Month: March 2024

Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org,

Terror attacks in Moscow, ongoing genocide in Gaza, and cancer in the Royal family are dominating the headlines.

Meanwhile, on the financial back pages, all over the world the implementation of Central Bank Digital Currencies draws nearer.

China, whose digital Yuan was the major flagship CBDC, is in the middle of an immense trial covering over 25 million people. This week they released new guidelines for tourists using CBDCs for the first time.

A journalist for the crypto-focused DLNews wrote of her experience using it, and while functionality might seem limited right now we should note that she talks up the “de-dollarization” aspect of CBDCs, aligning digital currency with the “multilateral world” plan.

Hong Kong has its own CBDC program, the second trial stage of which launched last week. They are developing the ability to use “tokenised deposits” to add $160bn to their GDP.

In Europe, following late February’s Digital Euro Conference (DEC24), the European Central Bank has announced the development of the “digital euro rulebook”.

In Sweden, the Riksbank’s e-Krona program published its final report on its CBDC pilot a few days ago. Coin Telegraph reports they working on making its CBDC available offline.

The Central Bank of the UAE announced they are launching their own CBDC pilot a few days ago.

That’s just the technical developments, saying nothing of the ongoing propaganda campaign.

As I already said, in order to appeal to the anti-Imperialist left, we’re being told that CBDCs will help the world “de-dollarize”.

Another angle is that CBDCs will help developing nations prosper.

For example, BusinessMagnates.com reports that CBDCs will help “revive Latin American economies”.

All this is just from the past week. It goes on and on and on.

The only slight hold-out seems to be the US, where CBDCs remain somewhat contentious.

The e-dollar has stuttered along in progress compared to the rest of the world, with contradictory reports from officials emerging all the time.

This could be genuine opposition from US Imperialists due to the threat of de-dollarisation, it could be a natural response to a far more cash-based economy than most of the developed world, or it could be a deliberate propaganda campaign designed to promote CBDCs in anti-America quarters.

Of course, it’s an election year state-side, and Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Robert Kennedy Jr have both come out against CBDCs. While RFK jr is doubtless sincere, this would not be the first time the “deep state” has tried to discredit an opinion by having Trump endorse it.

But America or no America, the global CBDC roll-out is coming.

According to the Atlantic Council’s CBDC Tracker, 134 countries representing 98% of global GDP are currently working on their own digital currency.

While an Atlantic Council report from March 14th underlines the importance of “interoperability”:

Central banks and international financial institutions are realizing that uneven and dispersed technological advancements in digital currencies could actually create further fragmentation of the financial system, deepen digital divides, and create systemic risks. This would undercut the premise of digital currencies, which are supposed to create more efficiency in the existing system. Fortunately, there are some new models of interoperability across borders.

Interoperability isn’t just an important part of the CBDC plan, according to the Atlantic Council, it is the whole point.

Just yesterday, reported by Business Wire, SWIFT published their findings on “Seamless Introduction of CBDCs for Cross-Border Transactions”:

Interoperability is critical to Swift’s strategy for instant and frictionless transactions. The cooperative has focused its innovation agenda on interoperability between digital currencies and tokenised assets to overcome the potential risk of fragmentation, caused by the development of digital currencies on different technologies and with different standards and protocols. Swift’s solution has already been shown to enable cross-border transfers and connect CBDCs on different networks with each other, as well as with fiat currencies.

As we wrote in 2024: The Year Global Government Takes Shape, interoperability is the name of the game – there is no real practical difference between 195 interoperable digital currencies and one global currency.

Global currency is coming. It’s not on the front pages, but that’s hardly surprising.

‘Soft’ data slumped today: Consumer confidence crumbled and there was a regional Fed rout – Philly Fed Services was really ugly, Richmond Fed Manufacturing was ugly, and Texas Services was negative for the 22nd straight month…

…as ‘hard’ data improved with durable goods orders rebounding and home prices accelerated once again (but that is offset by a decline in core shipments, which will weigh on GDP)…

Source: Bloomberg

The STIRs market focused on the bad news and pushed rate-cut expectations modestly higher (dovish)…

Source: Bloomberg

The stock market initially loved it either way – bad was good and good was good – but the majors could not hold on to their overnight highs and late-day sell programs took all the majors red on the day…

That is the 3rd down day for the S&P 500 in a row.

There were two sell programs in the last 30 mins…

Source: Bloomberg

Another day, another opening short-squeeze faded…

Source: Bloomberg

Mag7 stocks were dumped late on spoiling the party…

Source: Bloomberg

The longer-end of the bond curve outperformed today (with the short-end modestly higher in yield) with 30Y -2bps on the day, helped by a strong 5Y (record size) auction. The stronger than expected durable goods orders print snapped yields to yesterday’s highs but the soft-date weakness (and the auction) wore yields lower as the day went on…

Source: Bloomberg

After yesterday’s big surge (on net zero ETF inflows), bitcoin held on to the $70,000 level today…

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar ended practically unchanged, rallying back from modest weakness overnight…

Source: Bloomberg

Spot gold prices surged up to $2200 intraday before giving a lot of the gains back to end marginally higher….

Source: Bloomberg

Oil prices dipped ahead of tonight’s API inventory data…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) rocketed higher today… only to be dumped late on, erasing half of the day’s gains…

Source: Bloomberg

…with the company with barely any revenues now worth almost $10BN at its peak today, according to Bloomberg data…

Source: Bloomberg

…and Trump owns 69% of it (but is unable to sell… yet).

A California judge has tossed out a lawsuit from social media platform X against the Center or Countering Digital Hate, contending that X is not entitled to seek restitution against the organization because third-party advertisers left the platform following CCDH’s campaign against it.

The lawsuit alleged that CCDH had unlawfully accessed and scraped data from X in order to conduct misleading studies that found a rise in hate speech following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the social media platform in late 2022. The company says CCDH has “cherry-picked” posts ot drive advertisers away, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in losses.

“This case is about punishing the defendants for their speech,” said judge Charles Breyer in California, citing a Nov. 2023 Reuters survey that found “social media researchers have canceled, suspended or changed more than 100 studies about X” as a result of Musk’s policies as CEO.

Breyer also insinuated that X filed the suit “perhaps in order to dissuade others who might wish to engage in such criticism.”

CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed celebrated his win, saying in a post-decision statement that “The courts today have affirmed our fundamental right to research, to speak, to advocate, and to hold accountable social media companies for decisions they make behind closed doors that affect our kids, our democracy, and our fundamental human rights and civil liberties.”

CCDH is a dark money nonprofit with an outsized influence over the digital advertising space and political sphere, which popped up seemingly out of nowhere.

X responded to the ruling, posting: “Today a federal court in San Francisco issued a decision in the case X brought against the Center for Countering Digital Hate for illegally obtaining platform data to create misleading research. X disagrees with the court’s decision and plans to appeal.”

Today a federal court in San Francisco issued a decision in the case X brought against the Center for Countering Digital Hate for illegally obtaining platform data to create misleading research. X disagrees with the court’s decision and plans to appeal.

— News (@XNews) March 25, 2024

Meanwhile, Musk – who has called CCDH a “truly evil organization that just wants to destroy the first amendment under the guise of doing good!” did not immediately respond.

As Paul Thacker noted in October in Tablet, Ahmed – a former British Labour party operative, released a report in 2021 about online misinformation that quickly reached the pre-Musk Twitter regime, and was used to silence divergent opinions – including those of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who the report named as one of “The Disinformation Dozen.” The report was then cited by by the Biden administration.

CCDH also targeted ZeroHedge with a false report initially claiming that we were demonetized by Google for peddling hate speech, when in fact the CCDH took passages from our comments section and claimed they were the views of ZH. The report was laundered through NBC‘s “verify” fact check unit. NBC News was internationally condemned for going after a rival using CCDH research, and written by a 25-year-old (trust fund) UK journalist who has since bounced around various outlets without much in the way of actual journalism to show for it.

Authored by J.Peder Zane via RealClearPolitics.com,

Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump is not the race America needs, but it is the one we deserve.

A political system that has spit out a race few voters want is the perfect symbol of a nation – and a people – bent to the point of breaking.

Biden vs. Trump appears to be a welcome diversion in a country whose government seems unequipped to face its biggest challenges and whose people are increasingly unwilling to take responsibility for their own problems. Eight months arguing about two angry old men – hearing our own side praise us to the hilt while blaming every woe on the other – is time we don’t have to spend confronting our own difficulties.

Historic declines in life expectancy, jaw-dropping rates of obesity, and rising truancy among students are just a few of the ways we the people are running off the rails.

A few others include:

• In a Wall Street Journal commentary about post-COVID America, Yale University’s Nicholas Christakis observes how “reckless behavior” is becoming epidemic. “Americans gambled a record $66.5 billion in 2023. Compared with 2019, there has been an 18% increase in fatal accidents involving alcohol and a 17% increase in those involving speeding. Over 500 Americans are dying every day from alcohol-related deaths, a 30% increase. Sexually transmitted diseases are rising across the nation, too.”

• Jonathan Haidt reports in the Atlantic that “rates of depression and anxiety in the United States – fairly stable in the 2000s – rose by more than 50 percent in many studies from 2010 to 2019. The suicide rate rose 48 percent for adolescents ages 10 to 19. For girls ages 10 to 14, it rose 131 percent.” A CNN and Kaiser Family Foundation poll published in 2022 found that more than 20% of adults described their mental health as “fair” or “poor,” and about one-third of adult respondents said they feel anxious much of the time.

• A 2021 study by the Survey on American Life found that 49% of Americans said they had fewer than three close friends – in 1990 the figure was 27%. That same year 33% of respondents said they had 10 or more close friends; in 2021 that number fell to 13%. The birth rate and rates of marriage – which, when done in tandem, producer happier and more stable parents and children – have long been in decline.

• Unable to meet its recruitment goals, the Pentagon has repeatedly lowered its standards for physical fitness, mental health, and academic achievement to meet its numbers. “America’s youth are less qualified for service than ever before,” Army Brig. Gen. Patrick Michaelis, commander at Fort Jackson, S.C., was quoted as saying in a Stars and Stripes article published last year. Added Gen. James McConville, the Army’s chief of staff, “We have a lot of young men and women who want to serve – and they can’t pass the academic requirements or they can’t pass the physical requirements.”

• The New York Sun reports that many citizens are no longer part of the workforce. “Jobs held by native-born Americans decreased by nearly half a million between January and February of this year, while jobs held by foreign-bornAmericans (both legal and illegal immigrants) spiked to 1.16 million. Looking further back, since January 2020 — just before the pandemic — there has been no growth in native-held jobs, while jobs for foreign-born employees have skyrocketed by more than 3.9 million. … The native-born workforce participation rate of 6 percent is also less than the foreign-born participation rate of 66.6 percent.”

• The liberal Vera Institute has reported that “the number of women incarcerated in the United States has skyrocketed in the last four decades, increasing 475 percent in 40 years. In 2019, there were more than 231,000 women and girls held in prisons and jails across the country. … 50 years ago, almost 75 percent of counties held not a single woman in jail.” In a similar vein, news reports now routinely carry articles about female teachers accused of molesting students.

These are just some of the canaries in the American coal mine. Together they suggest how – despite the many strengths our nation still possesses – we are unraveling. The government cannot fix most of these problems, which may be why politicians largely ignore them. Such issues must be addressed at that most local of levels – the individual and the family.

It may feel good to complain about the other guy for the next eight months – and heaven knows we have plenty of reason to. But after the November election, all of our problems will remain. It’s long past time we recognized that much of the fault for our deep-rooted challenges lies not in our political stars but in ourselves.

United States Justice Department (DoJ) officials unsealed an indictment against cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin and two of its founders for “conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business” and violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.

As CoinDesk reports, the DoJ said in an indictment that KuCoin and founders Chun Gan and Ke Tang operated KuCoin as a money-transmitting business with over 30 million customers but did not implement a know-your-customer (KYC) or AML program until 2023 – and even then, its KYC program did not apply to existing customers.

Neither Gan nor Tang were arrested, the DOJ said in a press release.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said:

“As today’s Indictment alleges, KuCoin and its founders deliberately sought to conceal the fact that substantial numbers of U.S. users were trading on KuCoin’s platform. 

Indeed, KuCoin allegedly took advantage of its sizeable U.S. customer base to become one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency derivatives and spot exchanges, with billions of dollars of daily trades and trillions of dollars of annual trade volume.  But financial institutions like KuCoin that take advantage of the unique opportunities available in the United States must also comply with U.S. law to help identify and drive out crime and corrupt financing schemes.  KuCoin allegedly deliberately chose not to do so. 

As alleged, in failing to implement even basic anti-money laundering policies, the defendants allowed KuCoin to operate in the shadows of the financial markets and be used as a haven for illicit money laundering, with KuCoin receiving over $5 billion and sending over $4 billion of suspicious and criminal funds. 

Crypto exchanges like KuCoin cannot have it both ways.  Today’s Indictment should send a clear message to other crypto exchanges: if you plan to serve U.S. customers, you must follow U.S. law, plain and simple.”

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission also filed a suit against KuCoin Tuesday, alleging the company, which offers both spot and futures trading services, did not register as a futures commission merchant, swap execution facility or designated contract market. Its suit also charged that KuCoin didn’t implement the CFTC’s equivalent of a KYC program.

With bitcoin having reached up to new record highs, it is worth noting today’s action marks the first time that the DOJ has targeted a crypto exchange since it announced a multi-billion dollar settlement with Binance late last year, perhaps in a refreshed playbook to spread FUD back into the crypto ecosystem.

Finally, KuCoin claims that its users’ assets are safe amid the series of criminal and civil allegations:

“KuCoin is operating well, and the assets of our users are absolutely safe,” the exchange wrote.

“We are aware of the related reports and are currently investigating the details through our lawyers. KuCoin respect the laws and regulations of various countries and strictly adheres to compliance standards.”

At the same time, KuCoin’s native token, KCS, has lost 12% of its value over the past 24 hours and is currently trading at $12.64 at the time of publication.

Authored by Charles Kennedy via OilPrice.com,

Tesla and battery manufacturer CATL are working together on the development of new battery technologies that could lead to faster-charging electric vehicle batteries, the founder of the Chinese battery manufacturer, the world’s biggest, told Bloomberg in an interview published on Monday.

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., as CATL is officially known, has a large supply deal with the U.S. EV manufacturer, and is also a battery supplier to big automakers including BMW and the Mercedes-Benz Group AG. 

Amid the U.S.-China trade and technology spats and U.S. restrictions on Chinese technology used in America-made products, CATL is effectively banned from selling its batteries directly in the United States. But the company is working under so-called licensing, royalty, and services (LRS) agreements with partners, allowing them to license the battery technology, for a fee.  

Last year, one of Detroit’s Big Three, Ford, said it had reached an agreement with CATL, under which a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford would manufacture the battery cells using lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cell knowledge and services provided by CATL.   

Currently, CATL is in discussions with up to 20 U.S. and European carmakers to potentially reach licensing deals similar to the one with Ford, CATL’s founder, Chinese billionaire Robin Zeng, told Bloomberg.

Separately, CATL and Tesla are working together on new electrochemical technology aiming to make faster-charging batteries, he added.

Tesla is looking to preserve its market share in the growing global EV battery market and to manufacture a vehicle that would cost less than $25,000.

“There’s always room for cost reduction depending on what the $25,000 car’s aim is,” CATL’s Zeng told Bloomberg in the interview.

The Chinese businessman also confirmed an earlier Bloomberg report from January this year that Tesla plans to open a small battery-manufacturing plant in Nevada using idle CATL equipment, with minimal involvement of the Chinese company, whose staff would only work on setting up the equipment.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

During a speech at the Human Rights Campaign Dinner in LA Sunday, Jill Biden suggested that not having gay porno books available in children’s libraries in schools is akin to Nazi Germany.

Biden’s wife stated “Rights are being stripped away. Freedoms are eroding. More and more state laws are being passed…Just last night, we had to fend off more than 50 anti-gay amendments that Republicans tried to force into the government funding bill… they served only one purpose: to spread hate and fear.”

She continued, “History teaches us that democracies don’t disappear overnight. They disappear slowly. Subtly. Silently.”

“A book ban. A court decision. A ‘don’t say gay’ law,” she said as examples.

Of course in reality, books are not being banned and there is no such law.

Then came the kicker.

“Before World War II, I’m told, Berlin was the center of LGBTQ culture in Europe,” Dr Jill said, adding “One group of people loses their rights. And then another, and another. Until one morning you wake up – and you no longer live in a democracy.”

Jill Biden: If you don’t want your kids reading Gender Queer or other sexually explicit gay porn books in school then you are akin to Nazis during World War II. Report here: https://t.co/FQkF6ZpmLL pic.twitter.com/GzEBTGnejK

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) March 25, 2024

Wow.

So parents not wanting schools to carry sexually explicit books like Gender Queer, that even the author admits is not suitable for children, are equal to Nazis in Germany in the 1930s.

Jill also express pride that her husband “made it possible for trans Americans to serve openly, honorably in the military,” adding “MAGA extremists are seeking to erase these hard-fought gains, trying to unwind all the progress we’ve made.”

Yup. That’s what killed millions. A lack of access to dirty kids books. 🤦🏻‍♀️

— Cryssie (@CryssieGA) March 25, 2024

…… Berlin was the LBGTQ center in Europe??? Where are the Bidens getting these facts and why are their heads so far up deviant’s asses?

— Stiles Bitchley ☆☆ $8 (@StilesBitchley2) March 24, 2024

Sick pic.twitter.com/YqJ7Yrphu9

— Fweedom🇺🇸 (@Fweedom5) March 25, 2024

the democrats compare everything to nazis…😱😅😱

— AKA fatman007 (@ruggy006) March 24, 2024

Wait! What did she just say. She said Berlin was the center of LGBQ before WWII, then one group looses their rights… did she mention Jews at all? I didn’t hear it. Is she trying to equate LGBTQ to the Jews murdered by Nazis

— Brenda Erratt (@brendaerratt) March 25, 2024

Enough with the Nazi references. Every time these people compare their political opposition to Nazis they diminish the horrors of actual victims of the Third Reich endured. This rhetoric is disgusting.

— the truth is hard (@truthishard__) March 25, 2024

*  *  *

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

PIMCO CIO Andrew Balls told The FT that the giant bond fund is holding a smaller than usual position in US Treasuries, preferring the bonds of countries such as the UK and Canada, as he fears re-igniting inflation will pressure The Fed to act considerably less dovish than even the latest ‘dot-plot’ suggests.

“Outside of the US . . . we are seeing more evidence of inflation correcting,” Balls said.

“I think you see the balance of risks on the Fed going slower [in cutting rates] than is priced in but outside the US there is some risk of central banks delivering more than is priced in.”

While long-dated inflation expectations are lower in the US, they remain notably elevated relative to the big declines from 20923’s peak that we have seen in UK and Europe….

Source: Bloomberg

The $1.9-Trillion-assets-under-management firm’s view is similar to consensus on Fed rate-cut expectations, but Balls fears “the risks towards stronger activity and sticky inflation” in the US, adding that “you have an ongoing US exceptionalism theme.”

Rate-cut expectations have plunged in the past three months for The Fed, BoE, and ECB (higher in the chart) with Europe pricing in four cuts in 2024 while UK and US are pricing in three cuts…

Source: Bloomberg

Long-dated yields on US and UK bonds are basically the same, and both dramatically higher than equivalent maturity Bunds…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, Balls fears a replay of the surge in yields that occurred last fall, when markets were worried about bigger than expected government borrowing plans.

“You can imagine that happening again,” Balls said, referring to the rise in yields last autumn.

“Both the Democrats and the Republicans seem unconcerned about the level of the fiscal deficit… It does seem likely that without having something exciting happening [like the UK’s 2022 gilts crisis] you could have a slow grind to higher term premia.”

The PIMCO CIO said his preferred places to have exposure to bonds more sensitive to changes in interest rates were in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

In December the FT reported that Pimco’s chief investment officer believed the UK was at risk of a serious economic downturn and that he had been running larger than usual bets on gilts.

Not exactly a good back ground for ever-increasing auctions due in the US.

Authored by Brad Jones via The Epoch Times,

A high-ranking leader of the international Mara Salvatrucha gang, better known as MS-13, was arrested on narco-terrorism charges at the U.S.-Mexican border in San Diego earlier this month.

Fredy Ivan Jandres-Parada, a leader of the international MS-13 gang, was arrested at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego on March 7, 2024. (Courtesy of FBI)

Federal authorities arrested Fredy Ivan Jandres-Parada, 48, also known as “Lucky De Park View“ at the San Ysidro Port of Entry March 7.

He has been charged for his alleged role in ordering numerous acts of violence against civilians, law enforcement, and rival gang members, as well as transnational drug distribution and extortion schemes.

The San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Ysidro, Calif., on Feb. 2, 2024. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The suspect ranks among the senior leaders of MS-13’s Ranfla Nacional leadership council, formerly known as the Twelve Apostles of the Devil, which controls thousands of MS-13 members worldwide, according to the FBI.

The U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, issued a federal warrant for his arrest in late December 2020, charging him with conspiracy to provide and conceal support and resources to terrorists, conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, conspiracy to finance terrorism, and narco-terrorism conspiracy.

An indictment unsealed a month later reveals the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) strategy to target the upper echelon of MS-13 leadership—the Ranfla Nacional—in El Salvador to dismantle its command and ability to direct cliques in the U.S.

Such cliques are known to be in various Los Angeles neighborhoods known by an area or street including Hollywood, Park View, Normandie, Francis, Fulton, and Coronado, according to the 31-page indictment.

Trump’s Crackdown

A 2020 DOJ report on the department’s efforts to combat MS-13 estimated the gang had 10,000 members across the U.S. and tens of thousands more worldwide and is “responsible for violent crimes in the United States, including murders, extortion, arms and drug trafficking, assaults, rapes, human trafficking, robberies, and kidnappings.”

Less than a month after he was sworn into office, then-President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing “the whole-of-government” to develop and execute a comprehensive and decisive approach to dismantle transnational criminal organizations, including MS-13, to “restore safety for the American people,” the DOJ report states.

“For decades, MS-13 has exploited weaknesses in U.S. immigration enforcement policies to move its members in and out of the United States and to recruit new members who have arrived in the United States illegally,” according to the report.

It has infiltrated American cities and suburbs and established cliques in California, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts, Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, and Texas, according to the DOJ report.

The San Ysidro border entryway near San Diego, Calif., on May 31, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

MS-13 members are mostly Salvadoran nationals or first-generation Salvadoran Americans, as well as Hondurans, Guatemalans, Mexicans, and other Central and South American immigrants, according to the FBI.

And a 2008 report from the agency deemed MS-13 a high-level threat in some parts of the U.S. and a medium threat nationwide, saying it often targets middle and high school students for recruitment.

But, in May 2018, then-President Trump took flak from political adversaries who accused him of calling illegal immigrants “animals,” while criticizing California’s sanctuary state policy at an immigration roundtable in Washington.

“We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in—and we’re stopping a lot of them,” President Trump said. “You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals.”

He made the remark in response to a question about gangs from a sheriff—and later said he was referring to MS-13, but at a National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., a month later, U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, former House Speaker, chastised him over the remark.

“This is the first time in recent history where we have had a president who does not respect the dignity and worth of every person coming into our country, the recognition that immigration is the constant reinvigoration of America,” Ms. Pelosi said. “America has always been a nation of immigrants, enriched and blessed by each wave of newcomers to our shores. We truly believe, as people of faith, that we are all God’s children.”

Former President Donald Trump attends a border security briefing to discuss further plans in securing the southern border wall in Weslaco, Texas, on June 30, 2021. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Ms. Pelosi also received public backlash for saying there is “a spark of divinity” in every immigrant that demands “respect for every person—not animals, not inhuman, but children of God.”

“Immigrants keep faith in America’s promise of opportunity and we must keep faith with them by respecting … the dignity and worth of every person. We must reject language that calls them animals,” she said.

Meanwhile, CBS News reported March 24, that U.S. Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens has called the southern border a “national security threat” citing 140,000 known “gotaways” who were detected by cameras and sensors crossing into the U.S. illegally, but evaded apprehension in the last five months.

Mr. Owens told CBS the Border Patrol is “closing in” on one million apprehensions of migrants in between ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border in the 2024 fiscal year, which began in October.

President Trump, who is again running for president, continues to stress at his rallies the danger of MS-13 gangs, including their brutal machete attacks and other violent tactics.

After a solid, if tailing, record big 2Y auction to start the week on Monday, moments ago the Treasury sold another record-sized batch of paper, this time in the form of 5Y notes, or specifically $67 billion of them, the largest such auction on record.

While – as CNBC’s Steve Liesman said this morning – it is remarkable that there was any buyers for this size paper, what is just as remarkable is that there was rather solid demand for this debt: the auction stopped at a yield of 4.235%, below last month’s 4.320% and stopping through the 4.245% When Issued, the first stop through following 2 months of tails.

The Bid to Cover was 2.41, identical to last month and just below the recent auction average of 2.43.

The internals were especially strong with Indirects surging to a 2024 high of 70.45% from 63.53% last month, and far above the 65.5% recent average. And with Directs awarded 16.8%, just below the recent average of 18.0%, Dealers were left holding just 12.8%, the lowest since June 2023.

Overall, this was a remarkably strong auction which was especially notable since it was also the biggest 5Y auction on record, with yields sliding across the curve after news of the auction pricing hit…

… and indicates that there is a growing disconnect between supply (surging) and demand (also surging) which will continue until one day there is a violent repricing as demand finally pulls back from the infinitely growing supply at which point it will be game over for the western financial system. Until then, just BTFD if you can find any D that is…