Month: March 2023

Authored by Brian Clark via Knowledge Leaders Capital blog,

The failures of Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and the current struggles of First Republic and Pacific West Bank have seen bank deposits flee to the perceived safety of large banks.

In the chart below, one can see the flight of deposits from small banks into large.

To make matters worse for banks, rising interest rates and easily accessible higher yielding alternatives exist like money market funds (MMF) or US Treasury ETFs.

These alternatives are now a few thumb taps and swipes away from depositors, making the near-zero rate of return on bank deposits much less attractive for many consumers and businesses.

In the chart below one can see the drop in bank deposits and increase in MMFs.

Here we can see the significant premium 3-month US Treasury yields command over bank certificates of deposit (CDs).

These issues, plus the new FedNow service which is set to begin trial runs in July, could represent an uphill battle for banks to retain deposits.

The Federal Reserve’s new FedNow program will allow bank customers at 10,000 financial institutions to instantaneously transfer funds in and out of bank accounts on a 24/7/365 basis. This is probably the biggest innovation since mobile banking and investment apps and will allow customers greater access to their money than ever before.

“We reiterate our view that FedNow will represent a material change in how consumers use electronic money,” said TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg in a recent Marketwatch report.

FedNow may accelerate the ability of depositors to remove money from banks accounts and reroute it to higher yield alternatives.

With banks under increasing pressure to stem outflows, these trends could add to their troubles, especially if banks are forced to sell even more assets which currently have unrealized losses.

The RESTRICT Act, introduced by Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Tom Thune (R-SD), is aimed at blocking or disrupting transactions and financial holdings linked to foreign adversaries that pose a risk to national security, however the language of the bill could be used to give the US government enormous power to punish free speech.

Warner, a longtime opponent of free speech who, as Michael Krieger pointed out in 2018 (and confirmed in the Twitter Files) pushed for the ‘weaponization’ of big tech, crafted the RESTRICT act to “ake swift action against technology companies suspected of cavorting with foreign governments and spies, to effectively vanish their products from shelves and app stores when the threat they pose gets too big to ignore,” according to Wired.

Bad actors listed in the bill are; China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela.

In reality, the RESTRICT Act has very little to do with TikTok and everything to do with controlling online content.

In very specific terms a lot of U.S. websites would be impacted.  Why?  Because a lot of websites use third-party ‘plug-ins’ or ‘widgets’ or software created in foreign countries to support the content on their site.  The “Restrict Act” gives the DNI the ability to tell a website using any “foreign content” or software; that might be engaged in platform communication the U.S Government views as against their interests; to shut down or face a criminal charge.   In very direct terms, the passage of SB686 would give the Dept of Commerce, DNI and DHS the ability to shut down what you are reading right now. This is a big deal. –The Last Refuge

The RESTRICT Act can also be used to punish people using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) if they’re used to access banned websites, and directs the Secretary of Commerce to “identify, deter, disrupt, prevent, prohibit, investigate, or otherwise mitigate” that which is deemed a national security risk associated with technology linked to the above countries.

Penalties include fines of up to $1 million or 20 years in prison, or both.

So what happens if you are designated a national security threat? What can they access of yours to confirm it? Everything.
Notice the preemptive attack on quantum encryption in there, too. pic.twitter.com/rXMY8v8lOI

— Mises Caucus (@LPMisesCaucus) March 26, 2023

More via Reason:

The language describing who the RESTRICT ACT applies to is confusing at best. The commerce secretary would be authorized to take steps to address risks posed by “any covered transaction by any person,” right? So what counts as a covered transaction? The bill states that this means “a transaction in which an entity described in subparagraph (B) has any interest.” Entities described in subparagraph B are a “foreign adversary; an entity subject to the jurisdiction of, or organized under the laws of, a foreign adversary; and an entity owned, directed, or controlled by” either of these. Foreign adversaries can be “any foreign government or regime” that the secretary deems a national security threat.

It’s a bit gobbledygooked, but this could be read to imply that “any person” using a VPN to access an app controlled by a “foreign adversary” or its alleged minions is subject to the secretary’s ire. Hence anyone using a VPN to access TikTok would be in trouble—specifically, subject to up to $1 million in fines, 20 years in prison, or both.

According to Warner’s office, however, the provisions only apply when someone is “engaged in ‘sabotage or subversion’ of communications technology in the U.S., causing ‘catastrophic effects’ on U.S. critical infrastructure, or ‘interfering in, or altering the result’ of a federal election in order for criminal penalties to apply,” and would target “companies like Kaspersky, Huawei and TikTok … not individual users.”

Except that the bill specifically says; “no person may cause or aid, abet, counsel, command, induce, procure, permit, or approve the doing of any act prohibited by, or the omission of any act required by any regulation, order, direction, mitigation measure, prohibition, or other authorization or directive issued under, this Act.”

So that was bullshit.

Tucker Carlson had a great recent segment on this featuring Glenn Greenwald.

Here are the Republicans supporting the RESTRICT Act.

• Sen. Thune, John [R-SD]
• Sen. Fischer, Deb [R-NE]
• Sen. Moran, Jerry [R-KS]
• Sen. Sullivan, Dan [R-AK]
• Sen. Collins, Susan M. [R-ME]
• Sen. Romney, Mitt [R-UT]
• Sen. Capito, Shelley Moore [R-WV]
• Sen. Cramer, Kevin [R-ND]
• Sen. Grassley, Chuck [R-IA]
• Sen. Tillis, Thomas [R-NC]
• Sen. Graham, Lindsey [R-SC]

And that’s really all you need to know…

Authored by J.M. Phelps via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A recent study by the University of California (UCLA) concluded that many drugs from Mexican pharmacies are laced with fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine. U.S. tourists are often the buyers of these pills, which include counterfeit replicas of Oxycodone, Percocet, and Adderall.

The UCLA-led study reported that two out of three (68 percent) pharmacies in four cities in northern Mexico had at least one controlled substance for sale without requiring a prescription. Prescriptions were also offered in bottles or individual pills.

Eleven pharmacies contain counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl, heroin, and/or methamphetamine. “Of 45 pill samples,” UCLA Health reported, “nine sold as Adderall contained methamphetamine, eight sold as Oxycodone had fentanyl, and three sold as Oxycodone contained heroin.”

The Epoch Times spoke to Derek Maltz, a former head of the Special Operations Division (SOD) of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). As the study suggested, he said, “One of the reasons why Mexican pharmacies attract buyers from America is because you don’t need a prescription, and they’re inexpensive.”

He further explained, “Some people think they can’t afford medicine here, and others can’t afford medical procedures.” As a result, many go to Mexico to make their drug purchases or get their procedures done at a more affordable rate.

“The trend of medical tourism—Americans traveling to Mexico for medical care because it’s cheaper—is now more dangerous than ever,” he said.

The UCLA study pointed out that a person could be led into thinking they’re receiving pharmaceutical-grade pills but could be receiving fake pills, Maltz said. “And this is more dangerous than I have the words to express,” he added.

“What if these pills make it into the medical offices where you’re having a procedure and are seeking pain relief?”

Maltz offered this warning: “You get what you pay for.” With that in mind, he said, “Rather than going to Mexico for inexpensive drugs or medical procedures, it would be smarter to spend a little extra money on this side of the border.

“Now, more than ever, dealing with a Mexican pharmacy is a terrible decision because it could kill you.”

Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin.

Deadly Doses

Jaime Puerta, president of the advocacy group Victims of Illicit Drugs, is alarmed by the growing number of deaths attributed to fentanyl. Up to 67 percent of drug overdoses or drug poisonings of over 100,000 people can involve synthetic opioids like fentanyl. He then told The Epoch Times about losing his 16-year-old son, Daniel, to fentanyl in 2020.

While he agreed with Maltz, he also added that “a lot of kids are going down to Mexico for spring break, and while they are down there, they could visit the local pharmacy to buy what they think is the Mexican equivalent to a drug they’re familiar with, but they could actually be buying a poison.”

While they could be trying to self-medicate a psychological issue or even a physical injury, Puerta said, “It’s not a gamble any kid should be taking.”

Adding to the comment about psychological issues, Maltz said, “There’s a growing trend of depression and anxiety, especially in younger kids.” This is one of many reasons teens could be “turning to pills to relieve some of the stress and anxiety they’re feeling,” he said. “And before you know it, they’re addicted to the meds they’re choosing to take.” These can include Adderall, Xanax, Oxycontin, Percocet, and other opioids or pain medications.

“There’s a great demand for these pills because kids want to feel better,” Maltz said. “But what they don’t know is that many of these kinds of pills that are being made in Mexico are illicitly made in clandestine labs,” he said.

“A never-ending amount of these pills are being made with deadly fentanyl, so these kids who purchase them are essentially being deceived to death.

Coming on the heels of Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow where he met with Vladimir Putin last week, Ukraine’s Zelensky has formally invited the Chinese leader to visit Ukraine soon, according to his remarks in a newly published Associated Press interview.

“We are ready to see him here,” Zelensky said. “I want to speak with him. I had contact with him before full-scale war. But during all this year, more than one year, I didn’t have.”

Zelensky initially expressed openness in comments earlier this month given in reaction to Beijing’s 12-point peace plan: “I think some of the Chinese proposals respect international law, and I think we can work on it with China,” he said at the time.

Just before Xi had arrived in Moscow on March 20, The Wall Street Journal had cited sources as saying there would be a phone call between Xi and Zelensky, but that doesn’t appear to have ever materialized.

Zelensky has since invited China to sign on to a ‘Ukraine formula’ for peace, which wouldn’t be conditioned on any territorial concessions. Zelensky has vowed to never concede an inch, but has since shown some degree of doubt over how his forces are faring in the battlefield, particularly in Bakhmut. Zelensky described that the capture of Bakhmut will mean that Putin will smell weakness. According to the Ukrainian leader’s words this week:

Speaking with The Associated Press, Zelenskyy said that if Bakhmut were to fall, Putin could “sell this victory to the West, to his society, to China, to Iran,” as leverage to push for a ceasefire deal that would see Ukraine agree to give up territory.

This, alongside the potential for Xi and Zelensky to hold direct talks, is worrying the Biden administration, with Ukrainian officials in the meantime seeking to ‘assure’ Washington of Kiev’s steadfastness, as Newsweek in a Wednesday report lays out: 

The top diplomats of Ukraine and the United States on Tuesday jointly cautioned against giving any weight to alternate peace plans that seek a cease-fire without the full withdrawal of invading Russian forces, in a subtle rebuff of a recent proposal by China.

“Ill-advised concessions to the aggressor would only encourage Russia to intensify its attacks on democracy, giving it time to rebuild its military capabilities and resume the armed offensive against Ukraine,” Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said at a virtual forum hosted by the U.S. State Department.

Publicly, Kyiv and Moscow have been cautiously receptive to China’s 12-point position paper, which reaffirms the “territorial integrity of all countries” without directly mentioning Ukraine, references “legitimate security interests” in deference to Russia, and calls for a quick end to hostilities on the ground.

But if Russian forces do achieve a definitive victory in Bakhmut any time soon, this could tip the scales in favor of Ukraine taking the Chinese peace plan more seriously.

As for Zelensky’s invitation for Xi to visit, on Wednesday Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said she has no information on whether an invitation had been received by Beijing, or whether the Chinese president would accept it.

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

On Tuesday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) introduced a War Powers Resolution that would direct President Biden to remove armed forces from Somalia that is cosponsored by Reps. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL).

The resolution would mandate the removal of all US armed forces from Somalia, with the exception of embassy security, within 365 days of the bill being adopted. The resolution is privileged, meaning the House will have to vote on the measure within 18 legislative days.

The introduction comes after Gaetz grilled Gen. Michael Langley, the head of US Africa Command (AFRICOM), about the pattern of the US military training African coup leaders.

“The American people have extremely low confidence in our military leaders and their ability to assess their own efficacy. How do they expect Americans to believe their justification for occupying Somalia when they can’t even determine who in their own training programs will lead a violent coup afterwards?” Gaetz said in a statement.

Earlier this month, the House voted down a Syria War Powers Resolution that was introduced by Gaetz. “When the House debated my resolution to withdraw troops from Syria, both Republicans and Democrats argued the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Afghanistan serves as a global permission slip for every neocon fantasy. They will argue the same for Somalia,” Gaetz said.

The 2001 AUMF, which was passed in the wake of the September 11 attacks for the invasion of Afghanistan, is used today to justify the US war against al-Shabaab, a group that didn’t exist when the authorization first became law. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced an amendment in the Senate to repeal the 2001 AUMF last week, but it failed in a vote of 9-86.

The US war against al-Shabaab in Somalia has escalated since President Biden ordered the deployment of up to 500 troops to the country in May 2022. The Biden administration recently vowed that it would increase support for the Mogadishu-based government.

The Congressional War Machine continues to throw American troops into dangerous situations for unclear gain.

I am going to make the warmongers in both parties defend this practice vote by vote.

My next War Powers Resolution? Somalia. pic.twitter.com/MvqCp9Om3G

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) March 28, 2023

The US-backed government launched a major offensive against al-Shabaab last year, leading to more US airstrikes, although AFRICOM has not reported any strikes in the month of March. The last airstrike in Somalia that AFRICOM reported took place on February 21.

The US military portrays al-Shabaab as a major threat due to its size and affiliation with al-Qaeda, but it’s widely believed the group doesn’t have ambitions outside of Somalia. Al-Shabaab was born out of a US-backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia that was launched in 2006, and the group didn’t declare loyalty to al-Qaeda until 2012, after years of fighting the US and its proxies.

Denmark has announced the recovery of a ‘mystery’ object spotted by underwater cameras which was lying next to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Russia’s Vladimir Putin had called it suspicious and said it must be retrieved and investigated as possible evidence linked to the sabotage bombing. 

The Danish Energy Agency said Wednesday that the object was a “smoke buoy”. It was found at a depth of 73 meters, according to the agency, and “representative of the owner, Nord Stream 2 AG, was present during the salvage.”

Upon the retrieval, the object is no longer deemed suspicious. “Investigations indicate that the object is an empty maritime smoke buoy, which is used for visual marking,” the energy agency said in the statement, and emphasized, “the object does not pose a safety risk.”

Russian state media also noted the successful recovery of the object, quoting Danish officials, and did not repeat any further accusations centered on the object.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov last week said “It is critically important to determine what kind of object it is, whether it is related to this terrorist act – apparently it is – and to continue this investigation. And this investigation must be transparent.”

This after President Putin asserted that it could be a signal antenna to activate an explosive in that part of the pipeline while calling for an investigation in cooperation with Russia’s Nord Stream 2 AG.

Additionally, an underwater photo put out last Thursday by the Danish energy agency drove further speculation as to what the odd-looking object could be.

Moscow this week mounted a failed attempt to get the UN Security Council to approve the opening of a formal independent investigation into who was behind the sabotage attacks last September. Monday’s Russian-drafted text was only approved by Russia, China, and Brazil – while the remainder 12 council members abstained. It would need nine ‘yes’ votes to pass.

Authored by James Howard Kunstler via DailyReckoning.com,

The current madness has to stop. And it will stop because, as the old wag Herb Stein laid down in his law years ago: Things that can’t go on, stop.

Which raises the question: Which things?

And the answer is the things Western Civ is doing in its attempted suicide: inciting war, recklessly running up debt, persecuting its own citizens and stealing their liberties, subjecting them to medical malfeasance, destroying their goods production and food-growing capabilities and subjecting the public to incessant harrassment in a campaign to falsify and disfigure reality.

Things like that.

A consortium of public and corporate bureaucracies has institutionalized the falsification of reality under the pretense of saving the human race from a pack of hobgoblins led by climate change denial, racism, Putin-worship and normal sexual reproduction.

They’ve been driven insane by the actual reality of pending economic collapse, which has only been accelerated by their own suicidal activities. What they apparently really want to save are their own positions, perquisite and power.

Their enabling mechanism is the digital computer and its many ways of assembling and controlling information, and thus controlling people, especially those who object to totalizing control.

They do it because they can.

Truth Became Misinformation

You can see how bad it got by reading the Twitter Files No. 19, assembled by independent reporter Matt Taibbi and released on March 17: The Great COVID-19 Lie Machine, Stanford, the Virality Project and the Censorship of “True Stories.”

The thread tells of the campaign led by Stanford University called the Virality Project, marshaling government agencies, academia, Big Pharma and NGOs, such as several financed by George Soros, to suppress “misinformation” on social media, including “stories of true vaccine side effects.”

Hence, truth became misinformation.

You might see in that how anyone on the side of falsifying reality is playing at a disadvantage. If that is your first principle in a political struggle, you are fighting not just against your opponents but against the laws of the universe.

The only recourse of a faction at war with reality is tyranny, forcing the people to accept your BS and do your will, whether they like it or not. That is exactly what you get in America’s ruling class and other regimes currently in power around Western Civ.

Being at war with reality places them at war against their own citizens.

Ulterior Motives?

The COVID-19 release seems to have been an act motivated by multiple players for their own reasons, which, combined, amounted to crimes against humanity. Anthony Fauci, America’s infectious disease czar, apparently sought a crowning career triumph, which would have been a successful vaccine against a dangerous virus.

So could he have arranged to engineer the organism that he could then triumph against? I’m not claiming he did, I’m just throwing the question out there. But like all of Dr. Fauci’s projects over the roughly 40 years that he ran the NIAID agency, the mRNA vaccines — subcontracted to the U.S. military and manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna — turned out to be an epic fiasco.

COVID-19 also happened to be a convenient device for ridding the government of the troublesome President Trump, who threatened to disassemble major parts of the permanent U.S. bureaucracy.

If you revisit the many videos of Mr. Trump appearing in the White House COVID crisis room in early 2020 with Dr. Fauci, Dr. Deborah Birx and other public health officials, I’m sure you will notice his discomfort, as if he suspected he was being played (he was).

And conveniently, right after that, the locked-down public’s attention was galvanized by the George Floyd, BLM and Antifa riots until the 2020 election was upon us. (Another grotesque prank against the people, never adjudicated.)

Meanwhile, it took more than a year after the “vaccines” came out for the disturbing actuarial data to emerge from the life insurance industry that many non-elderly people were being killed and disabled by the shots’ adverse effects. (I think the censors were caught by surprise that the truth leaked out from there).

Any able investigator could understand how the “vaccines,” along with the denigration of off-label early-treatment medicines, the reckless use of dangerous remdesivir combined with enormous government payments to hospitals for mistreating patients with it, the gaming and hiding of CDC statistics and the obvious censorship of all that information in the corporate news and social media (with help from the CIA and FBI) all added up to a monstrous criminal offense against human decency.

Whose Bright Idea Was This?

The government, now led by “Joe Biden,” needed another distraction from intrusive reality in 2022 — including the emergence of the Biden family’s possible crimes — so it arranged to start a war in Ukraine by threatening to turn that country into a forward NATO base on Russia’s border.

Russia was exceptionally clear and straightforward that it wouldn’t accept such an arrangement and the U.S. proceeded anyway. Our country was exceptionally dishonest in its positioning for this conflict. (And our NATO allies were astoundingly credulous going along with it, even after we fatally damaged the EU’s economy.)

Our lunatic project for using Ukraine to destabilize Russia was an enterprise so feckless it could have only been conceived by the dead-of-brain. Our geniuses of foreign affairs screwed the pooch on this one.

It’s almost too obvious that they never cared about the people of that sore-beset land. Notice they do not even use the word “peace” in any of their confabulations about what’s going on there, because it is the opposite of what they seek, which is… chaos unending.

Thus, others will end this vainglorious project for us — namely, our antagonist there, Russia — and quite possibly the regime of “Joe Biden.” For the second time in its mortifying two years-plus of rule, it will be left holding in its collective hand another humiliation for our overreaching imperial soldiery — and the deluded empty suits commanding it.

Will they be able to pretend this time, as they did in Afghanistan, 2021, that there’s nothing to see here, folks? Just a blizzard of press releases declaring “mission accomplished” or some such other craven BS?

I don’t think so.

Bye-Bye, Joey?

The reaction may be enough to bum-rush “Joe Biden” and company out of office. His grotesque family rackets (including the Ukraine grifts) will finally and magically come to the public’s attention, and that’ll be all she wrote for “JB”— except for the historians waking from their own long catatonic spells to record the disaster they will swear they couldn’t see coming.

Or maybe I’m being too hard on him. I don’t know.

Now, entering the spring of 2023, all of this sordid untruth is unraveling along with something else that the news media will have trouble lying about: the collapse of the money system in Western Civ.

Unlike COVID-19 and the Ukraine war, a banking collapse has no propaganda value to the regimes in power. There is no narrative they can concoct out of it to their advantage. The public will do what they always do to a government that plunges them into penury and hardship. They will turn it out or pull it down.

Since money and banking are subject to the laws of physics, we are going to get the ultimate payback for messing with reality.

A lot of things that can’t go on will stop.

The last ‘calm’ day before GDP and PCE saw bond yields uncomfortably quiet (“too f**king quiet” as one rates vol trader MSG’d us), and more squeeziness in stocks (S&P above 50DMA and Nasdaq soaring) ahead of the month-/quarter-end flow-show.

Big banks took a small hit late in the day on a headline that FDIC is “mulling squeezing the big banks to plug its $32 billion hole” but shrugged that off pretty quickly to end a strong day…

Regional banks opened exuberantly once again and were sold off once again at the cash open, back into the red. They stabilized then dropped on FDIC headlines only to recover and end modestly green…

Mega-cap tech reasserted itself today, with Nasdaq soaring 2% today. The Dow and Small Caps lagged (but were still up 1% on the day…

This is Nasdaq’s first close above 20% off the December lows – a new bull market?

The S&P 500 is back above pre-SVB levels… but Office REITs remain in pain…

Source: Bloomberg

Semis were on fire today after Intel said new server ships will come sooner than expected, and Micron jumped on upgrades due to “supply discipline”

Source: Bloomberg

The massive divergence between the Nasdaq and the A/D line confirms this rampage higher is all in the ‘safe-haven’ mega-cap tech names…

Source: Bloomberg

And tech is now trading almost as rich as it has ever traded to the overall market…

Source: Bloomberg

The S&P 500 broke above its 50DMA…

We do note that 0DTE traders stormed in to the short-side as the S&P traded back below its 50DMA around 1340ET, but that did nto work out for them and their covering helped lift stocks in the last hour…

Source: SpotGamma

Treasuries had a second ‘calm’ day in a row (after the raft of IG/HY issuance earlier in the week). Across the entire curve, yields were basically unchanged today…

Source: Bloomberg

Notably there is some divergence in positioning in bond-land with aggregate TSY futures specs still near record short (thouhg we do note the last couple of weeks have seen a notable cover)…

Source: Bloomberg

But, as Bloomberg notes, short interest as a percentage of shares outstanding in the $33 billion iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) fell near record lows (least short)…

Source: Bloomberg

“Long-duration bonds are coming back as that shock absorber and it helps that the starting yield is a lot higher than it was a year ago,” Gene Tannuzzo, global head of fixed income at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

“That’s why you’re not seeing the incredible short interest in long-maturity Treasuries as you were earlier in the year.”

The dollar was also practically unchanged on the day (after some buying in the Asia session gave way in Europe)…

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin surged back above $28,500 today…

Source: Bloomberg

Ethereum topped $1800…

Source: Bloomberg

After a week-long bounce, crude prices slipped despite a large inventory draw, with WTI dropping back to a $72 handle…

US (front month) NatGas prices tumbled back to a $1 handle today again…

Which left Nattie at its cheapest to crude in 9 years (a level that historically led to switching efforts)…

Source: Bloomberg

Gold managed to hold modest gains (despite dollar’s small gains), testing $1990 intraday…

Finally, off-topic a little, but US unemployment is now worse than Russian unemployment…

Source: Bloomberg

That’s awkward for the sanctions-pushers.

And then there’s this – the S&P is back at pre-SVB Failure levels while Gold and Bonds (safe havens) remain far away from that level of risk appetite…

Source: Bloomberg

Will GDP and PCE break that spell?