P&D and The Week That Was

 Truth is the Sublime Convergence of History and Reality

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De Omnibus Dubitandum, (Everything is to be questioned!)

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This Link will take you to My Commentaries.

 

By Rich Kozlovich 

 

 

Let's start out with this idea Trump can't fire the Fed Chairman.  Well, that's false, he can be fired for cause "which covers a host of sins", but the truth is the entire Federal Reserve Board needs replaced.  There are a couple of things about this idea they shouldn't be fired because they're "independent" and operate neutrally.  Hogwash, they were appointed by politicians and have political biases, often hidden biases, but invariably those biases are leftist biases.  And if Janet Yellen is any example, they're not very bright biases, and they're influenced by a cabal of international bankers who want their boy in there.  

 

Their claim is they're fighting inflation, but what they're actually doing is desperately seeking inflation based on tariffs, supported by a corrupt media that declare the Trump tariffs were  going to spark "Weimer Republic/Zimbabwe/Argentina-levels of galloping hyperinflation."... But it never happened. And it’s killing them. It’s killing them dead.........."  Tariffs that will bring in more than $300 billion this year, and Powell even admits the data supports rate cuts,  but anti-tariff views stand in the way.  In short, reality doesn't support his leftist bias, so, he'll just ignore reality.  It's called preconceptual economics.

 

It gets worse.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fed relies on major banks like Chase (Jamie Dimon) and Deutsche Bank, as well as hedge funds like Leon Black’s Apollo and Glenn Dubin’s Highbridge, to facilitate the execution of Fed and Treasury policies. They want “one of their guys” at the Fed, “and that’s not just about the chairman, it’s about a whole range of people, it’s about changing their mindset and their models, and frankly it’s about breaking some heads, because the way they’ve been doing business is not working.”  (Editor's Note: Here's the link to my 

world's banking system 

 

"During World War II, American financiers like J.P. Morgan and companies such as General Motors, Ford, IBM, and others maintained connections to German industry through the BIS.  The OSS, the precursor to the CIA, operated through the BIS, distributing snippets aimed at undermining German morale in a newsletter from McKittrick, the bank’s president. He, in turn, was passing crucial economic and financial information to the German central bank.............."

 

On Friday it was reported that on Wednesday, Fed Governor Waller is now backing Trump for a rate cut, taking a very public stand against Chairman Powell, whose days are numbered I'm guessing. 

Well, the IRS is now going to allow churches to endorse political candidates of their choice.  A rule created by Lyndon B. Johnson regarding their continued tax exemption status, and for obvious reasons.  But why has this now been changed?  Trump is President?  Maybe, but could it be because modern churches have abandoned the Judaic/Christian ethics and principles that would have challenged leftist movements in favor of leftist heresy?  Just a thought.  

 

Nothing is as it appears in this Russo/Ukrainian War.   Ukrainians cheered as Russia destroyed recruitment centers in Ukraine.  Why? These centers are violently "snatching of people off the streets to send them – with negligible training – to die in the frontlines" ......  "even mobilizing the mobilizing the old, the infirm and women."   How true is all that? It's hard to tell but it appears there's a degree of truth in this.   So what exactly do the Ukrainian people want?  For the war to end!   But even if the Ukrainian leadership is willing, Putin isn't.  

 

No matter who wins, both Ukraine and Russia lose.   If Russia wins, they're in such financial straights they won't be able to rebuild Ukraine for years, and their demographic pyramid is far worse than it was three years ago.  Ten years ago it was observed at the current rate of growth, ethnic Russians would be a minority by around 2040/2045.   Given he's lost hundreds of thousands of young men in this war, that date must have been pushed up, and while I don't know the number, it must be closer to 2035 now.  Except those numbers no longer matter as Putin's inviting Muslim immigrants to come and work in his factories, exacerbating his demographic issues, possibly making ethnic Russians a minority in Russia very soon.   Truly, it would be a pyrrhic victory.  

 

The Lower Caucasus region realizes Russia can no longer help keep order, the former Soviet Republics in Central Asia are moving away from Russia economically, and now everyone knows Russia isn't the big bad bear we thought they were militarily.  

 

If Ukraine wins the nation is in for big political changes, and given how corrupt the Ukrainian government has been and still is, I don't see all those Ukrainians who fled to other nations returning unless there are substantial changes.   

 

Forget all this talk about how the new Syrian leaders are going to protect all minorities and all faiths.  It ain't happening, and it's my view the Kurds in that region are going to be decimated by Syria and Turkey, and the Druze, who actually support Israel, are going to be attacked.  I have misgivings as to some of Trump's decisions over Syria and their leaders.  Here's a map of Syria from Stratfor showing the power structure, and it's a mess.  These aren't political parties, these are very militant people who believe in gun politics.

 

I think Trump is in for as big an awakening with Syria as he has had with Putin.  These "reformed" terrorists are not reformed, they're manipulators who will just as quickly revert to form as it become convenient.

 

Iran will be a thorn in the side of civilization as long as it's being run by murderous totalitarian fanatics, they just seized an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman.  Iran's religious leaders have not given up.  They're issuing "fatwas" demanding true Muslims assassinate western leaders, including Donald Trump.   I'm curious, are those fatwas still valid in Islam if a bomb takes out the clerics who issued such fatwas?

 

Finally, Trump had better get his head on right over the Epstein affair.  He's dug himself into a hole he may not be able to crawl out of.  And to arrogantly declare any MAGA supporters who disagreed with him over this issue are no longer MAGA supporters takes a lot of nerve.  That's not his call.  He did not create the MAGA movement, he merely renamed it.  They were already there in various groups like the Tea Party looking for a leader who would promote their values.   He stepped up, they accepted him, and his accomplishments in that regard have been absolutely stunning which Victor Davis Hanson enumerates, defying all the dire predictions from the left.  But he didn't not create them, they chose him, it's not for him to say who is and who isn't a MAGA supporter, and he'd needs to get that.   

• “This Is Horrifying!” – Top US Pollster: Trump’s Approval Rating Is One Point Away from the Lowest Net Approval He’s Had  During his discussion with host Steve Bannon, Mitchell warned that President Trump’s approval rating is one point away from his lowest net approval ever. This all has to do with the Epstein gaslighting. The American public is NOT buying it.

His poll numbers are dropping and he needs to start walking back some of the foolish things he's said and remember irrespective of all the great things he's done, he was only able to do it because of them.  They stood by him through the lawfare nightmare he went through admiring his guts and determination, but, they made him, he didn't make them, and the MAGA movement is bigger than Donald Trump.  

 

He needs to embrace his friends in the party, and to focus more on his enemies in the party like those pushing for amnesty, using every Democrat talking point in the book, actually claiming since God saved him "he owes God a favor, and should repay the debt by signing her amnesty and migration bill."  He ain't buying it, and Trump isn't Joe Biden, and she needs to be primaried.  

 

This week I have eight commentaries of my own, and seventeen by others.  Enjoy, and have a great weekend.   

Rich  

My Commentaries

1. Thought for the Day
2. Let's Talk About the Jugurthine War
3. Is Zohran Mamdani Really the Anointed One? Part III
4. Cartoon Roundup. Zohran Mamdani and The Fate of NYC
5. Is China Unraveling at the Top?
6. Snark and Satire: Points to Ponder
7. SCOTUS and Their Pompous Petulant Pontificator
8. Don't Worry, Be Happy, is Just a Song. It's Not Reality

Commentaries

1. Thinking vs Critical Thinking By John Droz, Jr.
2. The Miserable Left By Daniel Greenfield
3. California Protects Illegal Who Bought Girl for Beer  By Daniel Greenfield
4. Palestinians Think Israel is Winning  By Daniel Greenfield
5. Who Really Backed Epstein?  By Daniel Greenfield
6. "California Leavin" By Robin Itzler
7. America's Educators By Robin Itzler
8. No Illegals, No Amnesty, No Compromise By Robin Itzler
9. A Little of This, and A Little of That Tells a Larger Story By Robin Itzler
10. Mein Kampf 100th Anniversary: Has the World Learned Anything? By Robin Itzler 
11. Will The OBBB Put An End To Heavily Subsidized Wind And Solar Generation Projects? By Francis Menton
12. Argentina Economy Update: All Is Proceeding As I Have Foreseen By Francis Menton
13. World’s Most Biased Headline or World’s Most Misleading Headline? By Dan Mitchell
14. Expanding the Milei Miracle: Pro-Growth Tax Reform By Dan Mitchell
15. Expanding the Milei Miracle: Labor Market Deregulation  By Dan Mitchell
16. Exit Taxes: Immoral and Destructive By Dan Mitchell
17. No Kings Day Protests By Terry Payne

Permanent Links

1. 45 Communist Goals to Destroy America as Listed in the 1963 Congressional Record
2. My Seven Rules of Geopolitics
3. The John Boyd Legion of Honor
5. Former White House Advisor: “Trump to Release $150 Trillion Endowment”

 No matter what anyone says, you can’t marginalize the truth!  You can suppress it, you can ignore it, you can avoid it, you can attempt to undermine it, you can attempt to subvert it, you can attempt to organize against it, you can even laugh at it, but if we have the courage and the fortitude to stand and confront the lies, irrespective of the personal costs, the truth will stand the test of time, because truth and time are on the same side.

Constant as the North Star

Fed Forcing Banks to Take Emergency Loans – Swamponomics

Plus the Q4 GDP and Canada's coming basic income. 

By Andrew Moran | Jan 24, 2024 @ Liberty Nation News Tags: Articles, Business News, Opinion

Can you believe it has been nearly a year since financial institutions received emergency loans to prevent a banking collapse? How time flies when the Federal Reserve gives bailouts like candy on Halloween. With the first anniversary of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank’s failure on the horizon, more details are being learned about the Eccles Building’s eternal bailouts, including the latest goodie: forcing the industry to accept money from the central bank.

The Fed and Emergency Loans

What should have been headline news everywhere, Bloomberg reported on a government proposal to mandate that banks borrow from the Fed’s discount window at least once a year, whether they need to or not. The idea aims to mitigate any stigma and ensure that these companies are prepared for economic and market turbulence.

In partnership with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Fed is drafting a proposal to force lenders to take out emergency loans, even if they have sufficient resources to deal with a situation whereby depositors demand their cash en masse. Michael Hsu, the acting comptroller of the currency, told Bloomberg:

“We want to make sure that banks have enough resources to meet any kind of outflows within five days — especially those related to uninsured deposits. It’s almost like doing a fire drill. If it’s required, when a real liquidity fire comes, then the banks can do it in real life. Operationally, banks would have to go borrow $1, $100 million, whatever it might be, just to ensure that the procedures, the systems, the people, everything is there and in place to access the discount window.”

The discount window is a central bank lending facility that allows banks to access funding if they face liquidity risks. So, even if a JPMorgan Chase or Bank of America does not have any challenges, it will be forced to borrow to make sure nobody’s feelings are hurt. Unless the Fed reduces costs, however, banks will end up losing money in the scheme, as today’s Fed interest rate is more than 5%, higher than the market rate. That’s because the discount window was supposed to be a last resort option – though now it will likely become the first port of call.

The banking sector is no longer a free-market system. But if the Fed and the rest of the US government are already prepared to bail out institutions, was the industry ever? If the marketplace is supposed to send signals to everyone about a prospering or failing firm, this policy proposal might be another glove to cover the invisible hand. Now that everyone is treated equally, from the strong to the weak, nobody will ever know anything.

The Coming Q4 Data

The fourth-quarter GDP data are coming! The fourth-quarter GDP data are coming! The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) will publish the October-December gross domestic product numbers on Jan. 25. Economists anticipate that the report will show a growth rate of at least 2%, and the Atlanta Fed Bank’s GDPNow model estimate points to a 2.4% reading.

Once again, the economy will have averted a recession, thanks to debt-laden consumers and politicians ready to exploit taxpayer dollars. Remember, in the third quarter, government spending fueled about one-third of the expansion. The public can expect comparable numbers from the BEA.

As always, the business media, political pundits, and public officials will concentrate on the headline figures while ignoring the stuff underneath the hood. Still, the White House will laugh at all the naysayers who anticipated a downturn in an environment of high inflation, soaring borrowing costs, and a marketplace drowning in red ink. Who can blame anyone for dismissing the economic observers calling for a recession beginning in the first quarter?

Don’t worry, though. Perhaps if consumption slows down, the federal government, like the central bank, can force consumers to take out emergency loans to stimulate the economy.

Trudeau’s Basic Income Scheme

Cynics have warned that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will unveil a basic income scheme ahead of next year’s election. Since Trudeaumania 2.0 is fading into the sunset and losing support, political pessimists believe the incumbent will attempt to resurrect his brand by handing out free money to all of Canada.

Legislatively, it is already in the making. The country’s Senate is examining Ontario Sen. Kim Pate’s Bill S-233, which aims to establish a national framework to offer everyone over 17 access to a “guaranteed livable basic income.” This would include permanent residents, refugee claimants, and temporary workers. Contrary to social media, the legislation does not install a basic income program but would require Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to partner with the provinces and territories to outline a path to implementing the public policy.

So far, nobody has taken a clear position, with Liberals, Conservatives, and New Democrats providing a wide range of opinions. But for the Tories, it was concerning that Conservative Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman said last year that a universal basic income is coming and is a conservative concept. Yikes. But it is not all land of burnt Double-Doubles and subzero temperatures as Kevin Milligan, an economics professor at the University of British Columbia, told the National Post: “No government could afford it. Any government who was wise would see that this is not a good way to work on the important issues of poverty.”

Indeed, the national debt in the Great White North is around $1.5 trillion, Ottawa is running an annual budget deficit of approximately $40 billion, and the federal and provincial governments will spend about $69 billion a year on interest payments. Not to mention, the country is experiencing a cost-of-living crisis – from out-of-control housing prices to rocketing food inflation.

 

Read More From Andrew Moran

Ignorance Breeds Complacency, Complacency Breeds Tyranny

Time and Truth Are on the Same Side, and Conspiracies Are Real

By Rich Kozlovich 

Biden is an idiot, his family is steeped in crime right up to their eyeballs, and the more Trump is attacked, the better he looks.  Another indictment and the nation may just anoint him as King Donald the First.  For a start, here's an excellent thought for the day.  I don’t remember who said this, but it’s a goodie. 

"Anyone who believes that politicians and bureaucrats who can't define what a woman is, who can't control the border, can't tell the truth about COVID, who can't teach children to read and do math at grade level, and who lied continuously about Obamacare can control temperatures, sea levels, and storm activity should make sure they never have to debate a five-year-old."

I've been a history buff for all of my life, and I concluded decades ago, everything is cyclical!  I read George Friedman's book,  "Storm Before Calm", which deals with this very well.   Recently I read, "The Fourth Turning", which also deals with historical cycles.  Complicated book, complicated verbiage, entirely too long, way too wordy, which seem to me fails in “coherence through connectives”, a fundamental when it comes to writing and speaking if you really want people to understand what you’re saying. 

Reading it is a challenge.  At this point it seems to be as much mystical as historical in its projections, and yet, the book has some interesting insights claiming among other things, we're in what he calls the Fourth Turning of the current cycle.  Actually, I agree with that.  While I do question his time lines, which seems to do some cherry picking, however, in his analyses every cycle has what he calls a Fourth Turning, and each of those “turnings” were crisis periods, and historically, his fourth turnings have always been conclusively violent.  I fear this is going to happen with, or in, America within the next ten years.  Probably less, especially events surrounding this election, as Im expecting to see massive riots before and after the election, the recent events in Portland is in my opinion a harbinger of things to come. 

China's military buildup has been financed by American trade, and now as a result, there are ten ways the US is falling behind China in national security.  That build up is intended to destroy America.  

Hypersonic missiles, fleet size, air defense, manufacturing, technology, much of which they've stolen, mining for rare earths, gray zone altercations.  Gray zone altercations are non-shooting military intimidation tactics they regularly play with their neighbors.  In short, they're bullies, and don't care if anyone likes it or not. Then there’s their excursions into space, cyber operations, and artificial intelligence. 

But America's military is not to be outdone.  Noooo, we have a Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, "a man of incredible vision" who has clearly identified the military’s real problems undermining America's military readiness and capability.  

The twin crises of white supremacy and gender.

We can't keep our subs repaired, recruitment is in the toilet, he kicked out many highly qualified men over their refusal to take "the shot", many combat aircraft are permanently on the ground, and the generals and admirals are all members of the Church of Wokeness and are committed to DEI mandates, which has proven disastrous in our schools, and our businesses, why would it be any better in our military?  The incompetence and corruption of the officer corp is mind boggling. 

But hey, we gotta have our priorities.  Right?

The unending political persecution of  Donald Trump by the corrupt Deep State and the Democrat party is blatantly Stalinist.   While I can acknowledge the contributions of Thomas Jefferson, I'm not a big fan.  But he was brilliant as he once observed:

All the powers of government, legislative, executive, and judiciary, result to the legislative body. The concentrating these in the same hands is precisely the definition of despotic government. It will be no alleviation that these powers will be exercised by a plurality of hands, and not by a single one. 173 despots would surely be as oppressive as one. 

An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one which should not only be founded on free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among several bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits, without being effectually checked and restrained by the others. Nor should our assembly be deluded by the integrity of their own purposes, and conclude that these unlimited powers will never be abused, because themselves are not disposed to abuse them.

They should look forward to a time, and that not a distant one, when corruption in this, as in the country from which we derive our origin, will have seized the heads of government, and be spread by them through the body of the people…. Jefferson warned that relatively soon, “corruption” will have seized the heads of government” and “spread by them” through the “body of the people” — also known as…Congress.

How was Jefferson able to see this so clearly?   He read a history book or two, and there's nothing new under the sun. 

The fact is, what he warned about started happening not too long after the Constitution was ratified with the Whiskey Tax of 1791.  A tax which was clearly unequal, unfair, violated states’ rights, culminating with a greater violation of states’ rights with Washington leading an army into Pennsylvania to put down the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794.   It all merely expanded to what we're seeing. We now call it Crony Capitalism. 

This tax was promoted by then Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, and was directly beneficial to the whiskey distillers in the major metropolitan areas.  The Constitution had just been ratified in 1787, a mere four years before, and Hamilton wanted to solidify support for the Constitution from the business community.   Hamilton was strong advocate of strong centralized federal power over republicanism and states’ rights, and Washington never made any effort to thwart this.  Washington was lauded by Congress for this action, and those who supported his venture claimed he once again saved the nation, and this time from a challenge to federal authority by the people. 

Jefferson rightly recognized if for what it was.  Washington's call for troops to put down this rebellion was in point of fact an abuse of Presidential power and authority, a veiled threat to the citizens of the nation, and a threat to republican ideals. While I do think Washington deserves praise as the Father of Our Nation because of his personal courage, amazing leadership skills, and his willingness to walk away from power after two terms, I also think he's overrated, most certainly as a general, but also as a President.

Jefferson's administration repealed the Whiskey Tax.

Banks are cancelling the accounts of people who hold political views they don't like, investment companies are ignoring their fiduciary responsibilities to their investors in order to support ESG and DEI conceptualized companies, many of which are either under performing or outright failing.  But they have no problem with the insane leftist radicals that are destroying western culture and ultimately civilization.  

Heresy is rampant at the highest levels of "Christian" churches. Biden can't afford to build a border wall, yet he really wants to give Ukraine another unaccountable, untraceable 20 billion dollars, to one of, if not the most, corrupt governments in Europe, and the Deep State and an international elite are creating what's being called "a new normal".  An international tyranny that you had better like or else. A tyranny determined to destroy all Constitutional guarantees.

All of that has now become obvious.

In years gone by there was a lot of laughing and friendly banter between me and my friends over my claims about conspiracies.  Well, whaddayaknow. There really is such a thing as a conspiracy after all, and they're not laughing any longer. 

Just like Jefferson, I read a history book...or two...., and there's nothing new under the sun. 

Nigel Farage Debanked over Ties to Donald Trump and for Expressing Conservative Views, Bank Docs Show

Kurt Zindulka19 Jul 2023

Nigel ‘Mr Brexit’ Farage had his bank account shut down as a result of his ties to former President Donald Trump, tennis star Novak Djokovic, seemingly spurious accusations of ties to Russia, and his positions on Brexit, vaccines, LGBT issues, and others which were deemed by Coutts bank to “not align with our values”.  Contrary to reports in the BBC and the Financial Times, in which an unnamed Coutts bank source claimed that Nigel Farage had fallen below a financial threshold to maintain his account, a subject access request filed by the Brexit leader shows that the main motivation was actually political in nature.

A 40-page document produced by the bank and provided to Mr Farage and The Daily Telegraph showed that the bank acknowledged multiple times that he fulfilled the “economic contribution criteria for commercial retention”, meaning that it was not for lack of funds that his account was shut down.

In the document, the bank was shown to have decided in November of last year that it did not believe that continuing to bank with Mr Farage was “compatible with Coutts given his publicly-stated views that were at odds with our position as an inclusive organisation”. In an apparent attempt to cover their tracks, the bank claimed that it was not a “political decision but one centred around inclusivity and purpose.”

One such infringement of the bank’s stance on “inclusivity” was apparently his longstanding friendship with former President Donald Trump, who is mentioned 39 times in the bank’s dossier on Mr Farage. “The fact that I support Donald Trump is part of this charge sheet,” Farage said.   Coutts also cited his friendship with Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic as evidence of him not being “inclusive”, presumably over the 23-time Grand Slam winner’s refusal to take the coronavirus vaccine............. To Read More....  

Update 10:21 AM:   UK: Banks could lose licenses under new rules cracking down on customer discrimination over political views - Jul 21, 2023 8:00 am By Christine Douglass-Williams 4 Comments - This is a precedent-setting move that we hope other nations will emulate. “After Nigel Farage’s banks accounts were closed by Coutts because his views ‘did not align with’ the bank’s values….senior conservative MPs have put pressure on Coutts,” and reports indicate that “ministers are considering making free speech protections a condition of permits.” This puts banks at the risk of “losing their licences if they close accounts because they disagree with the customer’s political opinions under plans to protect free speech.” It’s about time. It isn’t only woke governments that are acting in a totalitarian fashion. Businesses have joined in. Far too many businesses today have become activist arbitrators of public views, Reuters also reported:.........

The ESG pushback is on!

By Craig Rucker, President of CFACT

ESG, or "Environmental, Social and Governance" investing, is a pernicious left-wing tactic designed to achieve policy goals that cannot pass legislatures by distorting investment decisions.

ESG represents not only a sneaky false flag means of forcing policy decisions, but a real threat to investors large and small.

ESG may have already contributed to the insolvency of Silicon Valley Bank, which carried a portfolio high in investments made, not for the likelihood of achieving solid returns, but to curry favor with the "woke" mob.

Here are three points I made during my testimony at a North Dakota Senate hearing this week (full submission at CFACT.org) that apply equally to every state:

• ESG is not concerned with advancing the economic interests of North Dakotans. Instead, it is a top-down, elitist inspired effort reflecting the interests and priorities of multibillionaires and internationalists.
• ESG is random with its ratings, it's not applied fairly, and it empowers Americas adversaries – notably China.
• It simply doesn't work. ESG investing is not getting the returns it promised investors, nor is it changing the world for the better. In fact, it's doing the opposite!

Governor Ron DeSantis announced legislation to protect Floridians from ESG which he stated "builds on my commitment to protect consumers' investments and their ability to access financial services in the Free State of Florida," said Governor Ron DeSantis. "By applying arbitrary ESG financial metrics that serve no one except the companies that created them, elites are circumventing the ballot box to implement a radical ideological agenda. Through this legislation, we will protect the investments of Floridians and the ability of Floridians to participate in the economy."

"We will not stand idly by as the stability of our country's economy is threatened by woke executives who put their political agenda ahead of their client's finances, "DeSantis said.  

The Washington Examiner reports that DeSantis will form an anti-ESG alliance "with Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming."

These states are expected, in addition to other measures, to forbid their pension funds from abandoning sound business practice in pursuit of ESG.

The life savings of pensioners, and every one of us engaged in "the pursuit of happiness" in America, are not fair game for left-wing social engineering.

For nature and people too.

Senate Industry and Business Public Hearing
Submission of Craig Rucker
Read the facts at CFACT.org

Governor Ron DeSantis Announces Legislation
to Protect Floridians from the Woke ESG Financial Scam
Read the full press release at CFACT.org

DeSantis to unveil alliance with 18 states
to combat Biden's 'woke' ESG agenda
Read the facts at the Washington Examiner

Bank Crashes Are Coming

By Rich Kozlovich

First, I've met Stephen Moore, and admire him tremendously, because I think he's brilliant and for the same reason I think Thomas Sowell is brilliant. They take complex issues and explain them in such a way anyone can understand them. 

He's featured in this first piece being interviewed by Harris Faulkner.  He makes it clear this whole mess falls on Biden and Democrat spending and borrowing policies.  Just as the collapse in 2008 was the fault of Jimmy Carter and the passed thirty years before, this is entirely their fault.  Not to mention their pandemic policies which have caused credit card debt to soar, car debt is piling up, and Americans are struggling to make the payments. 

Now interest rates on housing are going up, and at some point, this will all to come to fruition in a very negative way in the very near future, and Joe Biden wants pass another massive 6.5 trillion dollar budget.  Elections have consequences; stolen elections have catastrophes!

The second piece is by Jeffrey Tucker, another brilliant writer, and I might add both Stephan and Jeffrey have given me permission to publish their work. 

Normally, I don't do commentaries on arcane economic issues, because they're too complex, and I'm out of my depth with so much of this stuff.  This article, which is listed below is an example.  Statistics, charts, and arcane economic policies, principles, and government rules make my eyes roll back into my head, so I post and quote those who do understand what's going on, and shocking as it may seem, they not only understand all the rhetoric and jargon, they seem to like it. Imagine that!  However, that presents a problem. Who to trust?  

When it comes to understanding economics, I think there are three areas in which I consider my strengths.  Logic, correlation, and history.   I do write about consequences regarding stupid economics, and all those are based of too much spending, too much taxation, too many regulations, too much waste and entirely too much corruption, none of which is being fixed.  But in the end there are consequences for all that, and in the end the result can't be hidden.  In the end, everyone understands they're suffering as a result of these insane policies.  All of which is what we're seeing here, and what we're seeing is a pattern that's played out over and over again. 

This list of links deals with who's responsible, who's corrupt, what should be done, both sides represented here, and where this is going.  I will say this.  This bank was manned by left wing DEI lunatics with so little understanding of economics and banking it boggles the mind.  

What in the world could possibly make them think donating over $73 Million dollars of their customer's money to Black Lives Matter, a corrupt leftist Marxist movement trying to destroy capitalism and America, was good for their economic future, or for the nation?  

ESG is a loser, and it's been shown to be a loser as it focuses on leftist environment and racial justice insanity instead of profitability, which is their legal fiduciary responsibility. This bank was doomed, this just brought it to a head faster, and in my opinion, the only thing that needs answering is who's going to jail over this?  

And since Barney Frank was on their board, I hope Barney Frank is one of them. 

Stephen Moore: SVB Happened Because of 'Massive Inflation' and 'Trillions' Borrowed by Federal Govt -Economist Stephen Moore, a co-founder of the Club for Growth and former adviser to President Donald Trump, said the reason the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed is because of the "massive inflation" fueled by the Biden administration's spending and the "trillions and trillions of dollars of borrowing that the federal government has done." Moore made his remarks on the Fox News Channel, March 13, hosted by Harris Faulkner. When asked what went wrong with SVB in California and Signature Bank in New York, Moore replied, "By the way, I agree with the president that we don't have an overall banking crisis. The system is sound. But I do think you have a lot of major banks that are in some trouble. And SVB, the Silicon Valley Bank, may just be the tip of the iceberg here."............

Anatomy of the Banking Crisis of 2023, By Jeffrey A. Tucker -For three years, I’ve been amazed at the relative calm in the financial system. It truly did not seem believable to me that governments and central banks could utterly shatter all market functioning and flood the world with paper money and yet there be no structural consequences for the banks. My only question was what would be the trigger and how would it unfold.  In retrospect, the whole thing is perfectly obvious.  Between the first week of March 2020 and exactly two years later, the Federal Reserve printed $6.5 trillion, at some point reaching a per annum increase of 26 percent. We’ve never experienced anything like this before. It also represented a complete reversal of Fed policy, which had been attempting a tightening for the prior six months........ Instead of calming markets, the Biden promise made it even worse. Everyone wanted to know just how sound the system really is. And the markets began to eye these bank valuations with grave skepticism. Suddenly everything was in question................

Federal Reserve’s Bank Rescue Could Inject $2 Trillion of Liquidity, Raising Inflation Concerns, - Strategists at JPMorgan Chase predict that the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending program to bolster stressed banks could inject as much as $2 trillion into the U.S. banking system, with some analysts raising concerns that the program could fuel inflation or boost moral hazard. Following the abrupt failures of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank, the Federal Reserve rolled out an emergency funding mechanism called the Bank Term Funding Program to ensure banks ample have access to cash to meet depositor demand. “The usage of the Fed’s Bank Term Funding Program is likely to be big,” JPMorgan strategists wrote in a client note Wednesday.The strategists said that the maximum usage for the emergency lending facility is close to $2 trillion. They said it would be able to provide the U.S. banking system with enough funds to reduce reserve scarcity and reverse the central bank’s recent tightening of financial conditions. ..............

Failed SVB Gave Black Lives Matter over $73 Million, Joel B. Pollak, 15 Mar 2023 - Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), whose collapse last week has triggered a global banking crisis, donated over $73 million to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement — but found itself unable to pay depositors in a cash crunch.  As Breitbart News reported last week, SVB’s donations were part of nearly $83 billion that the Black Lives Matter movement received from corporate America, as documented by a Claremont Institute database:........It is unclear what BLM did with the money............

Are We Headed Toward Central Government Control of America’s Banks?, by Patricia Anthone | Mar 15, 2023 - The narrative about this excessive intervention paints a picture of the Biden Administration’s swift and deft stewardship saving us all from a collapse of the banking sector. The opposite is true. In fact, in their zeal to score political points while preventing losses among their donors, the administration actually planted unjustified seeds of doubt about the state of the nation’s banks…....

Central Bank Digital Currency Is the Truth Behind the Banking Collapse, by Tom Renz, Esq. | Mar 15, 2023- The Tom Renz Show – The bank bailouts from the feds will ensure that inflation continues to spiral out of control for the next few years. When the feds step in and say they will insure all of the accounts, it means they will be printing a monumental amount of money. This will result in inflation on a scale we’ve never even come close to in the past. The feds are totally ok with printing a ton of money as it will crash the economy quickly and effectively so they can usher in CBDC…..

Banking Failures Are a Harbinger of Our Pending Economic Crisis, by Wallace Garneau | Mar 14, 2023 - Some of the biggest investment houses in the world are putting DIE and ESG ahead of business performance, investing our 401k and pension funds in companies that, like SVB, are focused on DIE and ESG, and hiring leadership teams who are also focused on DIE and ESG rather than hiring people based on competence. All of this creates a…........

 How DIE kills the American Dream, By M.B. Mathews - DIE (Diversity, Inclusion, Equity) is the cause du jour of the American hard left in its quest to destroy capitalism.  DIE is the practice of elevating the meritless or those of lesser merit above the truly accomplished.  This is done according to race; people of color (PoC) are given preferential (or exclusive) access to jobs, positions, and rewards.  Those who actually work hard and succeed are left twisting in the wind for having the wrong color skin.  All this has nothing to do with merit, but with getting even with those who have done nothing wrong to get even about...........

Incredulous: leftwing reporter wonders ‘what the hell’ a ‘woke bank’ is, -  A huge shout out to Whizy Kim at Vox, who just inadvertently validated what conservatives have been saying all along: leftism begets catastrophe. Andy Kessler of The Wall Street Journal recently speculated that maybe, just maybe, Silicon Valley Bank “may have been distracted by diversity demands.” (You can find the bank’s “wokesterly profile” by Monica Showalter here.) That speculation was enough to send Vox writer Kim into a tizzy, and yesterday, the outlet released her article inquiring as to “what the hell” a “woke bank” was........Kim dismissed the idea that “woke” policies could affect profits and sound financial decisions, declaring “woke” nothing more than the “favorite boogeyman” of conservatives; she even included a quote from an SVB patron who, in response to Kessler’s postulation said:.............

'That's a Lie': Janet Yellen Faces Grilling Before Senate Finance CommitteeSpencer Brown  |  March 16, 2023 - Biden Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen appeared before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday morning and things did not go well as she tried to explain the Biden administration's "not a bailout" bailout of two failed banks in the last week, why she claimed inflation was "transitory" earlier in the cost crisis, and why the Biden administration is refusing to negotiate with Republicans to raise the debt ceiling. ............

SVB, ESG, and Biden’s ERISA Rule - The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) occurred just days after Congress passed the Braun-Barr resolution, which overturns the Biden administration’s “Prudence and Loyalty” rule and its encouragement of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing by pension managers under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The timing could hardly be more instructive. The Prudence and Loyalty rule, the White House had recently argued in its defense, “reflects what successful marketplace investors already know—there is an extensive body of evidence that environmental, social, and governance factors can have material impacts on certain markets, industries, and companies.”.............

Is This Why Gavin Newsom Wanted SVB to Get Bailed Out?- California Gov. Gavin Newsom was in contact with the “highest levels of leadership at the White House and Treasury” after the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank and cheered its bailout, but failed to mention his own interests in the decision. .........According to The Intercept, however, Newsom failed to disclose his own financial interest, as at least three of his wineries—CADE, Odette, and PlumpJack—are clients of SVB, and that the charity his wife founded, California Partners Project, received a $100,000 donation from SVB in 2021, at the request of her husband..........

SVB Hired Major Biden Donor to Help its “Liquidity Crisis”, By Daniel Greenfield March 16, 2023 - And he talked to Biden’s deputy treasury secretary. It helps to know the right people. And Silicon Valley Bank had hired someone close to the ‘Big Guy’. The New York Times story, “How Washington Decided to Rescue Silicon Valley Bank’s Depositors” is a bit vague about who Blair Effron is.  ....Let’s go back to 2019 and the Democrat primaries to understand Effron’s place in Bidenworld......

SD Gov. Kristi Noem: Federal Government Should Not Bail Out Depositors of ‘Woke’ Regional Banks, Melanie Arter March 15, 2023 - South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said Tuesday that it’s not the role of government to bail out depositors of regional banks pushing woke agenda.  When asked whether the federal government should bail out “the depositors of regional banks when they go woke and then go broke,” Noem said, “No. That is not the role of the government and certainly not when it comes down to all of this happening because of poor management.  “Listen, Jesse, we have seen this going on for quite some time, not just in these two banks and their situation, but we have also seen ESG policies happen in different states and at the federal government level where they are pushing this woke liberal agenda and they are deciding who can do business and who can't do business,” she told Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime.”.........

GOP Presidential Candidate Ramaswamy: 'Let SVB Fail,' a Govt Bailout is 'Crony Capitalism,  Michael W. Chapman | March 13, 2023 -Commenting on the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Vivek Ramaswamy, a highly successful asset management chairman, best selling author, and GOP presidential candidate, said the bank should not be bailed out by the government but should be allowed to fail, "if needed." Bailing out SVB is nothing more than "crony capitalism," he added, noting that we saw all this happen before with the bank bailouts in 2008. ............

Silicon Valley Bank: Bespoke, Woke, and Restoked?, Peter C. Earle  – March 13, 2023- As these things tend to, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has given rise to a host of wide-ranging discussions. Again comes a long weekend of fear and conjecture, so familiar to anyone remembering Lehman weekend, the guiding of Bear Stearns into JP Morgan’s commercial embrace, airlines dropping like flies after September 11, jitters over the fate of Long-Term Capital Management in September of 1998, and so many others. And yet, by the time I was just finishing this writing, the situation had (at least temporarily) abated.  Let’s start at the beginning. What happened?..............

No, ESG Doesn’t Offer Investors More Choices, nor Is It Part of the Free Market, by Jack McPherrin March 13, 2023 - On Feb. 28, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote an impassioned appeal in The Wall Street Journal for Republicans to support environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores because ESG ostensibly represents the free market at work, by offering investors more “choices.”  Schumer appears to be deeply confused about how ESG operates. Or, more likely, he’s pandering to his powerful donors; pro-ESG asset management titan BlackRock reportedly donated more than $100,000 to Schumer’s reelection campaign in 2022.   Whatever the case may be, in reality, ESG results in the complete opposite of what Schumer claims.........It blatantly attempts to fundamentally transform the economy by severely altering traditional methods of assessing risk and allocating capital and credit.......

Climate Activist Companies at Risk After Svb Collapse, Bank Was Vital to ‘Climate-Tech Sector’, by The Post Millennial March 13, 2023 -Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on Friday and following its seizure by regulators with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) it has been revealed that the bank was vital to the "climate-tech sector," in addition to it being heavily used by.............c

Swiss Central Bank Steps in to Backstop Credit Suisse Amid Financial Collapse – The Larger Geopolitical Dynamic is Clear - March 16, 2023 Sundance - Before getting to the details of the Credit Suisse issue, it is worth taking a bigger geopolitical context to the dynamic.  The initial backstop sought by Credit Suisse was from the Saudi National Bank; however, SNB Chairman Ammar Abdul Wahed Al Khudairy refused more lending .This is where we need to keep the BRICS -vs- WEF dynamic in mind and consider that ideologically there is a conflict between the current agenda of the ‘western financial system’ (climate change) and the traditional energy developers.  This conflict has been playing out not only in the energy sector, but also the dynamic of support for Russia (an OPEC+ member) against the western sanction regime.  Ultimately supporting Russia’s battle against NATO encroachments........

PayPal is Reportedly Bribing Users $15 in a Desperate Move to Stop Them from Closing their Accounts

By Jim Hoft October 13, 2022 813 Comments

PayPal is reportedly bribing $15 worth of vouchers to account holders to prevent them from canceling their accounts, that only tells you how bad the situation is.  The Gateway Pundit reported that PayPal will begin fining users $2,500 directly from their accounts if they are found to be spreading “misinformation” in its newly updated policy. Starting November 3, 2022, PayPal is expanding the existing list of prohibited activities to include the sending, posting, or publication of messages, content, or materials under its Acceptable Use Policy.

After major backlash, PayPal reversed course and said they will not be fining people $2,500 for spreading ‘misinformation.'..............Following the trend to boycott PayPal, some users were having a problem closing their accounts.  One user commented, “Endless hours chatting with the support here. Some people are able to close it in seconds. Others it takes weeks. Criminal.”.........The financial company is now reportedly bribing its users in a desperate move to prevent them from closing their accounts........To Read More....

My Take - One thing seems clear to me and that we're going to see legislation to put this to a stop, and I'm betting no one will like it when it happens, but these leftists are out of control and insane.  

Klaus Schwab's WEF Now Weaponizing Banking

Why do we call the Great Reset The BIG STEAL? It's because they will greedily confiscate everything the masses own and tell you that when you are left with diddly-squat, "you'll be happy"!

By Judi McLeod ——Bio and Archives--October 13, 2022

It’s not just happenstance that word bank and financial institutions are freezing the accounts of those who do not share the same political ideologies that they choose to live by.  The freezing of bank accounts comes directly from the BIG STEAL promoted by the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset, “You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy”.  In February, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau froze the bank accounts of thousands of truckers in the Freedom Convoy—and their supporters. At about the same time, Trudeau’s sidekick supporter Ontario Premier Doug Ford swooped in to confiscate the millions of dollars the public sent to GoFundMe and GiveSendGo for the protesting truckers.

 Three months later, when the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting took place May 22nd through 26th, in Davos, Switzerland,  50 heads of government and thousands of corporate, philanthropic, and scientific leaders were in attendance. (National Pulse, May 20, 2022)  Twenty-five American officials, including two White House representatives, and an additional 12 Democrat and 10 Republican politicians, accompanied them.  The panel discussions included”

• Economic Weaponry: Uses and Effectiveness of Sanctions,
• Safeguarding Global Scientific Collaboration,
• Blue Foods for a Sustainable Future,
• The Journey towards Racial Equity,

“Economic Weaponry” being the WEF’s latest weapon in the take-down-the-enemy arsenal...........To Read More....

When The Administrative State Slips Its Constitutional Bonds

January 20, 2022, Francis Menton @ Manhattan Contrarian

For the past few weeks, everybody’s attention has been focused on the looming demise of President Biden’s legislative agenda. Both the massive social spending bill (going by the Orwellian name “Build Back Better”) and the anti-voter-integrity bill, have now conclusively failed, at least in their most recent forms. A major part of the Build Back Better monstrosity was the launching of the Green New Deal, with its attendant suppression of the use of carbon-based fuels.

So, at least for now, these things are dead in Congress. But what’s happening over in the Administrative State? That’s where, in Woodrow Wilson’s progressive vision, the “experts” from various fields of endeavor have gathered in the government, unconstrained by the Constitution’s separation of powers, to make the all-important rules for a smoothly running society. Today there are hundreds of thousands of these “experts” in the bureaucracy. To a person, they appear to believe that the most pressing issue of our era is saving the world from U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide. How do they know that? Obviously, they know it because they are the “experts.”

Under what legislative authority do these “experts” operate to impose their green agenda? Excellent question. Barack Obama had a big plan for “cap and trade” legislation to lower emissions by driving up the price of all fossil fuels. (“Under my plan of a cap and trade system, the price of electricity will necessarily skyrocket.”). The legislation failed in Congress. Biden’s Green New Deal also has so far failed in Congress. There has been no relevant amendment to the Clean Air Act further empowering the bureaucracy to regulate carbon emissions since such emissions first became a progressive obsession in the early 2000s.

Clearly then, the bureaucracy must be stymied in its goal to effect a fundamental transformation of the U.S. energy system by suppressing production and use of fossil fuels, while they await Congressional authorization to proceed. If you think that is true, you do not understand the extent to which the Administrative State has slipped its constitutional bonds.

For today, let me highlight just a few of the initiatives currently emanating from the Administrative State.

Biden Executive Order 13990. On January 20, 2021 — his first day in office — President Biden issued this Executive Order. From Section 1:

Our Nation has an abiding commitment to empower our workers and communities; promote and protect our public health and the environment; and conserve our national treasures and monuments, places that secure our national memory. . . . In carrying out this charge, the Federal Government must be guided by the best science and be protected by processes that ensure the integrity of Federal decision-making. It is, therefore, the policy of my Administration to listen to the science; to improve public health and protect our environment; . . . to reduce greenhouse gas emissions . . . .

You might note the lack of citation to any particular statute that might support the implementation of those lofty goals. “Reducing greenhouse gas emissions” means wiping out our existing, functioning energy system with no idea what might replace it or at what cost.

Social Cost of Carbon. Among many other things, EO 13990 established something called the “Interagency Working Group” to put a price on all CO2 emissions, which price would then be used in any cost/benefit analyses or considerations of permits to proceed with any project that might involve emissions of CO2 (in other words, all projects, since all human activities involve emissions of CO2). From the EO:

There is hereby established an Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (the “Working Group”).  The Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Director of OMB, and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy  shall serve as Co-Chairs of the Working Group. . . . The Working Group shall also include the following other officers, or their designees:  the Secretary of the Treasury; the Secretary of the Interior; the Secretary of Agriculture; the Secretary of Commerce; the Secretary of Health and Human Services; the Secretary of Transportation; the Secretary of Energy; the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality; the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; the Assistant to the President and National Climate Advisor; and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council. . . . The Working Group shall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law: . . .  publish an interim SCC [Social Cost of Carbon] . . . within 30 days of the date of this order, . . . [and] publish a final SCC . . . by no later than January 2022.

The IWG was promptly established (or more accurately, re-established after a previous Obama administration version) and, right on schedule, came out with its interim “SCC” on February 21, 2021. The newly announced SCC is $51/ton of CO2 emissions — a level sufficient to undermine many if not all significant projects relying in any way on use of fossil fuels. From the National Law Review, June 24, 2021:

With the resetting of the SCC to a significant value, it will begin to again influence federal decision-making, and courts and states will also begin considering it in evaluating environmental impacts. Industry actors will need to pay close attention to how the new administration applies SCC and quickly adapt their activities accordingly.

But wait a minute: This is a regulation explicitly designed and intended to effect a complete transformation of the U.S. energy economy. Did the Congress ever so much as authorize the creation of the IWG, or so much as suggest the creation of a “SCC” for such a purpose? Some seventeen states have brought litigation in the Western District of Louisiana (Louisiana v. Biden, No. 21-CV-01074, available at the government’s PACER website) seeking to enjoin the use of the SCC. From the States’ opposition to the government’s motion to dismiss:

[T]hese [SCC] Estimates are perhaps the most significant regulatory action in American history—yet Defendants cannot cite one statute authorizing them. Indeed, to avoid public and judicial accountability, the Administration has resorted to creating a new agency [the IWG] out of whole cloth, avoiding notice and comment procedures, and reviving a discredited methodology to justify unprecedented burdens on State sovereignty and individual liberty. This is the very definition of an APA violation and ultra vires action.

Remarkably, the “experts” in the government have calculated their social “cost” of carbon as being something entirely negative, with exactly zero accounting for the fact that carbon-based energy provides us with positive benefits like electricity and transportation that are low cost and that work. In other words, people who have no idea whatsoever what they are doing claim the mantle of “expertise” to completely refashion the U.S. economy without any hint of authorization from Congress.

Federal Reserve. Compared to other agencies whose Congressional mandate may be somewhat ambiguous, the Fed actually has two clearly specified goals: price stability, and full employment. One might quibble that those two goals may not be fully compatible at all times. But at least Congress has explicitly said that those are the goals, and has not named any others. Suppression of fossil fuels? There is no Congressional authorization for that.

But last week President Biden nominated one Sarah Bloom Raskin to be the Fed Vice Chair for Supervision — in other words, the person at the Fed in charge of overseeing the function of regulating the banking system. Who is Sarah Bloom Raskin? She is a former Deputy Secretary of the Treasury (Obama administration) and a former member of the Fed Board of Governors. She has also been outspoken in her view that the banking regulatory function needs to be co-opted in the service of the climate agenda and suppression of fossil fuels. For example, in June 2020 she contributed a Foreword to a Report for an organization called Ceres (the “Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets”). Excerpt:

If we want to create a sustainable climate, we need to transition to a net-zero carbon economy. This transition is not going to happen without guidance. Financial markets, themselves, are not going to be the first responders to keep us from the threats posed by a climate emergency. We are learning this the hard way. Thankfully, in many countries central banks and other financial regulators know that when it comes to curbing the effects that climate risk will have on the economy, particularly the heightened chance that such risks will bring about economic catastrophe, leadership must exist and concerted action must be taken.

Do the Republicans in the Senate have any chance of blocking this crazed lunatic from getting into a position to wreak havoc on the economy? I doubt it. I would also have no doubt that all the hundreds of minions working under Ms. Raskin will be fully and unanimously on board with the program of blocking bank lending to the fossil fuel industries. Hey, it’s to save the planet! With such important goals before us, what kind of impediment is the mere Constitution? And anyway, any dissenters will be fired.

And believe me, the above are just a couple of many, many such unauthorized and unconstitutional initiatives going on around the bureaucracy in the effort to “save the planet.” Expect future posts on some of the more significant and crazy among them.

End Banking as We Know It?

Kenneth Kalczuk  – October 10, 2021 @ American Institute for Economic Research

 

Wouldn’t it be strange if the government director of an industry wanted to end that industry? Like if the Secretary of Education wanted to close schools, or if the Secretary of Agriculture hated farming?

The implications of President Biden’s recent nomination for the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Saule Omarova, reach far beyond “stricter financial rules.” In a forthcoming article for the Vanderbilt Law Review, Omarova expresses her desire to “end banking as we know it” by replacing all private bank deposits with central bank accounts. 

Omarova’s proposal, dubbed “FedAccounts,” would replace private deposits with central bank accounts as part of her larger plan to “democratize finance.” However, such a restructuring would result in greater authority in the hands of unelected officials and an overall loss of financial privacy with no guarantees of greater policy effectiveness. 

Endless Restructuring and Reallocation

On September 23rd, 2021, President Biden announced his intent to nominate Cornell Law Professor Saule Omarova as the next Comptroller of the Currency. As Comptroller, Omarova would head the Office of the OCC, which regulates and supervises all national banks. Omarova is an ardent critic of both the current banking system and cryptocurrencies. Her forthcoming article “The People’s Ledger: How to Democratize Money and Finance the Economy” pushes for “more equitable and inclusive modes of finance” through the issuance of a Central Bank Digital Currency and the creation of a National Investment Authority (a modern-day equivalent of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.)

Yet, perhaps most jarring is Omarova’s advocacy for an “ultimate end-state,” where FedAccounts fully replace private bank accounts. The proposal comes as a part of Omarova’s plan to restructure the Fed’s entire balance sheet into “the People’s Ledger.” Combined with an expansion of the Fed’s liabilities with FedAccounts, the People’s Ledger involves a corresponding expansion of its assets to include new types of securities and loans. Simply put, the People’s Ledger is presented as Omarova’s plan to expand and restructure the Fed’s balance sheet to restore the public-private balance in the financial system.

Under the People’s Ledger, Omarova stresses that access to financial services and resources would be democratized and the financial system would be in a better position to support productive economic activity. Attractive as this may seem, however, implementing the People’s Ledger would cause more harm than good. 

Effective FedAccounts?

Omarova embraces an expanded balance sheet and a more interventionist regime as crucial to Fed efficiency. Such enhancements, however, are not necessary to achieve more effective monetary policy.

The Fed’s pre-2008 corridor system serves as an example of greater monetary effectiveness without such tradeoffs. Prior to 2008, the Fed managed interest rates and the money supply according to a corridor operating system. Whereas in the corridor operating system, the Fed primarily relied on open-market operations to achieve its interest rate target, under the current floor operating system, the Fed now relies on adjusting the interest rate it pays on reserves. As open market operations are rendered ineffective by the current floor system, the Fed can significantly expand its balance sheet without worrying about typical inflationary pressures.

The corridor system thus represents the possibility for effective monetary policy to be conducted without a dramatic expansion of the Fed’s balance sheet (the likes of which Omarova would find favorable), by ensuring that open-market operations will have a substantial impact on the federal funds rate. It is the substantive track record of the corridor system that ultimately demonstrates an alternative to the People’s Ledger.

The People’s Political Problems

Omarova recognizes how her plan for the People’s Ledger could raise questions regarding the Fed’s political independence. She argues that the Fed’s supposed neutrality is merely a veil that hides the fact that “central bankers’ investment choices have immense distributional consequences. However, instead of attempting to limit or reduce the Fed’s reach, Omarova doubles down by insisting that public policy priorities (e.g., job creation, combating climate change, and reducing racial inequities) be incorporated into the Fed’s operations.

Combined with the fundamental loss of privacy involved with the issuing of FedAccounts, Omarova’s plan for the People’s Ledger echoes the underlying distrust of the public (and religious reverence for experts), present in many proposals which claim to be based in “democracy” and “the public benefit.” Paradoxically, Omarova’s plan to “democratize” finance results in an overall loss of individual choice and financial autonomy for all of those who would prefer to remain unbanked or simply prefer the privacy offered to them under the current financial system.

Should Omarova be confirmed, her position as the head of the OCC would not allow her to adjust the operations of the Fed and establish the People’s Ledger. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize just how drastic the implications of her nomination are. Neutering private banking and reforming the entire financial system to align with public policy priorities are not normally floated by would-be financial regulators. Such ideas, instead, would seem to be an unfortunate side effect of politicians and regulators embracing politically driven policy making, and the never-ending search for interventionist panaceas.  

Omarova is right to point out the deficiencies in central banking. Nonetheless, ending traditional banking to fix central banking would be like closing schools to improve student retention.

There are easier ways forward.

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Kenneth Kalczuk

Kenneth Kalczuk is a recent graduate in economics from the Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University in Jupiter, Florida.

He is currently an intern at the American Institute for Economic Research where he works with senior research faculty to advance work on financial regulation, monetary policy, and the macroeconomic implications of public policy measures.

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