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The Collapse of CRE Debt is Accelerating

by Dave Kranzler
Investment Research Dynamics

The graphic above was sourced from @BankerWeimar. Powell once again earlier this month said that “bad commercial real estate loans will likely cause some bank failures but don’t pose a risk to the overall system.” Either he’s blind to reality or lying. Probably the latter. All we need now is for Powell to assure us that CRE loan defaults are “contained” a couple more times to confirm that a collapse is around the corner.

The CEO of a big investment fund (Fortress Investment Group) that has been buying CRE loans at prices ranging from 50 cents to 69 cents on the dollar said that about half of the maturing loans in CMBS securities (commercial mortgage back bond trust) are troubled. But it is going to get much worse. The CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald warned recently that there could be as much ast $1 trillion in commercial real estate defaults coming over the next two years. Moody’s estimates that 80% of CMBS office loans are at risk of default or restructuring this year.

Continue Reading at InvestmentResearchDynamics.com…

Everything You Think You Know About the Trump Appeals is Wrong with John Rubino

from Kerry Lutz's Financial Survival Network

Kerry and John Rubino offer their unique perspectives and engage in a comprehensive analysis of recent events surrounding former President Trump. They dissect a New York appeals court’s decision allowing Trump to post just $175 million to delay a staggering $464 million fraud judgment, offering insights into its implications on Trump’s financial and political landscape.

This ruling marks a significant reprieve for Trump, amidst mounting legal challenges and his potential bid for the 2024 presidency. Lutz and Rubino delve into the complexities of Trump’s legal battles, highlighting the challenges he faces in securing bonds and the broader implications on his financial stability. They scrutinize the intersection of law and politics, emphasizing the potential impact on public perception as Trump navigates his legal entanglements.

Moreover, they explore Trump’s response to the ruling, including his social media company’s imminent Nasdaq debut and his remarks critiquing President Biden and the New York attorney-general. Throughout the discussion, Lutz and Rubino provide nuanced insights into the multifaceted nature of Trump’s legal saga, emphasizing its implications on his future endeavors and the broader political landscape.

Click Here to Listen to the Audio

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Never Ever Forget

by Jeffrey Tucker
Daily Reckoning

Beware the Ides of March,” Shakespeare quotes the soothsayer’s warning Julius Caesar about what turned out to be an impending assassination on March 15.

The death of American liberty happened around the same time four years ago, when the orders went out from all levels of government to close all indoor and outdoor venues where people gather.

It was not quite a law and it was never voted on by anyone. Seemingly out of nowhere, people who the public had largely ignored, the public health bureaucrats, all united to tell the executives in charge — mayors, governors and the president — that the only way to deal with a respiratory virus was to scrap freedom and the Bill of Rights.

Continue Reading at DailyReckoning.com…

Wall Street’s Go-to Law Firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, Got in Bed with Crypto; Now Its Reputation is Being Hammered

by Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Wall Street on Parade

Since January, the reputation of Wall Street’s go-to law firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, has been repeatedly hammered. It all stems from the law firm’s decision some years ago to involve itself in legal representations of crypto firms and/or their principals – an industry that 1,600 of the brightest scientific minds in technology have called a sham.

On January 19, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals sharply rebuked the law firm’s position that it didn’t need an independent watchdog appointed by the U.S. Department of Justice to oversee the way it was handling the collapsed crypto house of frauds (known as FTX) in bankruptcy proceedings – despite it having significant conflicts of interests in the matter, such as previously providing legal representation to the mastermind of the fraud, Sam Bankman-Fried.

Continue Reading at WallStreetOnParade.com…

Why Was a CIA Man Selected to Oversee Stock Ownership & Settlement?

Now why would Wall Street place its most sensitive plumbing needs in the hands of a man whose prior work experience mainly included working for the arm of the CIA that busied itself with overthrowing foreign governments? That’s a darned good question. One which we’ll explore today because it concerns your ownership of ‘your’ stock & bond portfolio.

by Dr. Chris Martenson
Chris Martenson’s Peak Prosperity

Note: This is the sixth installment in our Great Taking Series.

You know what would be really weird? If it turned out that a CIA employee was tasked to oversee the overhaul of the most sensitive plumbing used by Wall Street.

Well, this is exactly what happened. The DTC (now DTCC) controls virtually every aspect of stocks and bond sales. A shadowy wholly-owned subsidiary, Cede & Co., technically owns 83% of all stocks and some very large and an undisclosed amount of bonds.

According to the DTCC website:

Continue Reading at PeakProsperity.com…

Inspired Idiot of the Week: Everyone Who Ruined the Sale of U.S. Steel

by James Hickman
Schiff Sovereign

On March 2, 1901, a group of prominent American businessmen, including J.P. Morgan, Charles Schwab and Andrew Carnegie, came together to form the largest business enterprise the world had ever seen.

Through the consolidation of Carnegie Steel Company along with several other steel and iron businesses, they formed US Steel.

And it was immediately the world’s first billion-dollar corporation.

But that was just the beginning. US Steel quickly became a symbol of American industrial might.

Continue Reading at SchiffSovereign.com…

California’s Latest Hustle: Utility Bills Based On Ratepayers’ Income

by Jane L. Johnson
Mises.org

Utility bills—for electricity, natural gas, water, and garbage—have by long-standing tradition been based on customer usage, measured in kilowatt-hours of electricity, therms or Btu of natural gas, hundred cubic feet of water, or number of garbage cans. Every residence and business has electric, gas, and water meters that measure utility usage.

But changes are afoot in the utility business as federal and state governments urge Americans to convert from fossil fuels to electricity for home heating, appliances, and transportation. From this transition will undoubtedly follow changes in utility rate-setting models.

Fixed Fees Coupled with Usage-Based Electricity Rates

Some electric utilities currently charge customers a flat, fixed fee as well as usage-based charges, both on the same monthly bill.

Continue Reading at Mises.org…

The Hoax of “Multiculturalism”

by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
LewRockwell.com

According to “Britannica,” multiculturalism is “the view that cultures, races, and ethnicities, particularly those of minority groups, deserve special acknowledgment of their differences within a dominant political culture. See this. In fact, “multiculturalism is a gigantic hoax. The people behind it, including brain-dead Biden and his gang of neocon controllers, want to impose a totalitarian tyranny on us, telling us whom we can and cannot associate with. If you are white, you have no rights; your “culture,” according to these forces of evil, doesn’t exist. If you oppose mass immigration, you are a vile racist.

According to the great black economist Walter Williams, writing in 2015, multiculturalism aims to destroy Christianity and Western civilization:

“President Barack Obama surprised many at the National Prayer Breakfast when he lectured us, “Lest we get on our high horse and think this (barbarity) is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.”

Continue Reading at LewRockwell.com…

Why Gold? Why Silver?

by Richard (Rick) Mills
Ahead of the Herd

Gold hit a record-high $2,200 an ounce Thursday, on expectations of interest rate cuts later this year.

[…] At its March meeting, the US Federal Reserve held its federal funds rate at 5.25 to 5.5%, and indicated it would slash interest rates three times (0.25% x 3 = 0.75%) in 2024 despite elevated inflation.

On Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said officials would like to see more evidence that prices are coming down, but “it’s still likely in most people’s view that we will achieve that confidence and there will be rate cuts,” he said.

Spot gold set a record $2,222.39 in the early hours of trading Thursday, before settling to $2,206.10 for a 10% gain. US gold futures soared 2.4% to $2,208.20.

Continue Reading at AheadOfTheHerd.com…

Felony Assaults On Subway Jump 53 Percent in Gun-Controlled, Democrat-Run NYC

by Awr Hawkins
Breitbart.com

Felony assaults on New York City subways jumped 53 percent during 2023 compared to the same type of assaults during 2019, according to statistics reported by the New York Post.

The Post noted there were 570 felony assaults reported in 2023, which is roughly 200 more than were reported in 2019.

Moreover, felony assaults resulting in “substantial injury” made up 25 percent of major crimes on NYC trains during 2023 whereas the same type of assaults with the same type of injuries constituted only 15 percent of major crimes on trains in 2019.

The Post pointed out that police and transit workers are not immune to the violence either: “100 cops and 60 transit employees were assaulted in the system in 2023; both figures were up sharply from 2019 when 71 cops and 32 transit employees were assaulted.”

Continue Reading at Breitbart.com…

Stop Your Car From Spying On You

Modern cars are smartphones on wheels, but with less protection for your data.

by J.D. Tuccille
Reason.com

Being proved right isn’t always fun. Just weeks after my warning in the March issue that our modern high-tech cars are tracking us and sharing data with manufacturers, cops, and parties unknown, came a report of soaring auto insurance premiums because of snitching vehicles. The consequences get worse from there. Fortunately, there are ways to keep your snoopy ride from contacting the mothership.

Your Driving History May Be Transmitted and Stored

“Car companies are collecting information directly from internet-connected vehicles for use by the insurance industry,” Kashmir Hill reported this month for The New York Times. “Sometimes this is happening with a driver’s awareness and consent…. But in other instances, something much sneakier has happened.”

Continue Reading at Reason.com…

The FBI’s Otherwise Illegal Activity

by Robert L. Kinney III
American Thinker

How deeply is law enforcement interfering in the daily lives of American citizens?

For example, it was recently reported that the FBI labeled Americans who “support the biological basis for sex and gender distinction as potential domestic terrorists.”

Then what? What does the FBI, and those who cooperate with the FBI, do to such Americans?

Does the FBI label FBI employees who support biology as potential terrorists? Or, is the FBI saying that no FBI employees support the biological basis for sex and gender distinction?

Continue Reading at AmericanThinker.com…

Michigan Offering Citizens $500 Per Month to House Illegal Immigrants

Refers to them as ‘Newcomers’

by Steve Watson
Modernity News

The state of Michigan is offering $500 per month to residents who agree to house illegal immigrants in their homes.

The so called ‘Newcomer Rental Subsidy‘ would provide the payment for up to a year for any homeowner willing to take part, equating to a total of $6000.

The state those says those eligible for the program include refugees, asylees, special immigration visa holders, victims of human trafficking, Cuban and Haitian entrants, Afghan nationals, and Ukrainian humanitarian parolees.

The program also states that illegals who have been processed as part of the ‘Family Reunification Parole Process’ from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Colombia, individuals with a pending asylum application, and other immigrant individuals on a case-by-case basis are also eligible.

Continue Reading at Modernity.News…

CV19 Vaxed and Unvaxed Need Treatment Now – Dr. Betsy Eads

by Greg Hunter
USA Watchdog

Dr. Betsy Eads warned about extreme disease and death coming because of the CV19 bioweapon/vax since the beginning of Covid from infection to injection. She warned about AIDS, infertility, turbo cancers, heart disease, blood clots and many other problems caused by the CV19 bioweapon injection. Dr. Eads was right every single time. Now, Dr. Eads is saying everyone needs treatment whether you are CV19 vaxed or unvaxed. Dr. Eads explains, “We are getting transmission from the vaxed to the unvaxed. We are getting chemtrails. They are putting the mRNA in our food. People have to understand, people need to detox and protect yourself whether you are vaxed or not. I contend everybody should be taking some Ivermectin.”

What about the so-called “Long Covid” that people are experiencing in the last few years? Dr. Eads says, “My definition of ‘Long Covid’ is vax injury and/or transmission from the spike protein . . . injured. I think that term has evolved, and Dr. Kory is also including that definition with his vaccine injured patients. He is treating not only vaccine injured patients but patients that have been injured by transmission from the CV19 vaxed. We know transmission (from the CV19 vaxed) is a real thing.”

Continue Reading at USAWatchdog.com…

Freedom of Speech Dead? German Businessman Fined €6,000 For Billboard Mocking Green Party Politicians

A businessman is facing a €6,000 fine for putting up a political banner on his own property mocking left-wing politicians.

by Denes Albert
Info Wars

A 52-year-old German entrepreneur has been fined for putting up a political billboard depicting Green party politicians in a negative light.

The billboard, which was erected in front of the house of German businessman Michael Much, mocked the top Green party heads. Green Party leader Ricarda Lang is pictured on a concrete roller, while Economics Minister Robert Habeck has empty pockets. Underneath the politicians is the slogan: “We’ll flatten everything.” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is also depicted as a little girl, a reference to her lack of foreign policy experience.

The poster also contains a widely mocked quote by Habeck, when he said: “Companies don’t go bankrupt, they just stop producing.” In response to this, the billboard asks provocatively: “Can he even count to three?”

Continue Reading at InfoWars.com…