Month: December 2023

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Multiple federal agencies are warning that Iran-linked hackers have been targeting U.S. water systems and other industries that use programmable-logic controllers (PLC) made by Israeli firm Unitronics, as the Israel–Hamas war simmers in the background.

Hackers affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have engaged in “malicious cyber activity” targeting PLC operational technology devices used in the U.S. water and wastewater systems sector, and in other industries including energy, food, and beverage manufacturing, since at least Nov. 22, the agencies said in a Dec. 1 alert.

The agencies that issued the warning include the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the National Security Agency (NSA), with the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD) joining in the advisory.

This IRGC-linked cyberattack group (known variously as CyberAv3ngers, CyberAveng3rs, or Cyber Avengers) has been compromising default credentials in Unitronics devices since at least Nov. 22, the agencies said.

After hacking the PLC devices in multiple states, CyberAv3ngers left the following defacement message: “You have been hacked, down with Israel. Every equipment ‘made in Israel’ is CyberAv3ngers legal target.”

The cyber group has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks against critical infrastructure in Israel starting in 2020; it has recently turned its attention to targets in the United States, a key ally of Israel as it battles the Hamas terror group in response to the Oct. 7 attacks against Israel.

One high-profile attack by CyberAv3ngers targeted a water authority near Pittsburgh on Nov. 25, prompting congressional lawmakers to demand an investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and triggering the latest multi-agency warning that other water and sewage-treatment utilities, and other industries, may be vulnerable.

The PLC devices regulate processes including pressure, temperature, and fluid flow, according to Unitronics.

Pennsylvania Water Utility Attacked

A cyberattack by the Iran-linked group on Nov. 25 targeted the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, forcing the utility to switch to manual operations; officials said water quality wasn’t compromised.

“The affected municipality’s water authority immediately took the system offline and switched to manual operations—there is no known risk to the municipality’s drinking water or water supply,” the CISA said in a Nov. 28 notice.

While water quality wasn’t affected this time, the agency said that such cyberattacks do have the potential to threaten the ability of water and wastewater systems to provide clean drinking water to residents and to effectively manage wastewater.

The hackers accomplished their attack by exploiting cybersecurity weaknesses, including poor password security and exposure to the internet, according to the CISA. The agency urged water and wastewater facilities to take preventive measures including changing passwords and disconnecting the PLCs from the open internet.

Several Pittsburgh-based cybersecurity firms said that utility companies are more vulnerable to cyberattacks targeting operational technology because many of these systems are dated and monitored infrequently.

“Take a Fortune 500, or any type of large manufacturer or utility—instead of breaking in through their firewalls and trying to get to their data, [hackers have] the ability to try to go in and interfere with their systems,” David Kane, CEO of Pittsburgh-based Ethical Intruder, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

“I think you’re gonna see a big rise in that because there’s just so few protections on it,” he said, adding that an attack on the operational technology side is “very alarming.”

In its latest warning, the CISA and the other agencies shared a number of indicators of compromise (IOC), as well as tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) associated with the Iran-linked cyber group’s operations.

Lawmakers Demand Probe

The cyberattack prompted several congressional lawmakers from Pennsylvania to demand that the Department of Justice (DOJ) launch an investigation into how the foreign hacking group managed to breach a U.S.-based water facility.

“Any attack on our critical infrastructure is unacceptable,” U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) said in a post on X. “It poses a threat not only to Western PA, but also the nation.”

Mr. Deluzio, along with U.S. Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Nov. 28, saying that Americans need to be confident that their drinking water and other basic infrastructure is safe.

“If a hack like this can happen here in western Pennsylvania, it can happen anywhere else in the United States,” the lawmakers wrote.

The attack came less than a month after a federal appeals court decision prompted the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to rescind a rule that would have obliged U.S. public water systems to include cybersecurity testing in their regular federally mandated audits.

The rollback was triggered by a federal appeals court decision in a case brought by Missouri, Arkansas, and Iowa, and joined by a water utility trade group.

Unitronics didn’t respond by press time to queries as to whether other facilities with its equipment may have been hacked or could be vulnerable.

Meteorologists are monitoring weather models that show a powerful storm might unleash thunderstorms, torrential rains, and snow across two dozen states in the central and eastern US this weekend. 

AccuWeather meteorologists say a storm in the central Rockies will move into the southern and central Plains, developing a new area of low pressure on Friday. At the same time, cold air from the Rockies and northern Plains will collide, and humid air from the Gulf of Mexico will spark powerful thunderstorms. 

Folks in eastern Texas into Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and western Tennessee should be on watch for dangerous thunderstorms on Saturday. 

Focusing on what readers are most interested in: There’s a significant possibility of heavy snowfall across the Midwest to the interior Northeast. 

“This storm will interact with cold air on the northwest side of the storm,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Joe Bauer said.

Bauer noted, “If the cold air can move in quickly enough, we could be looking at a zone of impactful snow from the Midwest and up through the Great Lakes Saturday into Sunday.”

It’s still too early to determine the storm’s track and where the heaviest snow falls. However, AccuWeather meteorologists said to keep an eye on “places such as Chicago and Detroit.” 

In a separate report, Ryan Maue, a meteorologist and former NOAA chief scientist, wrote in a post on X, “Next major winter storm dialed for Sun/Mon with narrow band of heavy snowfall … but uncertainly about where it lines up e.g. St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit? Who knows.” 

Next major winter storm dialed for Sun/Mon with narrow band of heavy snowfall … but uncertainly about where it lines up e.g. St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit? Who knows.

This will be a huge windmaker for East Coast, too.

ECMWF 12Z (HRES) @weathermodels_ pic.twitter.com/IBmE5jqCSD

— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) December 4, 2023

As for the East Coast cities, like Washington, DC, New York City, and Boston, meteorologists are convinced that temperatures will stay above freezing and any precipitation will be in the form of rain. 

Via SchiffGold.com,

At the current price, silver is a real bargain.

Gold went on a run late last week, setting an all-time record high last Friday and breaking the $2,100 level for a brief time in overseas trading Sunday night. Silver also rallied but continues to lag behind gold.

In fact, silver looks significantly underpriced based on both its historical relationship with gold and the supply/demand dynamics.

The silver-gold ratio is currently over 81-1. That means it takes more than 81 ounces of silver to buy one ounce of gold. To put the current ratio into perspective, in the modern era, the silver-gold ratio has averaged between 40:1 and 60:1.

Historically, the ratio has always returned to that mean. And when it does, it does it with a vengeance. The ratio fell to 30-1 in 2011 and below 20-1 in 1979.

When the spread gets this wide, silver doesn’t just outperform gold, it goes on a massive run in a short time. Since January 2000, this has happened four times. As this chart shows, the snapback is swift and strong.

Here’s some historical perspective.

Geologists estimate that there are approximately 19 ounces of silver for every ounce of gold in the earth’s crust, with a ratio of approximately 11.2 ounces of silver to each ounce of gold that has ever been mined. Interestingly, the silver-gold ratio in ancient Egypt was 1:1.

In 1792, the gold/silver price ratio was fixed by law in the United States at 15:1. France mandated a ratio of 15.5:1 in 1803. Faced with the challenges of a bi-metallic monetary system with fixed exchange rates and the aftermath of a worldwide financial crisis, the US Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1873. Following the lead of other Western nations, including England, Portugal, Canada, and Germany, this act formally demonetized silver and established a gold standard for the United States.

With silver playing a smaller role as a monetary metal, the silver-gold ratio gradually spread.

Since the world went to a total fiat money system, there seems to be some correlation between the silver-gold ratio and central bank money creation. During periods of central bank money-printing, the gap tends to shrink. For instance, it plummeted in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis as the Fed engaged in extreme monetary policy.

In a recent podcast, Peter Schiff noted that while gold set a record, silver is far below its record of just under $50 an ounce.

I think silver is a particularly good buy right here because gold is at a record high and silver would have to double to hit its record high. That tells me that silver is very cheap.”

SUPPLY AND DEMAND

The price of silver also fails to reflect the current supply and demand dynamics.

According to a recent forecast by Oxford Economics, silver demand for industrial applications, jewelry production, and silverware fabrication is expected to nearly double over the next 10 years.

The use of silver in solar energy and electric vehicles will drive industrial offtake. According to a research paper by scientists at the University of New South Wales, solar manufacturers will likely require over 20% of the current annual silver supply by 2027, and by 2050, solar panel production will use approximately 85–98% of the current global silver reserves.

Silver demand set records in every category in 2022. Meanwhile, supply was flat with mine output dropping by 0.6% to 822.4 million ounces.

Record global silver demand and a lack of supply upside contributed to last year’s 237.7 million ounce market deficit. It was the second consecutive annual deficit in a row. The Silver Institute called it “possibly the most significant deficit on record.” It also noted that “the combined shortfalls of the previous two years comfortably offset the cumulative surpluses of the last 11 years.”

The price of silver does not reflect future demand or the growing supply deficit.

It’s important to keep in mind that while silver is an industrial metal, more fundamentally, it is money. Despite being more volatile in the short term, silver tends to track with gold over time. Historically, it has outperformed gold in a gold bull market.

At some point, investors will have to reckon with the shrinking supply of silver coupled with rising demand, along with the Fed’s inability to bring inflation back to its 2% target. When that happens, the price of silver will likely take off. If it does, $25 silver will look like a real bargain.

If one needs an indicator of just how terrible things are going for the Biden administration, former CNN host and Democrat darling, Chris Cuomo, says he’d be “open” to voting for Donald Trump over Biden.

In a recent podcast, Cuomo was asked about whether the United States would “survive” another term with President Trump, to which Cuomo replied: “We survived a Trump administration. Would we survive another? Yes.”

“And for people who are now going to attack me and say, what are you talking about? Trump is like this crazy man. Well, look, you know, as Patrick says, the data is the data. Nobody was trying to kill us when Trump was president in a way that they’re not now,” he told Patrick Bet-David, Adam Sosnik, Tom Ellsworth and Vincent Oshana.

“So you’re open to a Trump vote?” asked one of the hosts.

“I am always open. And I’ll tell you this. People say … ‘you’ve never voted for a Republican in your life.’ Wrong.”

“The first vote I ever cast was for a Republican,” Cuomo continued.

Watch the podcast discussion below:

Cuomo, currently a host for NewsNation, was suspended indefinitely by CNN in 2021 over allegations that he helped cover up his brother’s sexual harassment allegations. Cuomo is suing the network for $125 million, claiming that his ouster was “unlawful.”

“It should be obvious by now that Chris Cuomo did not lie to CNN about helping his brother,” said Cuomo’s lawyer earlier this month. “In fact, as the limited information released from Warner Media’s investigation makes clear, CNN’s highest-level executives not only knew about Chris’ involvement in helping his brother but also actively assisted the governor, both through Chris and directly themselves.”

 

Via The Cradle,

Iran and Cuba signed seven cooperation documents and Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) on Monday during a landmark visit to the Islamic Republic by Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

The fields in which the two nations will expand cooperation include science and technology, health, agriculture, energy and mining, communication, and medicine. Diaz Canel arrived in Tehran on Sunday marking the first official visit by a Cuban leader to Iran since Fidel Castro’s visit in 2001.  

“We seek to strengthen the historical relations between the two countries, which have been built on mutual respect for 40 years; my visit aims to confirm our friendship with Iran, and in this context comes the signing of 6 cooperation agreements,” the Cuban president said during a joint news conference with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

For his part, Raisi stressed that both Iran and Cuba are resisting the “arrogant system” led by the US and warned the west of their “miscalculation” in sanctioning both nations.

“The US and arrogant system think that sanctions can force countries to surrender, but this calculation is incorrect,” the Iranian president emphasized.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian visited Cuba earlier this year, calling the Caribbean nation “a friend, brother, and strategic ally.” 

Despite crushing economic sanctions from the west, over the past several years the Islamic Republic has significantly bolstered ties with nations in Latin America.

The Iranian foreign minister visited Nicaragua earlier this year to discuss improving bilateral ties. During his visit, the top Iranian diplomat also met with Nicaraguan army commanders to discuss ways to “end” US hegemony in the region.

The Cuban president’s official military welcoming ceremony:

Cuban President @DiazCanelB, who arrived in Tehran earlier this morning, was officially received and welcomed by President Raeisi at the Sa’dabad Historical-Cultural Complex in Tehran. pic.twitter.com/Hb5h8bC6lk

— Press TV (@PressTV) December 4, 2023

In June, Bolivian Defense Ministers Edmundo Novillo and Iran’s Mohamad Reza Ashtiani inked an MoU on defense and security affairs. Iran had also previously agreed to help Bolivia combat drug trafficking along its borders. 

Tehran has also proved essential in helping Venezuela overcome US sanctions, allowing the South American nation to rebuild its battered oil refineries and providing oil dilutants and technical help to boost oil trade with countries like Russia and China.

Democrats in Michigan have put the White House on notice, warning that his policies on Gaza have turned the Arab American community against him to the point of possibly being able sway the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.

What’s more is that Biden’s supporters are quicky turning on him in some key swing states. “Increasingly, they have amplified their warnings, telling Biden’s team that frustrations among Arab Americans and Muslims could hurt him in the presidential race next year,” Politico has highlighted. “While those voters make up a small portion of the electorate, they can be a key bloc in tightly contested battleground states like Michigan and Pennsylvania. Exit polls show a clear majority of Muslims voted for Biden in 2020.”

Dearborn, Michigan in particular has a huge Arab American community, with many of these being Muslims as well as Palestinian Christians. The broader Detroit area is home to many Palestinian-Americans. They have become outraged over Biden’s refusal to impose conditions on military aid given to Israel, as the civilian death toll soars.

Minneapolis-based activist Jaylani Hussein has said, “Families and children are being wiped out with our tax dollars,” and emphasized “What we are witnessing today is the tragedy upon tragedy.”

This growing anger is leading to greater political organizing, as the AP has pointed out in describing, “Leaders from Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania gathered behind a lectern that read Abandon Biden, ceasefire now in Dearborn, Michigan, the city with the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the United States.”

The aforementioned Hussein said the following words to the weekend conference to resounding applause:

“We are not powerless as American Muslims. We are powerful. We don’t only have the money, but we have the actual votes. And we will use that vote to save this nation from itself.”

“The anger in our community is beyond belief. One of the things that made us even more angry is the fact that most of us actually voted for President Biden,” he highlighted to the AP. “I even had one incident where a religious leader asked me, ‘How do I get my 2020 ballot so I can destroy it?’“

According to more from the AP:

Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania were critical components of the “blue wall” of states that Biden returned to the Democratic column, helping him win the White House in 2020. About 3.45 million Americans identify as Muslim, or 1.1% of the country’s population, and the demographic tends to lean Democratic, according to Pew Research Center.

But leaders said Saturday that the community’s support for Biden has vanished as more Palestinian men, women and children are killed in Gaza.

Activists at the conference were further quoted as saying their rejection of Biden doesn’t necessarily translate into support for Republican front-runner Donald Trump, but they intend to make Biden pay as long as he persists on his current Israel policy track.

On Sunday National Security Council spokesman John Kirby made appearances on the major Sunday shows, and tried to explain that the US received ‘assurances’ from Israel that its military is not targeting Palestinian civilians. These repeat attempts to address growing international and domestic pressure will likely be seen as weak and ‘too little, too late’ among Muslim Americans.

Authored by Mark Jeftovic via DollarCollapse.com,

Historically, fresh all-time-highs portend drawdowns for gold… Why this time may be different.

Gold finally did what many of us have been waiting on for a long time, and notched up a new all-time-high while closing strong into the weekend.

It’s been over three years in the making, and had some gut wrenching pullbacks in the interim.

The problem with gold over the course of The Fiat Era – is that with  notable exceptions, new all-time-highs were usually an intermediate top signal that portended an imminent, significant pullback, followed by lengthy sideways grinds that could drag out for years.

To be sure,  since The Nixon Shock in 1971, when dollar convertibility into gold was suspended temporarily  – gold has for the most part been solidly “up and to the right”, as the Bitcoiners like to say.

Via Macrotrends.net

But that’s over a multi-decade timeframe. The intermediate cyclical and counter-cyclical moves, especially the bearish ones, could last longer than a typical trader’s career. Or  least his patience…

Congrats to all the goldbugs celebrating new all time highs… pic.twitter.com/KNE8ccDwwe

— Mark Jeftovic, The ₿itcoin Capitalist (@StuntPope) December 2, 2023

After the 1980 all-time-high, it took 28 years for gold to put in another one, in nominal terms. In inflation adjusted terms, gold still hasn’t surpassed the 1980 top:

Via Macrotrends.net – Inflation adjusted

When it finally did put in another ATH as the world was heading into the Global Financial Crisis, the expectations were that it would soar. After all, it seemed as if the financial system was literally imploding, and that was supposed to be the entire point of gold.

But that isn’t what happened, gold came off hard, along with everything else – turns out that in a liquidity crisis, the “best” assets get sold off too…

After a 25% decline from the 2008 high to the GFC lows, gold reversed hard and took off, about six months sooner than the rest of the stock market did – and finally went on a bull run of successive higher highs through until the 2011 high a bit shy of that fabled $2000 mark ($1,825) – before a vicious five year decline took it down over 40%. It was brutal.

Since then, the brief high during COVID (still shy of the $2K handle) and the failed retest of that high in 2022 were both followed by double-digit pull backs.

During the fiat currency era, while the nominal price of gold has generally been steadily increasing, there have only been three periods when it was in a solid bull run of putting up successively higher highs:

1971 – 1975 and 1976 – 1980, which many regard as one bull market, then 2009 – 2011.

The 2008 and 2020 all-time-highs marked “tops” that took three years to regain and surpass.

So, the obvious question is, which is it now?

The 4-Dimensional Base Case for Gold (a.k.a “Why this time may be different”)

As you can probably tell, I’m not really a chartist or much for technical analysis. While many look at these prior cycles for gold and try to derive meaning from the patterns using Elliot Waves and Fibonacci retracements, whatever, I just look at what actually happens and try to understand the fundamental investment logic of why people allocate to gold. General people, normies – not goldbugs.

If the normies think that either the currency, or the financial system itself, could go down the crapper, they’ll buy gold.

If they think the crisis is over and everything will be fine, they’ll sell it.

The 1980 gold bull ended because Paul Volcker “saved the USD” by hiking interest rates to 20%.

The 2011 bull run ended because QE and ZIRP “saved the financial system”.

Since the advent of the Fiat Era, the bull thesis for gold has been driven by “3-D’s”:

Debasement, Deficits, Debt…

This is nothing new, we don’t need to rehash it here. They’ve all been out of control, and accelerating, for decades. Far beyond what anybody paying attention could have thought was possible.

So far, the Three D’s haven’t been able to do it, but lately, another “D”… The Fourth “D” has been added to the mix:

…and De-Dollarization

Talking about the end of USD hegemony used make you look nutty. It was a weirdo talking point exclusive to preppers and doomers.

Then a few things happened, all within a very short time frame:

1. COVID hit – and suddenly the doomers and preppers didn’t look so weird anymore. Even though the pandemic turned out to be less deadly than the experts thought, the policy response of lockdowns and stimulus still blew the first three D’s out to even more absurd proportions.

2. The weaponization of the financial system toward foreign adversaries – Afghanistan, Russia, Iran, changed the calculus of holding USD foreign reserves (notwithstanding whether these governments had it coming or not).

3. Exorbitant Privilege becoming more conspicuous and overt: It was long known that the US enjoyed a peculiar advantage in the global financial system – able to conjure value ex-nihilo and use it to import resources and boost domestic living standards – but combined with the other catalysts, it suddenly appeared to be more asymmetric than previously.

Now, “de-dollarization” isn’t some unthinkable scenario, it’s a thing. The BRICs are already planning an alternative system and we’re seeing more transactions that were previously settled exclusively in USD, being settled in alternative currencies – including gold.

Something else that is different this time is that Central Banks are buying up gold in record quantities, China’s PBOC reportedly scarfed up ____ tonnes this year , over 12% of annual production. This is believed to be in anticipation of even more oil purchases from GCC countries in Chinese Yuan, not USD.

As I finish this article out on Monday morning, gold is off a bit from the Asian opening last night, where it spiked over $50/oz out of the gate, only to give it all back. Peter Schiff is freaking out, because Bitcoin is outperforming gold, even as the former put up that new all-time-high.

Wake me up when gold cracks the inflation adjusted high from 1980.

— Mark Jeftovic, The ₿itcoin Capitalist (@StuntPope) December 4, 2023

But these short term gyrations from one trading session to the next are meaningless. I find it almost cringey that a figure like Schiff would be fixating on it.

Bitcoin and gold are being impelled by the same motivation to protect purchasing power and defend against the coming era of capital controls – they each bring different types of optionality to the portfolio (which is why I find the “gold vs Bitcoin” argument beyond tedious).

However, when it comes to gold, especially – 5,000 years as a monetary metal as we like to remind people – we have to look at the longer waves. Gold’s moves play out over months and years, what between trading sessions is noise.

In my mind the key level to watch whether this gold move is real, is when it surpasses the 1980 high in inflation adjusted terms: which is around $2,590/oz

Once gold cracks $2,600/oz in USD terms, we’ll know for sure we’re into one mother of a long-wave super-cycle for the yellow metal.

(Which also means, btw, that the time to allocate a portion of your portfolio to gold is before it breaks out to successive all time highs, not after. You can put some of your retirement savings into a gold ira, pick up some physical, and we’re finishing up report on the best options for vaulted gold – join the mailing list to get that when it drops).

*  *  *

Sign up to the DollarCollapse mailing list and receive the simplest, most actionable guide to contrarian investing Nobody Knows Anything, free. Follow us on Twitter here, or like us on Facebook here.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s wheeling and dealing in other tech startups could have been one of the major factors pressuring the ChatGPT-maker’s board of directors to fire Altman last month. After his firing, OpenAI’s staff threatened to quit, forcing the board of directors to reinstate the founder days later. 

Wired published a report about Altman’s ventures, including a startup named “Rain AI.” He personally invested upwards of a million in the company, which develops neuromorphic processing units, or NPUs. These chips are designed to replicate the human brain. In 2019, OpenAI entered into a nonbinding agreement with Rain to purchase $51 million in NPUs once they became available. 

“OpenAI’s letter of intent with Rain shows how Altman’s web of personal investments can entangle with his duties as OpenAI CEO,” Wired wrote in the report. 

The report pointed out Altman’s prior role at startup incubator Y Combinator helped him as a top Silicon Valley dealmaker, “investing in dozens of startups and acting as a broker between entrepreneurs and the world’s biggest companies. But the distraction and intermingling of his myriad pursuits played some role in his recent firing by OpenAI’s board for uncandid communications, according to people involved in the situation but not authorized to discuss it.” 

According to a blog post about closed-door meetings with developers, Altman recently explained the need for advanced chips and more robust supply chains to further AI progress. 

Meanwhile, at Rain, co-founder and former CEO Gordon Wilson posted last week that he has “stepped down from my position as CEO of Rain AI” after leading the startup for six years.

“I will also continue to share my own thoughts on AI and semiconductors, as these industries are central to the greatest transformations we are witnessing (and will continue to witness) across the world in this century,” Wilson wrote.

Bloomberg also noted that the US government forced Saudi Aramco’s investment vehicle Prosperity7 to sell its $25 million stake in the startup over national security concerns. 

Other rumors show that the board might have fired Altman over working on a new chip venture to rival NVDA. Another rumor was that Altman did not inform the board about a breakthrough in artificial general intelligence.