The Financial Crisis continues...
FedNow will control all payment transactions in July... You better hope you're not on their naughty list.
House GOP passes bill to raise debt ceiling and cut spending; WH labeled it 'ransom'... House Republicans on Wednesday narrowly passed a bill to increase the nation's debt ceiling while cutting federal government spending -- and while the legislation has no prospect of becoming law, GOP leaders hope it will help force negotiations with Democrats. The proposal, known as the Limit, Save, Grow Act, passed 217-215, with four Republicans joining all Democrats in voting no.
‘Reckless’: Biden veto threat looms over GOP debt ceiling bill, White House says... The White House on Tuesday slammed a GOP proposal in the House to pair a debt limit increase with government spending cuts, vowing that President Biden would veto the measure if it made it to his desk. In a Statement of Administration Policy, the White House called the House Republican bill “a reckless attempt to extract extreme concessions as a condition for the United States simply paying the bills it has already incurred.” “The President has been clear that he will not accept such attempts at hostage-taking,” the White House said. “House Republicans must take default off the table and address the debt limit without demands and conditions, just as the Congress did three times during the prior Administration.”
Dow jumps 500 points on strong earnings, heads for best day since January: Live updates... Stocks rose Thursday, as strong results from Meta Platforms boosted tech-related names, and investors weighed the latest data on the U.S. economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 500 points, or 1.5%, on pace for the best day since Jan. 6. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.3%. The S&P 500 climbed 1.8%.
Argentina to pay for Chinese imports in yuan rather than dollars... Following Russia's announcement of Iran's & Argentina's BRICS membership bids, the alliance president reveals that Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, a NATO member, have the same plans
BRICS Draws Membership Bids From 19 Nations Before Summit (June 2-3, 2023)... Nineteen countries expressed an interest in joining the BRICS group of nations as it prepares to hold an annual summit in South Africa. The emerging-markets bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will meet in Cape Town on June 2-3 to discuss its enlargement, Anil Sooklal, South Africa’s ambassador to the group, said in an interview in the city on Monday. “What will be discussed is the expansion of BRICS and the modalities of how this will happen,” he said. “Thirteen countries have formally asked to join and another six have asked informally. We are getting applications to join every day.”
Visa Announces “Ambitious Crypto Product Roadmap”... One of the largest digital payment companies in the world has made clear its intention to drive the digital asset industry forward. Specifically, the Head of Crypto at Visa, Cuy Sheffield, has announced the company’s “ambitious crypto product roadmap” to aid the mainstream adoption of public blockchain networks.
Coinbase sues SEC after months of silence from federal regulator... Crypto exchange Coinbase filed suit against the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, asking that the regulator be forced to publicly share its answer to a months-old petition on whether it would allow the crypto industry to be regulated using existing SEC frameworks. The July 2022 petition asked that the SEC “propose and adopt rules to govern the regulation of securities that are offered and traded via digitally native methods,” referring to digital assets like cryptocurrencies.
Bankers’ pitch to save First Republic: Help us now, or pay more later when it fails... The best hope for avoiding a collapse of ailing lender First Republic hinges on how persuasive one group of bankers can be with another group of bankers. Advisors to First Republic will attempt to cajole the big U.S. banks who've already propped it up into doing one more favor, CNBC has learned. The pitch will go something like this, according to bankers with knowledge of the situation: Purchase bonds from First Republic at above-market rates for a total loss of a few billion dollars – or face roughly $30 billion in Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. fees when First Republic fails.
First Republic falls more than 40% to record low after reporting massive deposit drop... Shares of First Republic fell sharply and hit a record low Tuesday, as investors questioned how the bank would stabilize itself after losing about 40% of its deposits during the first quarter. First Republic’s stock fell more than 40% on Tuesday, extending its year-to-date losses beyond 90%. It hit a record intraday low at $8.27 per share.
EPI Company announces acquisitions, additional shareholders and the coming launch of its new instant payment solution... Building a unique, European-grown instant payment solution – The European Payments Initiative (EPI) welcomes four additional shareholders and announces two acquisitions. EPI Company today confirmed its planned acquisition of payment solution iDEAL and payment solutions provider Payconiq International (PQI). EPI, iDEAL and PQI will join forces to realise EPI’s vision to set up a new, innovative and unified payment solution for Europe. Currence iDEAL is the leading Dutch payment scheme, and PQI is a Luxemburg-based payment solutions provider that currently serves iDEAL in the Netherlands, Bancontact Payconiq Company in Belgium and Payconiq in Luxembourg. Agreement with the shareholders of these companies has been reached, and the acquisition is planned to go ahead, subject to approval by the competent national and European authorities. The EPI shareholders—BFCM, BNP Paribas, BPCE, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, DSGV, ING, KBC, La Banque Postale, Nexi, Société Générale and Worldline—by combining their expertise over the past two years, have proven their determination and ambition to build a solution that will ensure Europe’s payment sovereignty. They also welcome four new shareholders: Belfius and DZ Bank, who joined at the end of 2022, and ABN Amro and Rabobank, two more major Dutch banks, who are now coming on board alongside existing Dutch shareholder ING.
Zimbabwe to Introduce Gold-Backed Digital Currency: Sunday Mail... Zimbabwe will soon introduce a gold-backed digital currency meant to stabilize the local unit from its continued depreciation against the dollar, state-run Sunday Mail reported, citing central bank governor John Mangudya.
Stock Market Crash Alert: Mark Your Calendars for April 28 ... Investors are mentally preparing for the March personal consumption expenditures (PCE) report, due April 28. The inflation report may well represent the single-most important indicator of whether the Federal Reserve hikes rates for the tenth time this cycle. As always, the importance of the event means the potential for a stock market crash.
Ripple vs. SEC case ruling is imminent according to legal experts – Will we see ruling next week and XRP price explosion? Report ... Two years ago, the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs for allegedly selling unregistered securities. The ruling is expected to be announced any moment from now with both parties confident of victory. With all fingers crossed, pressure is said to have mounted on the United States Southern District Court of New York judge Analisa Torres as the decision could make or break the entire crypto ecosystem.
Money-Supply Growth Fell To A 50-Year Low In Feb. Will The Fed Panic?... Money supply growth fell again in February, falling even further into negative territory after turning negative in November 2022 for the first time in twenty-eight years. February's drop continues a steep downward trend from the unprecedented highs experienced during much of the past two years.
CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCY: Governments Willing to STARVE People into using it! ... For those of us who have been hearing about some new "Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)" but haven't paid much attention, THIS ought to get you focused. Government has already shown it is willing to FORCE YOU, and sometimes even STARVE YOU into using it! Nigeria implemented CBDC, but nobody wanted it. After a whole year only 0.5% of the population were using it. Soooooooo . . . . . Nigeria VOIDED all old paper currency, issued new paper currency BUT . . . . banks were only allowing citizens to withdraw . . . $44 a WEEK . . . . in the new paper currency. ATM's were deliberately left empty of the new paper currency.
A digital euro: widely available and easy to use... I am pleased to appear before this Committee again today as part of our series of hearings on the digital euro project. We are now entering the final stage of the investigation phase of the project. The ECB’s Governing Council recently endorsed a third set of design options for the digital euro – design options that we have also discussed in previous hearings. Today we are thus publishing a report setting out the Eurosystem’s views on how people could access, hold and start to use the digital euro. The report also examines how the digital euro could be distributed by intermediaries as well as the services and features it could offer.[1]
Sandman occurs OVERNIGHT All countries will overnight agree to not accept US Dollars for trade and will trigger a systemic global event. #XRP
