by James Rickards
Daily Reckoning
Archegos was not a household name until about two weeks ago when it made headlines all over the world.
Archegos Capital Management is a family office controlled by Bill Hwang, a former hedge fund trader. Family offices can be conservative in their investment approach, but they can also be as highly leveraged and as risky as any hedge fund, or even more so. It’s up to the person managing the family office.
In Hwang’s case, the money was mostly his own, so he ran his family office the way he used to run his hedge fund – with high leverage and almost no transparency. Hwang made huge bets in stocks, often buying as much as 10% of a company.
He avoided legal reporting requirements on positions of 5% or more because they were mostly held through complicated financial instruments called derivatives. Instead of actually owning the stock (which would require reporting), he bought equity swaps from big banks.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) on Monday sent a letter inviting Vice President Kamala Harris to tour the U.S. southern border.
The new chairman of Germany’s ruling CDU who may yet replace Angela Merkel as Chancellor has called for the nation to enter an even deeper lockdown, as it battles with low rates of vaccination and coronavirus ‘third wave’.
On March 24th, Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky signed what was essentially a declaration of war on Russia. In the document, titled Presidential Decree No. 117/2021, the US-backed Ukrainian leader declared that it is the official policy of Ukraine to take back Crimea from Russia.
China’s digital currency has left the testing stage and is set for a full rollout to the entire country and region. For some reason, the major media stories on the topic circle around the issue of Bitcoin, invented in 2009 as an alternative to government paper money.
In pitching his $2.25 trillion infrastructure spending proposal, President Joe Biden said last week that if the plan was passed, “the economy will create 19 million jobs—good jobs, blue collar jobs, jobs that pay well” over the next 10 years.
A wastewater reservoir in Florida is said to be on the verge of collapse. Should it actually collapse, the result would be a “catastrophic event.”
The UK’s ‘vaccine passport’ could be set to fail if it goes up for a vote in Parliament after reports that opposition party Labour would not support the policy.
As you read this article, Christians all around the world are facing absolutely horrific persecution. They are forced to work as slave labor in concentration camps in North Korea, they are being chased from their homes in some parts of India, they live in constant fear of Islamic terror attacks throughout vast stretches of Africa, and countless numbers of believers are suffering in secret brainwashing facilities in China right now. No group is more persecuted all over the globe than Christians are, but there is very little outrage in the western world about this. In fact, the corporate media will never tell you about most of the things that I am about to share with you. To the corporate media, Christians are the main enemy of “progress” in the western world, and so pointing out the brutal persecution of Christians all over the planet definitely does not suit their agenda.
The American Establishment is determined that Chauvin will not get a fair trial. Chauvin is the Establishment’s showpiece of white racism. The point that is being made is that the KKK is alive and well, only instead of a noose it is knee-on-neck. An unthinking and unaware Chauvin gave them the video that they needed.
So a single political party gains control of a lockdown-battered country desperate for any and all forms of government spending. Direct payments, loan forgiveness, infrastructure, all of these and more are not just possible, but popular. The president and his Congressional allies simply write the bills, pass them, and bask in the near-universal admiration of their generosity. In fact, the only real criticism comes from their own party’s left wing, which demands even higher spending, bigger deficits, and faster money printing. It’s like being a kid in a candy store.
When Texas Gov. Greg Abbott lifted most of his state’s remaining COVID-19 restrictions at the beginning of March, critics warned that he was inviting a public health disaster. President Joe Biden said Abbott’s changes, which among other things ended the state’s face mask mandate and allowed businesses to serve customers at full capacity, reflected “Neanderthal thinking.” Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, said the shift was “extraordinarily dangerous” and “will kill Texans.”