“Expect the Unexpected” Indeed – Fauci’s Pandemic-Profiteering Book Was Just Pulled From Amazon, Barnes & Noble

“Expect the Unexpected” Indeed – Fauci’s Pandemic-Profiteering Book Was Just Pulled From Amazon, Barnes & Noble

Following revelations of rampant malarkey and doublespeak from Dr. Anthony Fauci – the nation’s highest-paid government employee – Amazon and Barnes & Noble appear to have ‘canceled’ the top virologist’s upcoming book amid criticism that he’s profiting from the COVID-19 pandemic – the tone-deaf response to which he played a significant role in, according to Just The News.

Peter Daszak, Anthony Fauci (who paid Daszak $666k / year for work with the Wuhan Institute of Virology)

For example;

While Fauci’s book, “Expect the Unexpected” was slated for a November release per its Amazon listing, it appears to now have been entirely scrubbed from the site. As JTN reports, a cached version can be seen here.

The same was true of Barnes & Noble’s listing of the book, which is no longer live.

The scrubbing of the book comes after backlash from critics who accused Fauci of profiting off of the deadly pandemic the U.S. response to which he has overseen. 

Among those criticizing Fauci is Fox News Channel contributor Joe Concha, who compared him to New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo signing a seven-figure book deal about his efforts during the pandemic, which resulted in a high number of death among assisted-living residents.

If you look at the numbers again, you had Cuomo profiting off a pandemic, a government official,” said Concha, also a media reporter for The Hill newspaper. “Now we have Fauci doing it as well. I think this is appalling.”

Daily Caller writer Greg Price slammed Fauci for “publishing a book and [becoming] the highest paid federal government employee while you lost your business and had your kids out of school for a year.”

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told “Just the News AM” on Wednesday that Fauci likely “got paid more than Andrew Cuomo” for the book. -Just The News

According to the book listing, Fauci will offer “inspiring words of wisdom … centered around life lessons compiled from hours of interviews, offering a concrete path to a bright and hopeful future.”

Sure.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 06/02/2021 – 18:25

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Israel’s New Mossad Chief Threatens More Assassinations & Attacks Inside Iran

Israel’s New Mossad Chief Threatens More Assassinations & Attacks Inside Iran

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

On Tuesday, the new head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency suggested more Israeli covert attacks and assassinations inside Iran should be expected even as the US and other world powers are negotiating a revival of the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.

The Iranian program will continue feeling Mossad’s might. We are well acquainted with the nuclear program and its various components, we know personally the factors that operate in it and also the forces that drive them,” David Barnea said at his swearing-in ceremony, as quoted by Israel’s Ynet.

Barnea said the JCPOA negotiations show that Israel might have to act alone against Iran. “The agreement with world powers that is taking shape only reinforces the sense of isolation in which we find ourselves on this issue,” he said. “I say it clearly — no, we do not intend to act according to the majority opinion since this majority will not bear the consequences for the erroneous assessment of this threat.”

Israel has a long history of covert attacks inside Iran. Most recently, Israel sabotaged Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, causing an explosion. The attack took place in April when the US and Iran began indirect negotiations in Vienna to restore the JCPOA. Last November, Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was gunned down in an apparent Israeli plot as tensions between the US and Iran were simmering in the final weeks of the Trump administration.

Yossi Cohen, Israel’s outgoing Mossad chief, also spoke on Tuesday and boasted about Israeli actions against Iran that took place under his watch. “We penetrated into the heart of hearts of the enemy Iran,” he said.

Meanwhile, Wednesday witnessed two major suspicious and mysterious mishaps

“We acted to constantly gather intelligence and uncover its secrets, and undermined its self-confidence and haughtiness,” Cohen added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chimed in at the ceremony and said he was willing to attack Iran’s nuclear program even if it risked “friction” with the US. “If we have to choose, I hope it doesn’t happen, between friction with our great friend the United States and eliminating the existential threat — eliminating the existential threat,” he said.

New Mossad chief David Barnea, (L) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) and outgoing Mossad chief Yossi Cohen.

The Israeli officials all claim Iran is moving quickly to develop a nuclear bomb. But if that were truly their concern, Israel would favor a revival of the JCPOA since it strictly limits Tehran’s nuclear program.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 06/02/2021 – 18:05

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Bibi Finally Out As “Change Coalition” Moves Fast On Knesset Approval

Bibi Finally Out As “Change Coalition” Moves Fast On Knesset Approval

It’s official: just before midnight local time Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid party notified President Reuven Rivlin that he’s successfully formed a power-sharing government, which means the country’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is out.

The 71-year-old Netanyahu has long been dubbed “the magician” by supporters for his history of being able to politically survive time and again against multiple near-misses. But as Axios notes, “But he’s not out quite yet” – and there’s still time to wreak havoc on Iran in a desperate bid to cancel the nuclear deal with world powers.

Prior Reuters file image: Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and Finance Minister Yair Lapid.

 Lapid’s coalition still has to survive a confidence vote in parliament, which would lead to Netanyahu being replaced initially by Naftali Bennet – himself a longtime Netanyahu protegee and close ally who Sunday night ‘flipped’ against the PM – earning him and his Yamina party condemnations of “traitor” from the right-wing.

It all began with the Sunday night political shocker wherein Bennett surprised the world by announcingplans to align with Lapid to oust Netanyahu. Israeli politics have been gridlocked as Netanyahu managed to barely hold on as no unity government could be formed over no less than four elections in two years

Axios underscores it’s a “seismic event” for the region and for the world: “We are on the verge of a seismic event in Israeli politics, with Israel’s longest-serving prime minister and the man who has dominated the country’s politics and relations with the world for over a decade on the verge of being replaced,” Barak Ravid writes. 

Also of note in the impending unity government is that “The announcement was made possible by the unprecedented decision of the Islamist Ra’am party — which would be the first Arab party to enter an Israeli government — to unite with Bennett and Lapid.”

Tyler Durden
Wed, 06/02/2021 – 18:00

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3uPFX9L Tyler Durden

Daily Briefing: Second Coming of the Meme Stocks?

Daily Briefing: Second Coming of the Meme Stocks?

Real Vision’s Jack Farley and Weston Nakamura cover the resurgence of “meme stocks” such as AMC Entertainment Holdings ($AMC) and Bed Bath & Beyond ($BBBY). They analyze the seemingly inexorable rise of commodities like oil as well as growth stocks such as Tesla Inc ($TSLA) that may be struggling to regain their footing. Nakamura also looks at the surge in Dogecoin and the halt of once-hot investments such as SPACs and NFTs.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 06/02/2021 – 14:00

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3vLaKpJ Tyler Durden

As Reddit Rampage Began, Hedge Funds Unleashed Biggest Pile Up Into Shorts In 5 Years

As Reddit Rampage Began, Hedge Funds Unleashed Biggest Pile Up Into Shorts In 5 Years

We have a pretty good idea of what’s behind the latest reddit meltup.

Unlike the March and April, when hedge funds remained largely inert on a net basis, still smarting from the bruising their short books suffered during the January and February meme stock meltups, May saw a renewed push to short beaten down names, with Goldman’s Prime Brokerage reporting that its book was net sold for a second straight month, driven by short sales outpacing long buys 1.3 to 1.

According to GS Prime, trading flows in Single Names remained especially active both long and short, and made up approx. 85% of the global gross activity, the balance going to ETFs. That said, while macro products (Index and ETF combined) were net bought driven by long buys and to a lesser extent short covers, selling activity dominated with Single Names net sold for the first time in six months and seeing the largest monthly dollars in net selling since Apr ’20, driven by short sales vastly outpacing long buys 1.8 to 1. As a result, single name shorts reached an almost one-year high relative to the overall equity holdings.

The punchline: in dollar terms, single Name flow saw the largest monthly short sales in more than five years.

Looking at sectors, GS Prime reports that a whopping 8 of 11 global sectors were net sold in May, led in $ terms by Info Tech (short sales > long buys), Consumer Disc (short sales > long buys), Financials (short sales > long buys), Materials (long-and-short sales), and Comm Svcs (short sales > long buys). On the other hand, Health Care (long buys > short sales), Real Estate (long buys > short sales), and Utilities (long buys > short sales) were the only net bought sectors.

  • TMT stocks were net sold for the first time in six months and saw the largest $ net selling since Apr ‘18, driven by short sales outpacing long buys 5 to 1. The GS Prime book is now O/W TMT stocks by 2.8% vs. the MSCI World (down from 3.5% O/W at the start of the year), which is in the 9th percentile vs. the past five years.
  • Non-Consumer Cyclicals were net sold for the first time in eight months. Financials, Materials, Industrials, and Energy were all net sold in May driven by short sales, while Real Estate was net bought driven by long buys.
  • Most net bought global industries ($) – Food Products, Biotech, Insurance, Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure, Diversified Telecomm Svcs, Multi-Utilities, Health Care Equip & Supplies, Pharmaceuticals

Naturally, as managers ramped up short exposure, net leverage and L/S ratio declined even as gross leverage hit new all time highs, to wit, Overall Book ex Options:

  • Leverage: Gross +3.8 pts MoM to 250.5% (99th percentile one-year), Net -2.5 pts MoM to 86.9% (77th percentile one-year)
  • Long/Short ratio (MV) -3.5% MoM to 2.063 (40th percentile one-year)

Equity Fundamental L/S

  • Leverage: Gross +0.4 pts MoM to 180.0% (71st percentile one-year), Net -0.9 pts to 62.0% (65th percentile one-year)
  • Long/Short ratio (MV) -1.3% MoM to 2.051 (67th percentile one-year)

And yes, this means that hedge funds piled into shorts just as the reddit rebellion perked up again and sent meme names and the most shorted names soaring, steamrolling over hedge funds yet again, just as they did at the start of the year.

“This confirms that managers have felt more comfortable utilizing single names to express directional views or adjust exposures, as highly shorted stocks and high retail sentiment names broadly underperformed in the past two months,” Goldman prime analysts wrote. And despite a sharp rally in stocks favored by retail money, “shorts on the group only saw modest net covering.”

The good news is that for now, at least, the pain from the latest Reddit rampage has been mild and even though AMC has quadrupled this quarter, roughly half the members of Goldman’s most shorted basket’s are down. The group is up 2.4% in the span, trailing an advance of 6% for the S&P 500. That means gains for any trade that’s short individual companies and long the broader market, according to Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, short sellers – refusing to be spooked by GenZ daytraders, have boosted their bearish positions as some bets, like those against technology companies, paid off. A Goldman basket of the most-shorted tech stocks has tumbled almost 30% from its February peak. It is unclear, however, how long it will take this time before some semblance of reality returns.

Ultimately, the hope is that logic returns: “You might have the S&P trading sideways over the next month or two, but you have individual names going all over the place,” said Shawn Snyder, head of investment strategy at Citi Personal Wealth Management. “That’s an opportunity for them to make large profits.”

However, as Melvin Capital showed so vividly, a stimmy-fueled short squeeze army can march longer than even the best capitalized hedge fund can remain solvent.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 06/02/2021 – 17:45

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3wPsMHq Tyler Durden

Quinn: There Are No Solutions, Part 2

Quinn: There Are No Solutions, Part 2

Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

In Part One of this article I described the circumstances which make it impossible to change the system from within. The past year should put the final nail in that coffin. Now on to what is in our control.

“Experts agree that it is only a matter of time before one of these epidemics becomes global – a pandemic with potentially catastrophic consequences.”

 Center for Health Security – October 2019

The boldness and extremeness of their actions since the Fall of 2019 seem out of character with their usual shrouded machinations behind the scenes, where the public is ignorant of their actions. Something broke within the debt saturated financial system and Powell was ordered to restart QE and start reducing interest rates to fend off disaster. In a fascinating coincidence, Event 201, a pandemic simulation, was conducted on October 18 in New York City, jointly run by The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, World Economic Forum, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The four-year coup attempt by the Deep State against Trump was floundering, with their pathetic last gasp impeachment farce in January 2020.

The weaponization of the Chinese bio-weapon lab virus into a global pandemic narrative accomplished numerous objectives for the Deep State. It provided cover for the Federal Reserve to funnel trillions into the pockets of the criminal Wall Street cabal and their billionaire clientele. It provided the means for Democrat governors and mayors to use it as an excuse to allow mass mail-in voting in order to fraudulently steal the election. Destroying the economy through unnecessary worthless lockdowns and blaming it on Trump gave the Democrats a further impetus to steal the election.

Convincing the entire nation masking and lockdowns stopped the spread (they did not) allowed the ruling class to exercise tyrannical authoritarian un-Constitutional mandates with little to no push back from the masses – giving them the confidence to push further. Cases and deaths were plummeting before vaccines were rolled out in any quantity, but the media mouthpieces and lying politicians will credit the jab for decline.

Using propaganda fear, convincing the masses cowering in your basement was brave, using their captured media to lie about “being in this together” as our rulers flaunted their own lockdown dictates, creating social unrest based on the false narrative of systematic racism, forcing people to be scared and suspicious of each other, and pitting families and friends against each other based on falsehoods, has accomplished the mission of tearing the fabric of our society. And now for the coup de grace – forced vaccinations with an experimental untested DNA altering concoction for a virus with a 99.8% survival rate.

The immune systems of all but the sickliest are sufficient to fight off this virus and cheap, effective, and safe treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine have been scientifically proven to successfully defeat this virus. Watching scientists and doctors declare these treatments dangerous and ineffective, with Big Tech censoring anyone dissenting from this narrative, tells you how corrupted the medical and media industries have become. Science is never settled.

“No scientist ever believes that he has the final answer or the ultimate truth on anything.” – Carroll Quigley

Again, following the money leads to the most likely reason for this totalitarian insistence on everyone on earth be inoculated with a substance that has not been thoroughly tested or vetted over the long term. Demanding mass vaccination as the only way life can return to normal has generated tens of billions in profits for Big Pharma and the medical industrial complex administering the jabs. Scientists and medical professionals have been bought off to sway their research and opinions.

Do No Harm has been replaced by How Much Will You Pay Me to endorse your unproven drug. They tell you the jab is free, but the government is funding this disgraceful exercise with your tax dollars. Actually, the tax dollars of unborn generations (if they can be born after the sterility impact of the jabs surfaces in the future) are being used since we now borrow $4 trillion per year from them. Bribing the ignorant masses with donuts, fast food, million-dollar lotteries, and vaccine passports guaranteeing access to the jabbed, certainly seems excessive for a relatively non-lethal illness.

They have accomplished convincing and coercing over 50% of adults into getting fully vaccinated, pushing hard for 70%. Now they have turned their attention to children, who have a .003% chance of dying from Covid. Is this asinine idea only to generate profits for the ruling class or is there a darker motive for injecting a substance that has already killed thousands, creates blood clots, and is now causing heart problems in teenagers.

When you step back and try to comprehend the motives of Gates, Schwab, Fauci, and the criminal cabal running the show, with their “new normal”, “build back better”, and “you will own nothing and be happy” slogans, you get the feeling this is all part of a much bigger agenda of control over the masses by an elite few, who believe they know what is best for the planet regarding population size, resource usage, climate, and what they allow you to do and not do.

This is essentially a globalist attempt by the Davos crowd to create a new world, run by them, with you as a debt enslaved peasant, asking their permission to leave your house. Enrichment and control for them, meager existence, and enslavement for you.

The majority of Americans have been conditioned to believe their government and their leaders. The oligarchs have nearly perfected the art of manipulation.

They have utilized propaganda, public school indoctrination, and pharmacological methods to create a dictatorship without tears, just as Aldous Huxley predicted many decades ago.

I do not think Huxley realized how much easier it would be for the masses to be subjugated and made to love their servitude with the advent of advanced technology, controlled by the powers that be. Propaganda has been so much more effective in the manipulative hands of Zuckerberg, Dorsey, Bezos, Cook and Schmidt, with their stranglehold on social media, search engines, apps, and ability to censor what they do not want heard. They have convinced the masses consumerism, materialism, personal satisfaction, wokeism, and various other “ism” tripe is what is important in this world.

The past year has borne out Huxley’s painless concentration camp analogy, as we allowed ourselves to be locked down in our homes, while enjoying the fact our liberties and freedoms were taken away by government tyrants at the behest of billionaires pretending to be medical authorities and bought off medical “experts”. Any thoughts of rebelling against this tyranny had been conditioned out of the masses over the course of decades. This is why there are no macro-solutions to extract us from this concentration camp.

When I write articles detailing the subversion of our country by the Deep State/criminal cabal/ruling elite/oligarchy, a frequent comment has been – “He is great at detailing the problems, how come he never offers any solutions?” That comment always irritates me, because I have proposed solutions for over a decade, which never had a chance of being implemented or even considered. I wrote an article one week after the election of Barack Obama in November 2008 –  U.S. Economy: There Are No Problems, Only Solutions – which laid out dozens of solutions to what I considered the major problems facing our nation.

How naïve, uninformed, and foolish I was back then to think any of my proposals had a realistic chance of being adopted, when the ruling class had created the system and reaped the benefits from maintaining it just as it is. Working to get Ron Paul elected in 2008 and 2012 was a futile effort. Our political leaders are selected, not elected, as we have seen with Dementia Joe and his cackling vacuous VP. Hoping for the next election to go your way and your favorite candidate to win is nothing but false hope. The system is rigged, and they do not care what you think. We need to cast aside childish thoughts and deal with the harsh reality of being pawns in a game we do not control. Quigley described the two-party farce five decades ago, and it has only gotten worse since.

“The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can throw the rascals out at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy. Then it should be possible to replace it, every four years, if necessary, by the other party, which will be none of these things but will still pursue, with new vigor, approximately the same basic policies.” – Carroll Quigley

The only solution is to not play in their game. We only have micro-solutions which can be implemented on an individual level to reduce our risk and exposure to the criminal enterprise known as our government. Depending on our financial resources, location, occupation, and personalities, we can all take actions which provide more freedom and distance from the corrupt system. Some actions are easier than others, but every step in the right direction pushes us closer to a tipping point where good outweighs evil. Make no mistake, we are at war with evil men with evil intentions, and they have no qualms about killing you or your family. Individual actions will matter.

Reducing your debt increases your freedom. Disconnecting from technological imprisonment keeps them from tracking you. Reducing your taxable footprint, if possible, helps starve the beast. Associating with like-minded people and dis-associating from untrustworthy establishment supporting stooges will clarify your life. Raising your own food, and/or forming an alliance/friendship with local farmers will reduce your dependence on the toxic manufactured food industry.

Get healthy through exercise to limit your exposure to the medical industrial complex. Move out of cities and stay away from crowds. Own guns and be prepared to use them. Become part of a community (online or in-person) where ideas are shared, and different viewpoints are heard. Prepare for energy and food shortages. Currency debasement has entered a hyperbolic phase, so own some alternatives (gold, silver, land, crypto). Get right with your family and decide who you can trust and depend upon.

  • Do not consume – save.

  • Do not obey – resist.

  • Do not believe – think.

  • Do not trust – investigate.

  • Do not conform – rebel.

  • Do not submit – withdraw your consent.

Based on the global experiment conducted by the oligarchs over the last year, it appears only a small fraction of the population seem capable of independent thought and a willingness to resist entering the technological gulag orchestrated by our gatekeepers. There may be no implementable solutions on a grand scale, but there is a semblance of hope once their master plans self-destruct and crumble under the weight of hubris and ego driven ambition. Cracks in the façade are already forming as they have turned on Gates, Fauci and Cuomo for glorifying themselves ahead of the agenda.

Quigley held out hope based upon human virtues which have fallen out of favor, but still exist among a portion of the population. I know they exist because the on-line community I call home has people with these qualities in abundance. And a number of these friends will be getting together at a farm in New Hampshire on July 4 to celebrate our quaint belief we can help once again set brushfires of freedom in the minds of men and seize the moral high ground from the criminal cabal who occupy it now. Our choices are few and road ahead difficult, but what choice do we have?

“The hope for the twentieth century rests on recognition that war and depression are man-made, and needless. They can be avoided in the future by turning from the nineteenth-century characteristics just mentioned (materialism, selfishness, false values, hypocrisy, and secret vices) and going back to other characteristics that our Western Society has always regarded as virtues: generosity, compassion, cooperation, rationality, and foresight, and finding an increased role in human life for love, spirituality, charity, and self-discipline.”

– Carroll Quigley

*  *  *

The corrupt establishment will do anything to suppress sites like the Burning Platform from revealing the truth. The corporate media does this by demonetizing sites like mine by blackballing the site from advertising revenue. If you get value from this site, please keep it running with a donation.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 06/02/2021 – 17:25

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3wThlhS Tyler Durden

U.S. Troop Withdrawal From Afghanistan Almost Halfway Done, but Full Exit Isn’t Assured


zumaamericastwentytwo124008

On Tuesday, Defense Department Press Secretary John Kirby announced that the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan is almost half complete. Though President Joe Biden set a September 11 exit deadline, military officials now estimate that U.S. and NATO troops will be out of Afghanistan by early to mid-July. 

Twenty years on, the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan has become increasingly difficult to justify, and Kirby’s announcement is a welcome milestone. But Biden’s withdrawal plan is rife with unanswered questions and it is far from clear that the U.S. is truly exiting the conflict. 

While Biden’s plan called for the withdrawal of the remaining 3,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, what will become of military contractors is less clear. The New York Times reports that around 17,000 contractors, over 6,000 of them U.S. citizens, “are expected to leave along with U.S. and allied military forces.” A May New York magazine piece contradicts that account. Lynzy Billing writes that “in April, 70 American security and defense firms started advertising more than 100 new security and intelligence positions, some with year contracts that go beyond September 11, 2021.” Billing reports that many contractors currently working in Afghanistan have heard few details about whether they will leave the country. 

There is a distinct possibility that the U.S. will also maintain “clandestine Special Operations forces, Pentagon contractors, and covert intelligence operatives,” as current and former officials project. Bonnie Kristian writes for The Week that many potential stragglers are employed by agencies like the State Department and the CIA, which don’t often publicize their personnel numbers. They could very well fly under the radar. (See also: “U.S. Has 1,000 More Troops in Afghanistan Than It Disclosed.)

As the American presence contracts in Afghanistan, it looks poised to move elsewhere. U.S. military officials are now assessing the possibility of establishing a base in a neighboring country. That facility would host troops and drones and act as a rapid-response center. Even around the withdrawal announcement, the Biden administration admitted that it would continue airstrikes and surveillance missions in Afghanistan if certain terrorist threats emerged. 

The withdrawal timeline has long been politically pliable, as have its details. What was once supposed to be a May 1 withdrawal turned into a September 11 one and could very well be extended again. A full U.S. departure from Afghanistan may simply not be realized, at least not in the near future. But even if all troops leave the country, our ongoing operations could allow a covert conflict to continue as our most visible involvement fades. 

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First Russia, Now China? President Biden Readies Watered-Down Beijing Blacklist Order

First Russia, Now China? President Biden Readies Watered-Down Beijing Blacklist Order

“China Joe” Biden has entered the chat.

President Biden is preparing to amend a sweeping US ban on trading with Chinese firms with connections to the PLA, China’s military, after the policy, initially proposed by President Trump, was challenged in court.

According to Bloomberg, under Biden’s amended order, the Treasury Department will create a list of companies that could face financial penalties for their connection to China’s defense and surveillance technology sectors, the people said.  Previously, the nature of the financial sanctions and the specific companies targeted were set via a Congressionally mandated report from the Pentagon.

The amended order, which Biden is set to sign later this week, will change the criteria for entry on the blacklist to capture those companies that operate in the defense or surveillance technology sectors. Previously, President Trump’s more broad-based order targeted companies owned, controlled or otherwise affiliated with the Chinese military. The order will also shift control of the blacklist from the Pentagon to the Treasury.

Per BBG, the Biden Administration expects to keep “a large number” of companies already included on the entities’ list, while allowing Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to add a few new companies as well.

Two Chinese companies have successfully challenged the order (including TikTok owner ByteDance) and the White House claims that these revisions are necessary to “ensure it’s legally sound and sustainable” over the long term. By shifting responsibility to the Treasury, Biden hopes to shore up the legal standing for the order.

The review has been closely watched on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers of both parties are now open to a tougher stance on Beijing (especially after the Biden Administration has been forced to acknowledge that the “lab leak” theory of COVID-19’s origins isn’t a “conspiracy theory”, but in fact the most probable scenario.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers – including Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Arizona Democrat Senator Mark Kelly and Representative Liz Cheney – demanded the publication of a new list of Chinese military-affiliated entities in a letter sent to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin this week.

Technically, a list of targeted firms was due April 15 and is mandated by last year’s defense authorization bill. However, it appears that under the Biden Administration, the Pentagon has let its responsibilities lapse as it waits for authority to be transferred to Treasury.

“The U.S. government must continue to act boldly in blocking the Chinese Communist Party’s economic predation against our industrial base,” they said in the letter. “We must not allow China to erode America’s military primacy.”

Wall Street has also been closely watching Biden’s plan after Trump’s initial order was met with “confusion” in the world of markets, according to Bloomberg.

Amid all the confusion, the Biden Administration has pushed back a deadline that would have closed a loophole: investors can still pump money into subsidiaries of listed firms, despite a ban on the listed parent companies, which has been in place since November. It appears that Biden plans to keep this loophole intact, as the new rules are expected to only apply to subsidiaries if they are specifically listed by the Treasury.

“Providing Treasury with authority over which Chinese military companies are subject to capital markets sanctions would tend to help Wall Street maintain the status quo to the extent possible,” said Roger Robinson Jr., former chairman of the Congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Bottom line: Biden’s plan will be much less comprehensive than Trump’s. Not that it matters, since the courts largely sided with Chinese firms, including (as we mentioned earlier) ByteDance, the TikTok parent, which won a court battle allowing it to evade Trump’s attempt to blacklist the popular social media app.

The big question now is whether Biden will keep the pressure on firms like Huawei, which was identified as a key threat to American national security over its propensity to spy on behalf of Chinese intelligence, something it’s technically required to do by Chinese law (Note: the company itself denies all of this, and claims it has never spied on Beijing’s behalf, despite being caught red-handed more than once). GOP Senators are skeptical, and have recently channeled that anger into opposing a Biden nominee – Christopher Fonzone, Biden’s pick to be legal counsel at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence – despite having previously done legal work for the Ministry of Commerce and Huawei.

And there’s always the financial dealings of Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, which involved figures with close ties to China’s intelligence apparatus.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 06/02/2021 – 17:06

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3fIep1S Tyler Durden

U.S. Troop Withdrawal From Afghanistan Almost Halfway Done, but Full Exit Isn’t Assured


zumaamericastwentytwo124008

On Tuesday, Defense Department Press Secretary John Kirby announced that the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan is almost half complete. Though President Joe Biden set a September 11 exit deadline, military officials now estimate that U.S. and NATO troops will be out of Afghanistan by early to mid-July. 

Twenty years on, the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan has become increasingly difficult to justify, and Kirby’s announcement is a welcome milestone. But Biden’s withdrawal plan is rife with unanswered questions and it is far from clear that the U.S. is truly exiting the conflict. 

While Biden’s plan called for the withdrawal of the remaining 3,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, what will become of military contractors is less clear. The New York Times reports that around 17,000 contractors, over 6,000 of them U.S. citizens, “are expected to leave along with U.S. and allied military forces.” A May New York magazine piece contradicts that account. Lynzy Billing writes that “in April, 70 American security and defense firms started advertising more than 100 new security and intelligence positions, some with year contracts that go beyond September 11, 2021.” Billing reports that many contractors currently working in Afghanistan have heard few details about whether they will leave the country. 

There is a distinct possibility that the U.S. will also maintain “clandestine Special Operations forces, Pentagon contractors, and covert intelligence operatives,” as current and former officials project. Bonnie Kristian writes for The Week that many potential stragglers are employed by agencies like the State Department and the CIA, which don’t often publicize their personnel numbers. They could very well fly under the radar. (See also: “U.S. Has 1,000 More Troops in Afghanistan Than It Disclosed.)

As the American presence contracts in Afghanistan, it looks poised to move elsewhere. U.S. military officials are now assessing the possibility of establishing a base in a neighboring country. That facility would host troops and drones and act as a rapid-response center. Even around the withdrawal announcement, the Biden administration admitted that it would continue airstrikes and surveillance missions in Afghanistan if certain terrorist threats emerged. 

The withdrawal timeline has long been politically pliable, as have its details. What was once supposed to be a May 1 withdrawal turned into a September 11 one and could very well be extended again. A full U.S. departure from Afghanistan may simply not be realized, at least not in the near future. But even if all troops leave the country, our ongoing operations could allow a covert conflict to continue as our most visible involvement fades. 

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Fed Starts To Wind-Down Secondary Corporate Credit Bailout Fund

Fed Starts To Wind-Down Secondary Corporate Credit Bailout Fund

The Fed’s first-ever foray into directly bailing out the corporate bond market will apparently come to a final close in the next few months (they hope).

The vehicle, known as the Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility, or SMCCF, holds about $13.7 billion in already-outstanding corporate bonds.

The SMCCF ceased operations on December 31, 2020.

$5.21 billion of bonds from individual companies including Whirlpool, Walmart, and Visa (as of April 30, 2021, 45 bonds matured, 112 had been redeemed early, and 1,204 bonds remain outstanding in the SMCCF).

Approximately half of the bonds in the SMCCF will mature by the end of 2023. As seen in the chart below, while most bonds will mature in 2025, bond maturities are spread out fairly evenly among the five years that bonds are due.

In addition, it held $8.56 billion of exchange-traded funds that hold corporate debt, such as the Vanguard Short-Term Corporate Bond ETF.

Across the ETFs and individual bonds, AT&T, Verizon, and Toyota had the biggest positions…

The NY Times reports that a Fed official said the central bank expects to complete by the end of the year.

Full Statement:

The Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday announced plans to begin winding down the portfolio of the Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility (SMCCF), a temporary emergency lending facility that closed on December 31st, 2020. The SMCCF proved vital in restoring market functioning last year, supporting the availability of credit for large employers, and bolstering employment through the COVID-19 pandemic.

SMCCF portfolio sales will be gradual and orderly, and will aim to minimize the potential for any adverse impact on market functioning by taking into account daily liquidity and trading conditions for exchange traded funds and corporate bonds. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which manages the operations of the SMCCF, will announce additional details soon and before sales begin.

The SMCCF was established with the approval of the Treasury Secretary and equity provided by the Treasury Department under the CARES Act.

We have one simple question – what happens when they start to sell and spreads blow out amid zero liquidity?

For now, there is no real reaction in bond ETFs…

Tyler Durden
Wed, 06/02/2021 – 16:52

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