't think Kevin McCarthy feels like he has much of a choice at this point, but boy, you know, this is somebody who is going to have access to top secret information as a member of Congress and a member
Bloomberg Radio New York
"treasury department" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Transition. For example, 1000 megawatts of solar equates to about 60 million in annual production tax credits. We're going to have 30,000 megawatts of renewables on our system by 2035. The inflation reduction act has been a very important piece of legislation. It's not only that it creates a number of incentives for a variety of assets. It also is very durable and long term. So instead of a patchwork of different tax credits that we've seen in the past, it actually creates a wide path going well into 2030s for this long-term transition on the grid. Political winds may shift and regulations are always subject to change. For the moment, policy in Washington alliance with duke's strategic goals. Would you feel like there's a real partnership now? We have a voice at the table. I have a lot of conversations with the Treasury Department about tax policy and as they define the rules around the IRA, they will seek input from people like us. And we will weigh in. This is what you should think about as you write the detailed rules to implement this act. When it comes to relationship between utility and policy makers and regulators, those have always been extremely important. Those you do set cultivate have cultivated those relationships in a constructive fashion where they've been good stewards of capital and operated the system well and took into consideration interest of various stakeholders in addition to the equity and debt investors. Of course, those adherents enjoy congratulations to their regulars in our experience, right? And that over time translates into a constructive rate outcomes and better
Bloomberg Radio New York
"treasury department" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"We check the markets every 15 minutes throughout the trading day, on Bloomberg, S&P futures down about 8 points this morning, Dow futures down 96 and NASDAQ futures down in 9 medact in Germany's down three chance of upper set. Can your treasury little change held 4% they yield on the two year 4.54%. Nymex screwed oil is down to chance percent or 19 cents at $88 18 cents a barrel, comex gold up 6 tens percent or $9 90 cents, a 1659 60 ounce. The Euro .9908 against a dollar British found 1.1507, the yen one 47 O 9, and Bitcoin down four tenths percent, a $20,400. So that's a Bloomberg business flash, Tom and Paul. Thank you so much, Karen. Greatly appreciate it. What we're going to do now, you need to have both hands on a steering wheel if you are driving if your home will keep the children away from the headphones and the speakers and all. Because this is painful. Liz cape on McCormick is the only person I know that can give us clarity on the U.S. holding quarterly debt sales steady as they ponder buybacks. I have no idea what that headline means. And my head is spinning less cap on McCormick four paragraphs into your jewel on what the US Treasury is doing. Liz, why is this so complicated? Why is the moving parts of issuing ten year paper or 30 year paper? Why is this so darn hard to understand? Well, you know, there's a lot involved in I hope it's not that I'm doing my job wrong that it's so hard to understand. No, you're the only one that can explain this. I mean, to the rest of its in Greek, but put into plain English why in 2022, what the treasury is doing is so important and appears so confusing. Yeah, so let's break it down. And say, remember, the backdrop, China, as you know, we've talked before the last four quarters, the Treasury Department was able to cut the size of issuance, which let's put it in layman's terms. Our government is in a deficit, right? So we borrow a lot of debt to fund this. So we got to a position after the pandemic surgeon spending that things were getting better. Fiscal finances were better so they cut several quarters. But now the outlook is changing, right? So they said, let's stand pat and keep these auction sizes, how much we're borrowing each quarter kind of stable. Because the fiscal picture is kind of murky now, right? You guys talk a lot about we may be in a recession, the economy is slowing down. For the treasury and the government that reduces tax revenues coming in, right? Also, we have the Federal Reserve who's their own entity, but they, as part of their tightening to fight inflation, are slowly letting some of that all that debt they bought, roll off their balance sheet. So they used to be buying treasuries, then they stopped and now they're letting treasuries kind of mature and go away. And for the Treasury Department, that was kind of, let's call it on the side, not secret, but it was like aside from the public. Helping them finance the deficit so the fed's not helping the treasury out now. We got a murky fiscal picture. So that's why they kind of said, let's stamp out on sizes. Liz, then go ahead. Go ahead, Liz. No, I was just going to say, then the buybacks thing is a whole separate thing, right? I think we've talked before about. There's a lot of issues of liquidity in the marketplace. This is the world's biggest bond market. You know, regulators have done a good job of from the treasury to the fed been looking into ways to improve the resiliency of the marketplace. One thing people are looking at now, the treasury is, hey, should they buy back some of the older debt? What we call off the runs and kind of pull them out of the market because they're the least liquid. And issue other things. So let's all stop there. If they buy back the debt, does my mortgage rate go up? There's less paper, so the price goes up in the yield goes down, right? Right, well, Tom, remember, now all day, both of us that remember the last time they did buybacks way back in the early 2000s. It was a whole other world. You know, they had like a surplus. Things were better. So they thought, oh, we can take some of this out of it. Not now. So whatever they were to buy back now. Right. They're going to equally make up with, say, they sell treasury bills or so it's not going to help our yields. Like you said, yeah. So let's keep them McCormick fold this over to Ira Jersey's world whose expert on short term paper. FRA OIS. Let's call it the new library OIS is going up up up and up to new heights today. Is your long-term world linked to Ira Jersey short term world? Well, I'm a big Irish Jersey fan as well. But he's getting to kind of these FRA OIS with libor OS in the future, as we know, is getting to kind of some funding pressure strains, right? The fed is just lifted rates at such a torrid pace. We haven't seen this in decades. And we're not in any crisis now, but that OIS is kind of getting to things bubbling up, you know, spreads widening and kind of those wrist monitors. So yeah, I was always on top of pointing out what's key. Liz, who buys the government debt these days? Well, we have a lot of people, of course, we've been writing a lot about foreign demand has gone down, but they're still major holders of U.S. debt. We have a lot of domestic accounts that have been defiers in recent years. So, you know, treasury does work hard as they have a really diversity of buyers, right? So if one's like step on the side, they've got others. We didn't have you on to explain this to us. We just want to know, why didn't you tell us about the U.S. savings bond that was yielding 9% plus? Where were you on that list? I know. Why don't we, why don't we all put all our retirement money in there of all the treasury won't let us do that, right? They only let you have a little bit. There's a limit to what you can buy at that. Exactly. Yeah, it's interesting. Well, thank you so much. I will try to get this out on Twitter folks. Let's keep them McCormick on the high ground. Did you get their paw how convoluted this is? It is. I mean, like I flunked this and CFO. Yeah, they just put it through it. And go on to the next section. Yep. That was Bond, math. I'm not good on Bond man. Let's keep them McCormick there on the funding in the dynamics. I mean the seriously folks, the dynamics of treasury flows, buttressed up against Paul mentioned the global market who's buying this stuff who sell in the stuff, but to stop against the fed dynamics, which are now totally different than they were, she mentioned in the early 2000s. I think we should send Liz down to the press conference today and have our treasury funding question. How about that? On the table to answer that. We'll have to see Michael McKee will be at that press conference. We are thrilled to tell you that Richard Clare to the former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve system will be with us to give his perspective before all of the festivities. Look for that on the 1 o'clock. Our future is a negative 6 down futures in negative 68. The Vic's 26.37 pulse Sweeney and Tom Keene, it is fed day, stay with us. This is Bloomberg. What is dedication? The thing that drives me every day is a day is very we call them day to day for short. Every day
Bloomberg Radio New York
"treasury department" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"This past legislation and I'm hopeful the house can do the same as semi legislation in the coming weeks to crack down in these companies and help lower overall cost In my plan does all this without raising a penny in taxes on people making less than $400,000 a year And without raising the deficit at all by taxing the super wealthy and big corporations Like the 55 major corporations that don't pay a single penny in taxes even though they had a $40 billion in profits The point is this I'm doing everything I can in my own to help working families during this stretch of higher prices I'm going to continue to do that But Congress needs to act as well We can do so much more if we come together to lower the cost for American families But my congressional Republican Friends led by Rick Scott Have a different approach He's actually introduced the plan He wants to raise taxes on working families by an average of $1500 a year Put Medicare and social security Medicaid and it's going to be so screening Medicaid On the chopping block every 5 years In other words every 5 years they are going to no longer exist unless they vote them back into existence I disagree with that What in God's name are you doing I'm going to work with anyone Democrat Republican independent deliver real solutions And real savings for the American people Not take money out of their pockets Now the other melanoma I like to address It has impacts on inflation It's a lower the deficit The reason this matters to families because reducing the deficit is another way to ease inflation My friends in the Republican side might paint me as the big spender But let's look at the facts Facts matter Under my predecessor the deficit exploded razzing every single year he was in office Under my plan we're on track to cut the deficit This year by $1.7 trillion This year by $1.7 trillion that's a fact The largest decline in American history And by the way those aren't White House projections They come from the nonpartisan congressional budget office at you and the press and everybody around the country legitimately quotes all the time That progress on tackling the deficit was not preordained It was my economic strategy Built into our historic recovery that we didn't anticipate a war and Ukraine at the time Historic economic growth of not only helped tens of millions of family move up it has helped our federal deficit come down And now because of that strategy we're on track for a deficit to take up a lower share of our economy and it did before the pandemic In fact the Treasury Department is planning to pay down paid down the national debt this quarter which never happened under my predecessor Not once Not once Because unlike my predecessor the deficit has come down both years I've been here I propose the plan to keep shrinking that deficit By making common sense reforms to our tax code letting the playing field internationally so that the biggest companies no longer have an incentive to shift jobs to shift them overseas to make their product because they get charged less in taxes And avoid paying their fair share of taxes here at home We put together a multi nation initiative that I'm hopeful will come into play at the G 7 And ending the outrageous unfairness for Texas that allows billionaires look if you can make a $1 billion all four just pay a little bit of your fair share you know Just pay your fair share Billionaires pay lower rate than a teacher or a firefighter The bottom line is this Part of the reason I ran for president is because I was tired of trickle down economics It doesn't work My plans are produce a strongest fastest month widespread economic recovery America has ever experienced With record jobs new record small businesses and wages rising It's the foundation for an economy that works for working families Because of that foundation we're better positioned than any country in the world To overcome global inflation that we're seeing and reach a new chapter of stable and steady growth So let's come together And focus on what's matter I'm not matters Let's build on the extraordinary progress we made Let's continue to build this economy from the bottom up in the middle out When that happens everybody does while including in a very wealthy Thank you and God bless you and God may God protect our troops Now take.
Bloomberg Radio New York
"treasury department" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Bloomberg daybreak Asia It is 9 30 Friday morning in Hong Kong 1130 here in Sydney I'm Paul Allen And I'm Doug prisoner at the Bloomberg interactive broker studio in New York We've got a rally in the equity market in Hong Kong right out of the gate the hang seng up by more than will nearly 1.9% consumer discretionary information tech out in front Brian Curtis will be buying a moment to give us the very latest Right now a few of the sours top business stories The UAS regulator is warning the crypto industry to police itself or risk punishing sanctions Said the Treasury Department has been actively identifying and sanctioning virtual currency addresses associated with forbidden activity He is at the chain analysis links conference With respect to our sanctions targeting work we have now identified over 300 virtual currency addresses on the SDN list that were associated with illicit activity And we will continue to expose more In fact since last fall we've had a series of firsts with respect to the types of entities that we have targeted highlighting the continued utility of sanctions even in this emerging space Jackie told the conference the U.S. does not tag the legitimate use of virtual currency nor does it seek to hinder its innovation She asked crypto firms to block addresses that have been sanctioned and to share information with the government Well after the bell here in the U.S. Applied Materials gave a weak sales forecast the company said sales will be about 6.3 billion for the fiscal third quarter That's roughly $400 million below forecast Bloomberg's Ian king tells us why They said pretty much exactly the same thing that Cisco said which is look we report later in the cycle and everybody else did that means we've had a month of lockdowns in the Shanghai region of China This is what it has done to the supply chain It's really hurt as badly in terms of being able to get what we need So if you look at supply chain constraints alone applied saying that it will cost it about a $150 million worth of sales in the quarter Beijing will pump $5.3 trillion into China's economy this year the figures based on Bloomberg's calculation of monetary and fiscal measures announced so far And it equates to roughly a third of China's $17 trillion economy It is much smaller than the stimulus unleashed by Chinese authorities and 2020 when the pandemic first hit So it's possible even more could be spent if the economy fails to pick up from its current slump China's government has come under immense pressure to meet its growth target of about 5 and a half percent for the year Authorities have promised to reach their economic goal but they've also made it clear that they're sticking with the COVID zero policy Some economists are skeptical as to whether Beijing can achieve both of those objectives at the same time China is seeking to replenish its strategic crude stockpiles and we are told that Beijing is in discussions with Moscow about buying additional supplies Talks are being conducted at a government level with little direct involvement from the oil companies oil has rallied this year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine However Russian crude has tumbled as buyers stepped away to avoid damaging their reputations and this has provided an opportunity for China to cheaply replenish its strategic petroleum reserves details on volumes or terms for that matter on a potential deal have not yet been decided But we did see a little bit of selling in the U.S. equities markets during a trade but it's a pretty positive session so far in Asia for a closer look Let's get over to Brian Kurtz Paul thanks very much China has lowered the 5 year loan prime rate by 15 basis points while leaving the one year rate unchanged It might be a little bit less than what some traders had been hoping for but it is lifting the China markets a little bit this morning They ain't saying index up 1.9% It hangs hang tech index is up more than 3% We're seeing a big bounce in tech stocks and also in some property developers Country garden in particular is one of the big gainers up 3.4% And among the tech companies Alibaba and JD.com and sunny optical they're all rallying as well as Xiaomi In the China markets the CSI 300 is up a little more than 1% In fact all the cash markets in Asia that are up and running now are trading higher The Thai X up about three quarters of a percent straight times index up about one and a quarter percent And it's been a very solid day in Sydney as well with the ASX 200 has put on 88 points and that is a gain of one and a quarter percent The nikkei up 1% A European futures are also making some gains sovereign bonds mostly holding on to a rally that yield on the ten year treasury here is 2.86% The two year 2.63% And in terms of currencies we've got Dolly yen at one 28 O 9 persistent strength in the yen against the green backup a quarter of a percent And the dollar while losing 9 tenths of a percent in the U.S. session as rallied back about a tenth of a percent in Asia And WTI $112 a barrel And that is a look at markets fall back to you All right thanks very much Brian It is now 35 minutes past the hour time for chick of global news.
Bloomberg Radio New York
"treasury department" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Year ago and the Senate banking committee is supposed to vote today on 5 nominees to the Federal Reserve Let's see if they actually do From the Bloomberg interactive broker studio in New York welcome to the second hour of balance of power I'm David Weston The Senate banking committee has a vote scheduled this afternoon on President Biden's 5 nominees to the Federal Reserve but it's not clear that there will happen with the Republicans threatening not to show up And the minority leader Mitch McConnell calling in the president to pull the nomination of Sarah bloom Raskin altogether More troubling still is President Biden's nominated to the extremely powerful position of I share for supervision This slot comes with major unilateral power But the president's nominee Sarah bloom Raskin has spent recent years pressuring the fed to stop being a neutral regulator and instead become an ideological left wing activist body We welcome now a banker who has worked closely with miss Raskin Camden fine is the former president of the independent community Bank of America mister fine before that founded and ran the Midwest independent bank of Jefferson City Missouri for 20 years He's now president and CEO of Calvert advisers So welcome it's really great to have you with us Particularly because you are a banker as I say not just represented bankers but you are a banker yourself in a past life and you know her well have worked with her You wrote a terrific piece for actually American banker where you came to her defense Why Because Sarah bloom Raskin is perhaps the most qualified nominee in recent memory to the fed board And what's really interesting David is that 5 of the current 12 Republican members of the Senate banking committee have voted to confirm Sarah bloomer asking to the number two slot at the Treasury Department in 2014 and three of the Republicans on the committee voted her confirmation voted in favor of her confirmation to the fed board itself in 2010 So what happened Why are they playing these kind of political games with someone who is imminently qualified to hold this position Well I want to come back as you say political games You know Washington well at this point but before that Let's raise a couple of the issues that at least the republics have raised Number one climate She's been outspoken on the need to take a climate into account in assessing risks to banks And then she wrote some op-ed pieces that were not strictly speaking about banking regulation at all It was about emergency loads of the fed So that's one of the concerns that in fact as particularly the vice chair for supervision she would be substituting her judgment for where banks basically put their money That's not true I disagree with how she's being characterized by certain politicians Incidentally I forgot to mention that Mitch McConnell has voted for her twice voted confirmation for her twice She's no radical at all David Her position on climate change is very mainstream within the mainstream thought I can tell you that I ran a community bank in the Midwest And in the Midwest you have hundreds of agriculture banks community banks that primarily lend to agricultural interest And if you don't think they're not worried about climate change and don't take those factors into consideration when they're making loans and so forth You've got another thing coming They've been doing that for decades because their weather dependent farmers are weather dependent and the bankers that make those farmers loans have to factor all of those considerations into their lending And so they've been doing that for years I think anyone in 2021 has to look at issues surrounding climate and changing climates and factor those in That said no way no day the Sarah bloomer asking one have the authority and two she wouldn't do it anyway Dictate to privately owned or publicly traded banks on who they can and can not lend to She knows how to be a regulator And that is not a regulators job So let's talk about the political gamesmanship I guess my basic question is has this basically fundamentally got anything to do with banking or is she just a surrogate for other purposes in your judgment You know Washington well not just banks In my view this is just political gamesmanship I don't think this is really at its core about Sarah bloom Raskin the person or the regulator She is a well known regulator with a long track record And a track record by the way of excellence She was confirmed unanimously twice by the Senate within the last 12 years It's not like she's some unknown to the Washington policymakers This is pure political theater and it's posturing and it's just partisan politics and it's kind of sad because it's not the Washington that I spent most of my career working in and working with policymakers But it's one you know does she make it in the end in your judgment Yes I think she does get confirmed I think all 5 of the nominees will get confirmed admittedly I think Sarah's confirmation vote will be close which is sad But at the end of the day I think she and the other four nominees are confirmed Let's assume all 5 gig confirmed last question Do you think they'll change substantially the direction of the fed Do they have a different orientation on monetary policy as well as banking regulation I think they'll bring their own experiences and backgrounds and work histories to the fed But at the end of the day the chairman has a lot of sway.
Bloomberg Radio New York
"treasury department" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Administration for people 18 and older It is seen as an important milestone that bolsters the shots use as a major weapon against the virus the Pfizer vaccine was cleared by the FDA in August A group of progressive senators is pushing the International Monetary Fund to help developing nations deal with the COVID pandemic The group led by senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders is calling on Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer to support the issuance of more than $2 trillion in IMF reserve assets known as special drawing rights that would be on top of a record $650 billion in reserves created by the IMF last August after the Biden administration back to the proposal It had been blocked under former president Donald Trump Last April the Treasury Department said it would not support additional drawing rights and would only back them if circumstances justified it In Washington I'm Nathan Hager Bloomberg radio President Biden is reaching out to lawmakers as he mulls over nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court White House press secretary Jen Psaki provided an update today Tomorrow the president is going to host chairman Durbin and ranking member grassley at The White House to consult with them and hear their advice about this vacancy A chairman Durbin has worked on 7 Supreme Court confirmation processes The president has also worked for many years with senator grassley and respects his knowledge and views Jen Psaki is defending Biden's promise to nominate a black woman to previous presidents Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump both Republicans were also demographically specific in their Supreme Court appointments Global news 24 hours a day on air and on Bloomberg quick take powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries On Nancy lions Progressive snapshot can save you money based on how you drive and how much you drive So the safer you drive the more money you could save Now if you didn't hear that because you were yelling at another car while driving Let me say it again You need to calm down Yelling is just making everyone is stressed out as you are and letting them all know that you definitely aren't trying to stay with progressive snapshot And if you did hear the first.
Bloomberg Radio New York
"treasury department" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Of millions of dollars of COVID relief funds The Treasury Department accused the state of using the money to undermine federal efforts to curb the spread of COVID treasury is threatening to rescind $173 million in aid unless changes are made The dispute comes amid a nationwide surge of the COVID Akron variant Today marks the 13th anniversary of a miracle on the Hudson Lisa G has more It was called the miracle on the Hudson after a U.S. airways jet struck a flock of birds while taking off from Laguardia airport The plane's captain solely solemn burger managed to land the plane with a 155 people on board safely in the Hudson River Many remember seeing passengers standing on the wings and rafts of the jet as commuter ferryboats helped bring them to shore The White House is accusing Russia of plotting a false flag operation in eastern Ukraine press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters the effort includes a massive misinformation campaign that could give Russia a reason to invade neighboring Ukraine And eviction moratorium in New York is set to expire today protesters gathered in front of governor Kathy hogel's Manhattan office calling to extend the moratorium The governor has said she will not extend it and has asked the federal government for financial help for tenants who need help I'm Brad Siegel And I'm Susanna Palmer in the Bloomberg newsroom Firefighters were able to keep the flames from a massive blaze at an industrial complex at two 25 street in pasek away from the main chemical plant The 11 alarm fire broke out at about 8 30 last night at the majestic industries warehouse chlorine for pools is made in the building But again it looks like the over 200 firefighters who responded were able to keep the flames away from the chemicals one firefighter was said to be injured As we've been reporting governor Kathy hogel has said the state is turning the corner in the fight against coronavirus You heard it here first I've been waiting to say that turning the corner look at the 7 day average of cases starting to decline There were 49,027 new infections recorded Thursday One week earlier there were a record 90,000 At the peak the percentage of those testing positive for the virus was at 23.7% on January 3rd It has since fallen to 16.3% New York's eviction and foreclosure moratorium expires today and that puts an estimated 225,000 people across the state at risk of eviction Former treasury secretary Lawrence summers said that The White House is getting it wrong on the causes of high inflation and that attempts to blame it on corporate greed only increase the risk that a recession will be needed to tame surging prices This diagnosis of the problem around greed or around particular sectors raises the risk that ultimate recession will be necessary Summers was interviewed on Bloomberg television's Wall Street week with David Weston Direct TV one of the largest U.S. pay TV providers plans to drop one America news network and that deals a major blow to the conservative channel that's been criticized for spreading misinformation and had a loyal fan in former president Donald Trump Global news 24 hours a day on air and on Bloomberg quicktake powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in.
Bloomberg Radio New York
"treasury department" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Can't convey enough the importance of that Especially at a time when fiscal policy is going to matter so much heading into year end Remember we were worried about the debt ceiling Are we going to have to worry about that again Or does this basically take that off the table and say there has to be some consensus There can't be any more unforced errors by the Democrats Does that mean a better fiscal backdrop that people could kind of factor into their equation And now an inconvenient truth folks You speak to Lisa bramo it's about all these auction mumbo jumbo that miki talked about What does it really mean Lisa at 8 30 this treasury thing Basically so what The so what is this the first time that the Treasury Department is reducing the total amount of coupon debt sales going back to 2016 That basically they are coming out and they are saying we can start to pair back how much debt we sell at the very same time that the Federal Reserve is saying we're going to curtail how many bonds we buy every month In other words it's a wash and it's coming out at the same time How does this then factor in to what the liquidity backdrop is when the fed is still highly accommodated That's the so what Can you be Henrietta trace cynical and say yellin's on the phone to Powell It's like you know a game of cheesy I'm happy to play partisi I'm not happy to spread rumors because I really am not going to make that connection Michael gabin you know ran away from that one and rightly So the issue here is how long can this dynamic persist When do we see the tightening that goes to potentially when you stop dancing question I just you know my head is spin can we talk something dumb like equities Sure let's talk about Avis You sell in Everyone else is today That's the belief Well you know when we should point out folks that all of us wisdom from miss abrahams comes to.
600 WREC
"treasury department" Discussed on 600 WREC
"We turn to Marc Stein here on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hey, great to be with you. I should apologize to Jason. Our Australian friend from Kensington, Maryland, just the couple of minutes ago, because I think when we came up against the heartbreak I called him Joe again. But he's actually Jason. So I've reached the Biden. Reached the Biden stage where I can no longer tell the difference between Kamila Harris and Geraldine Ferraro s. Oh, I didn't mean to call Jason Joe and I should also wish him happy Australia Day. It's actually Tuesday, but it's already too say the Australians are so much more advanced than the rest of us that it's already a Tuesday over there. And it's Australia Day, which is their national holiday. Don't get too excited because they've got a bad case of what's going around among us, the ABC, which is their national broadcasters, It's like the BBC and the CBC in Canada. The ABC is calling it Happy Invasion Day. Because that's the day of shame of when the white man landed in Australia. So it Zzyzx. Same thing. Happy Invasion day. We'll be having that here if you if you think it can't happen here. People do so what couldn't happen here? The Treasury Department is taking steps. This is the White House press secretary, the Treasury or possibly the Treasury said No. It's the White House Press secretary Jen Psaki. The Treasury Department is taking steps to resume efforts to put Harriet Tubman on the front of the new A $20. Notes. So Andrew Jackson, He's the guy with big hair busting out of the oval on your $20 bill. He's on his way out, and Harriet Tubman is going to be on the way in Mark Sign for Russia. If you missing rush, you can go to Russia, ma dot com Look at the Rush Limbaugh Show Banner. And just above that, you'll see a little tab saying, share your stories. You click on that you can send your best wishes to rush Is he appreciates them, especially in treatment Week, which is rough on anybody and especially rough. If you have to get your strength up to do a three hour radio show a couple of days after getting Aled that s O. You can go there. And while you're there, you might.
600 WREC
"treasury department" Discussed on 600 WREC
"The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating claims that one of Ford Motors recalls didn't fix the issue. Brian Shook has the details. So far, The administration has received 11 complaints, saying the power tailgates weren't fixed when the super duty pickup trucks were re called in 2019 Ford Recall the F 2 50 F 3 50 the F 4 50 models after owners complained the power tail gates were opening while they were driving Kroger's trying out new smart card tack That is Eliminates paying at a check out the new crow Go system is on a trial run in Cincinnati, Shoppers can fill up their cards, which in turn can recognize what's inside that a quick swipe of a payment card and it's out the door. Treasury secretary nominee Janet Yellen is urging lawmakers to go big on another coronavirus stimulus package whose interest rates at historic lows. The smartest thing we can do is act big in the longer and I believe the benefits will far outweigh the costs. Yelling is former chair of the Federal Reserve, she told a Senate hearing. This is a good time to spend money to rebuild an economy that has been battered by the ongoing Corona virus outbreak. Ellen was one of president Like Joe Biden's first Cabinet picks. She would be the first woman to head the Treasury Department if she is confirmed by the Senate, one of America's largest Me Cos. Is paying over $221 million to settle a lawsuit. After was accused of inflating chicken prices. Tyson Foods announced when say they had reached the settlement with end user consumers. And commercial purchasers without admitting liability. The settlement does not cover the legal battles the companies involved in with big companies, including Chick fil A and Wal Mart over similar claims. President Biden is holding the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline would have carried oil from western Canada to refineries and distribution centers in the U. S Consumer Business News. I'm the Muto, NBC news radio or millions of people. Across the United States. You've got to get it back. This is a great way to do it and you get all the other benefits with the plants. They're also your cholesterol. The coins on cue 10 really, just a great product, something purity. Very proud of. We're proud to give it away for people to try and see themselves. There is no obligation by the way you can try it and then make a decision. We know that If you try this product, you'll want to reorder it. And you want to take it for a very long time. That's how we do this. Give it a shot. Jason. Tell people what they get. Here. Are these tablets are they capsules? What should people expect? Well, they're soft shells, You can swallow them. That's it. You just pay a little bit of shipping and handling the beautiful package. Beautiful little soft gel capsules. You get the fish oil. By the way. We also put vitamin D three. In this product. You would not believe the science that's coming out on vitamin D pad. Last time we spoke, I was telling you that over the next six months you were going to see reports on vitamin D three. That are just going to blow you away. But, oh, man, the stuff that's coming out on vitamin D, And we've actually put 500 international units of vitamin D into this product, So it's really actually more than a three in one. It's actually a foreign one. Because you get the D and here too. This is a product you're gonna want to take every day. I mean, these air three Very important nutrients that you want to continue to take and used to maintain your health. Your appearance, your energy, your vitality, every area of your health overtime call up, Try it, Put it to the test. See for yourself and experience. What we call the miracle of fish oil with these other things. It's really just a great product and I implore anyone out there who's ever been thinking of trying fish oil? Who has any issue with occasional fatigue or low energy core who just wants to take control of their cholesterol safely. And naturally, this is the product for you. Now, Jason talk to me about omega threes and neck and back Pain Well University of Pittsburgh a couple years ago showing that fish oil can be used as an alternative if they're worried about occasional back pain or neck pain, or those sorts of things were joint concerns. Fish oil shown in this initial study, really a pilot study but shown to be highly effective. The highlight of that study pad nine out of 10 of the people involved in the study said that they wanted to continue using fish oil after the study ended over eight out of 10 reported extremely positive benefits. Jason what do you say to the skeptic out there? Who says What's the catch with the free bottle offer here? If this stuff is is good is this Jason Cam claims it is why they given away Well, because it's so good. I don't know. Is there anyone out there who doubts that Omega Three Fish oils are going to deliver a whole host the benefit? Maybe some members of the flat earth society e. I might have a hard time convincing them. All right, Jason. We've only got a few minutes left here. Remind people about this Cool new B 12. Easy melt formula you're including with the free bottle of this Omega three super pill. Yep..
90.3 KAZU
"treasury department" Discussed on 90.3 KAZU
"For Janet Yellen, President elect Biden's choice to head the Treasury Department in prepared testimony, yelling urges Congress to do more to fight the pandemic induced recession. That with interest rates at historic lows, Congress should spend more to jump start the economy and increase vaccinations. The University of Tennessee has fired his football coach Jeremy Pruitt and nine other members of the volunteer staff after an internal investigation found serious violations of NC double a rules. Emily Siner reports from member station WPL in Chancellor Dondi Plamen says her office received a tip in November that alleged recruiting violations. The NC double A is now investigating as well. Details have not yet been released Plum and says she regrets the disruption that the mass firing will cause for student athletes who weren't involved with the problems. This is not what any of us want for our football program or for our university. It is so disturbing, as demonstrated by the scope of his employment actions we're announcing today is the number of violations and the number of people involved you tease. Athletic director is also leaving so the chancellor says he had no part in the violations. For NPR NEWS. I'm Emily Siner in college basketball. The 12 Big 12 Conference says Texas Christian University is postponing its next two games because of covert 19 protocols. PCU had been scheduled to host Texas Tech on Wednesday and Texas on Saturday. The big 12 says will work to reschedule the games..
KUGN 590 AM
"treasury department" Discussed on KUGN 590 AM
"Again, people we're here to help. Not only do we we manage people's money, help them prepare for life, and it's all inclusive. That's you know, you need help with your taxes. You need help with legal. We help people out. Quite a bit small businesses around the country with the P P p program when it came out, and there is a second round that's coming out. And kept that All the information that's been made available. We've put it together. Accounting firm that we work with that offering on corporate put together an unbelievable body of work to help you understand it. If you don't understand, we'll answer your questions, and we'll help you with it. Um a lot. A lot of the p P p program least the second round. Is going to. It's yet to be written a lot of these rules a lot of these laws that are written by Congress. They leave a lot up to the I. R s and the Treasury Department. And as soon as we get the information, we can help you. With that, But yeah, That's what We do. What we do know that it did. They does your does your stockbroker at Wells Fargo Advisors help you with your small business. Huh? Marilyn Chick. I do, though he may take you out to dinner and give you some nice charge Keys. But no This is what we do. Personal CFO program is about like I said earlier. Navigating storms. FINANCIAL storms, corrections volatility. Being able to avoid Understand, recognize, risk, serious risk. Including stuff they haven't seen before. One of the things that we talked about for years here. Conventional wisdom is poison narratives poison. So you can discern the difference between the conventional wisdom of the day. And the reality of the terrain. This is what we do, and we're here to help you get to our website at watchdog on wall street dot com Sign up for our personal C F o program. Um Can I Then we've been very consistent here on the program when it comes Cove it and how it's been handled. And we've looked at the numbers. And again we see a lot of stuff that doesn't make any sense. Oh, by the way. Oh, well, while we're on the topic, Cove, it Uh, about a month ago. Months ago, I gave blood and I got my son. I got a letter in the mail this past week from the blood center, saying that I tested positive. For the cove. It antibodies. Got it. Now what? In the letter, it says. There is significant evidence that says that you made me immune to it. But, you know, they kind of get into kind of covering their butt type stuff. So now one. Actually, even the letter didn't say anything about me donating anti bodies or anything like that which I'd be more than happy to do. How's it gonna work? How are you? This vaccines that I've yet to hear anything saying if you've had it already. You know you go to the back of the line. How is this gonna work? Anyway. I saw this. This was interesting as well. Is that despite the No lockdowns in the state of Florida, and there's no mask mandate, even though businesses on their own.