Month: October 2024

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

Fewer young children are receiving common vaccinations, according to a new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Of children born in 2020 or 2021, 1.2 percent have received no vaccinations at age 2, compared to 0.9 percent of children born in 2018 or 2019 at age 2, the CDC says in the paper.

Coverage of each recommended vaccine has also dropped, said the researchers, all of whom are employed by the CDC.

Just 91.9 percent of children born in 2020 or 2021 have received at least three doses of a polio vaccine, for instance, down 1.5 percent from those born in 2018 or 2019. Influenza vaccination was down from 63.4 percent to 55.6 percent, the largest reduction recorded.

The coverage estimates were arrived at through the CDC’s National Immunization Survey, based on answers given by vaccine providers for 28,688 children. The providers sometimes provide answers for children younger than 2, prompting CDC staffers to use the Kaplan-Meier method to estimate coverage.

The CDC recommends dozens of vaccine doses for children before age 1, and additional doses in a child’s early years.

That includes an annual dose of an influenza shot.

When breaking down the data by ethnicity, the study authors found that white children were most likely to have no vaccinations, with 1.4 percent having none compared to 0.9 percent of black children and 1 percent of Hispanic children. Coverage of certain vaccines, such as the full schedule of the rotavirus vaccine, was lower among minorities.

The decline in child vaccinations could stem from parents’ beliefs, according to surveys, including a 2023 Pew Research survey that found a majority of respondents with children aged zero to four believe that not all childhood vaccines are necessary.

Authorities have recorded decreased uptake for influenza vaccination among a number of populations after top U.S. health officials acknowledged they don’t work well.

The influenza shots provided sub-50 percent effectiveness in 2023.

Because insurance does not cover all vaccines, financial barriers may have also contributed to the decline in vaccination among young children, the researchers said. They recommended providers implement systems to remind parents of upcoming appointments and strongly recommend vaccination during appointments.

Limitations of the new study, published by the CDC’s quasi-journal, include responses being available from only about half of providers of children whose parents first filled out the surveys, which means there may be selection bias, the researchers said.

In a separate paper also published by the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Thursday, researchers studying coverage of the same vaccines in U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands found coverage of certain shots has dropped in some of the islands from 2017 to 2021, although it has increased for other shots.

In the Marshall Islands, for instance, just 26 percent of children born in 2021 were recorded as having four shots of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, down from 32.7 percent of those born in 2017 and a peak of 35.6 percent of those born in 2018.

On the other hand, coverage of the polio vaccine has increased from 74.5 percent among Marshall Islands kids born in 2017 to 84.2 percent among children born in 2021.

For the eighth week in the last nine, money market funds saw inflows (+$38.7BN), pushing the total AUM up to a new record high of $6.463TN…

Source: Bloomberg

Non-seasonally-adjusted (NSA) bank deposits saw outflows for the third week in a row (-$18BN)…

Source: Bloomberg

But, as we have become accustomed to, total seasonally-adjusted (SA) deposits rose by $18BN (the sixth weekly increase in seven weeks)…

Source: Bloomberg

But, excluding foreign deposits, both SA and NSA domestic deposits fell in the week ending 9/25 (-$4.8BN and -$22.3BN respectively)…

Source: Bloomberg

On an SA basis, large banks saw $3.2BN outflows and small banks $1.6BN outflows. On an NSA basis, large banks saw $20.1BN in outflows and small banks just $2.2BN outflows, and while large bank saw outflows, their loan volumes increased by $7.3BN last week, while small banks saw loan volumes shrink by 3.5BN…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, as US equities hit new record high market capitalization, bank reserves at The Fed lurched lower (lowest since March 2023)…

Source: Bloomberg

That’s quite a ‘gap’ to fill…

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

“Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s brand-new VP pick, is a fanatical far-left lunatic wearing the friendly armor of hapless, bloated oaf from the sticks”

– Peachy Keenan

“Normally, Western politics gives us actors who are trying to play the role of politicians. Walz is like an actor who is trying to play the role of an actor trying to play the role of a politician. Almost everything about him is just a few degrees off-centre. He’s like what would happen if you endowed Chat GPT with a human body and sent it off to campaign for political office.”

– Eugyppius on Substack

Tuesday night’s veep palaver could be the last time you see the frightened animal known as Tim Walz for the duration of the campaign. He’s famous for his wild body language – jumping around on stage, flapping his arms – but this time the action was all concentrated in his face. You saw his eyes bug out, dart left and right, as if something fierce was coming at him (it was), and more than a few times, his head jerked around sideways so hard you wondered if it might do a whole three-sixty. His mouth, a pain-inflected frown in repose, turned down so deeply it looked like he had sashweights hanging from the corners. Altogether, his face said more than the embarrassing mishmash of mangled English that came out of it. I expect to see a few Tim Walz masks on the little goblins begging for Kit-kat bars the night of October 31.

That same obvious void of conviction you see on Tim Walz’s labile face is on display with the feds’ response to mass tragedy in the Appalachian hurricane zone. It was a point in my book, The Long Emergency, that our national government would become increasingly impotent, ineffectual, and incompetent as conditions worsened — and now here it is. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), could not bestir itself to aid stricken citizens around the flood-ravaged region in North Carolina and Tennessee. Sec’y Mayorkas of Homeland Security said that FEMA was out of money which, in this season of political weirdness, is especially weird, seeing as how the nation’s fiscal year began Oct 1, and Congress’s continuing resolution for funding US agencies should assure that FEMA’s checkbook is full. What was up with that?

Well, everybody and his uncle has heard by now that FEMA (and many other agencies under Mayorkas’s DHS) commits tons of money to pamper the millions of mutts from foreign lands sneaking over the US border, with lots of assistance from NGO cut-outs funded by your tax dollars, who marshal groups of aliens south-of-the-border for the crossing, and then fly or bus them around our country for the special purpose of distributing them in swing voting districts to then coordinate with other NGOs devoted to registering non-citizens to vote in order to “harvest” their ballots. Quite an operation. Completely lawless and corrupt. And official!

So, no aid for you, baskets of deplorables, shivering in the dark in your hills and hollows of Appalachia, your houses splintered, scant chattels lost, and your beloved hound-dogs carried away in the roaring torrents. The money that might have helped you begin to recover from the complete devastation of your lives is paying for Guatemalans to bunk in the Roosevelt Hotel and order-in quesadillas and churros, and refill their government-issued debit cards so they can afford a few nice things as they wait for mysterious others to cast ballots in their names.

This is the work of your Democratic Party, the party of chaos, party of the Woke mentally ill, party of wrecking the country, of America’s end times. And you’re going to vote for more of it? Of course not. And despite the attempts to knock him out of the arena with scores of utter bullshit lawfare cases, and efforts to shoot him dead, Mr. Trump keeps coming at them, an implacable, relentless force, the true Golden Golem conjured up by their catamite news media. Their inability to destroy him has wrecked their minds.

One surprising October surprise is advanced by whistleblower Mike McCormick on Substack (Midnight in the Laptop of Good and Evil).  Mr. McCormick was White House stenographer under Presidents Bush II, Obama, and Trump. His job was to transcribe meetings, speeches, and interactions between major political figures. He was the proverbial fly-on-the-wall for years and years. He has seen and heard a lot and still hears a lot from people who know a lot. He says the Obama-Biden-Harris faction of the Deep State blob is anti-Israel and that Israel understands what this means. He says that Benjamin Netanyahu has told “Joe Biden” (or, let’s say, told errand-boys Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan) that if the blob engineers a phony victory for Kamala Harris, he will blow up the oil fields in Iran and the anti-Israel Democrats will have to pick up the pieces.

There it is, raw power politics, like so much meat on the table. “Joe Biden” cannot control Bibi. “Joe Biden” is too far gone and two weak, and Israel does not aim to let itself get wiped off the map, as Iran’s leadership never tires of saying. The blob, McCormick says, has to ask itself: does it help rig the election for Harris or stand down on all its ballot harvesting and other trickery and actually allow a real election to roll out? Surprise! Now, take your Kit-kat bar and go home.

Is good news, good news? Capping off a week of positive macro surprises, payrolls slipped into the goldilocks dress and spoiled the dovish party for many…

US Macro is at its highest since April, having flipped positive this week…

Source: Bloomberg

Rate-cut expectations have plunged (hawkishly)…

Source: Bloomberg

… and Treasury yields have exploded higher (2Y +22bps today, 30Y +9bps). 2Y yields are up over 36bps on the week as the curve flattened dramatically…

Source: Bloomberg

…with 10Y Yield pushing back towards 4.00%…

Source: Bloomberg

…and the yield curve (2s10s) bear-flattened dramatically this week, almost back to inverted…

Source: Bloomberg

Bond yields caught up to stocks today…

Source: Bloomberg

The hawkishness in STIRs and higher rates did not stymie stocks today as they squeezed up to unchanged (with Small Caps ripping today the most but the worst on the week)…

The dollar surged higher today, to its highest close since mid-August. The dollar was up all five days in a row this week for its best week since Sept 2022…

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin was down on the week, but found support at $60k…

Source: Bloomberg

Gold ended the week marginally lower…

Source: Bloomberg

Crude oil prices exploded higher this week – the best week since Oct 2022…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, USA sovereign risk refuses to drop… despite ‘Goldilocks’…

Source: Bloomberg

Something’s going on under the hood.

Authored by Brayden Lindrea via CoinTelegraph.com,

A man who reportedly turned $88,000 into $415 million before losing it all has sued his investment firm and advisers for failing to provide adequate advice as he carried out risky trades.

Christopher DeVocht claimed RBC Dominion Securities set him up with a margin account and substantial loans that ultimately backfired, wiping out his entire investment portfolio, Stockwatch reported on Oct. 3.

DeVocht made most of the wealth by trading shares and using Tesla options.

The Canada-based man then hired RBC, who assigned advisers that Devotch claims were supposed to help him preserve his wealth by recommending risk mitigation strategies.

It included a Grant Thornton LLP tax adviser and an RBC employee who served as a “coach” for Devotch’s financial planning.

Source: Cejay Kim

DeVocht’s portfolio peaked at $415 million on Nov. 30, 2021, then declined rapidly in 2022 when Tesla and the broader stock market collapsed.

He was forced to sell Tesla shares and repay loans from his margin account, contributing to the portfolio wipeout.

As DeVocht sees things, his losses were partly caused by RBC and Grant Thornton LLP. 

“But for the defendants’ inadequate advice … the plaintiffs would have preserved a substantial portion of their wealth and implemented financial planning that would not have resulted in the loss of their entire net worth.”

While the case involved traditional stocks, X user Kun highlighted to his 21,000 followers that the recent case shows these happenings aren’t confined to the crypto markets.

Source: Kun

DeVocht is seeking court-ordered damages plus legal costs and interest. 

RBC Wealth Management Financial Services and Thornton were also named defendants in the lawsuit filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Canada.

The defendants have not yet filed a response.

Via SchiffGold.com,

Peter recently joined Francis Hunt on his Youtube channel, The Market Sniper, for an interview. Throughout the course of their conversation, they cover the future of gold, destructive campaign promises made by Kamala Harris, soaring deficit figures, and why the public is mistaken about gold ETFs.

Francis begins by asking Peter about the similarities between today’s economy and the economy in 2006 and 2007. Many of the Great Recession era problems linger, but we have even more debt:

“The problem is that after we got the financial crisis, the government didn’t learn from its mistakes at all. The Federal Reserve didn’t acknowledge any role in creating the crisis and it simply did more of what caused it. And so now, a dozen years later or more, the economy is in much worse shape. We have far more debt now than we had in 2008. We have a much bigger bubble that encompasses a lot more than just residential housing. And we’re on the precipice of a much greater economic crisis from which there could be no bailouts because the way they were able to bail everybody out before was to create inflation.”

Meanwhile, gold is having a killer year– its best in over 40 years. With the Fed already cutting rates, the stage is set for the metal to have its best year ever:

“Gold is on pace to have its best year percentage-wise since 1979. And it’s already its best year dollar-wise. Gold is up over $600 an ounce so far this year. But percentage-wise, it’s the biggest since 1979. But 1979 was significant in that that was the end of the gold bull market, because 1980 was the top and gold turn, because Volcker raised interest rates up to 20%. But Powell and his cronies are about to cut rates, or they already have cut rates, and they’re going to cut them more in 2025.”

The presidential candidates have only one answer to complaints about the economy, and it’s to create even larger deficits:

“She [Kamala Harris] wants to give everybody $25,000 to go out and buy a house, $50,000 to start a business, $7,000 to have a child. Where’s this money going to come from? It’s going to be bigger deficits that the Fed is going to have to monetize. Everybody’s talking about tax cuts. Even though we have massive deficits, people want to make the deficits bigger.”

At this rate, debt maintenance is primed to surpass tax revenue:

“We could easily add $25 trillion to the national debt. I mean, it’s already $36 trillion. I mean, it’s growing exponentially. Interest on the national debt is larger than defense. It’s over a trillion a year. In a couple of years, interest on the national debt will be bigger than either Social Security or Medicare. And both of those expenses are growing. But probably by the end of whoever wins this presidential election, I think that interest on the debt will consume 100% of tax revenue.”

The economy must detox from decades of artificial and cheap credit, wasteful government spending, and insufficient saving. This will be a painful process, but it beats the alternative:

“And so the only way to get back to a real economy is to allow the phony economy to die. But that means a lot of people lose a lot of money. But the alternative is they lose even more because then nobody loses their money, but the money loses its value. So we don’t default on the bonds. We don’t default on Social Security. Everybody gets their Social Security checks. They just can’t buy anything when they take the money to the store.”

Peter and Francis wrap up by discussing Bitcoin’s recent performance. They agree that retail investment is a contrary indicator. Money has been flowing from gold ETFs into Bitcoin ETFs, when the reverse would be more profitable:

“While the public has been wasting their money buying Bitcoin ETFs, they’ve been pulling their money out of gold ETFs. Gold ETFs have had net outflows this year. Gold stock ETFs have also had net outflows, despite the fact that this is the best year for gold in 45 years. So, the public has been selling gold the whole time it’s been going up, and they’ve been buying an asset that’s gone nowhere.”

Check out Peter’s other recent interviews on Schwab Network, Rocks and Stocks, and Wall Street for Main Street.

Volkswagen, Mercedes, Aston Martin, and BMW have all recently slashed their forecasts. The broader economic landscape for Western automobile companies is dire as high interest rates crush demand, EV programs hemorrhage cash, and demand in China wanes. Many Western firms are plagued with de-growth climate change policies that muzzle economic output or make the manufacturing process way too expensive, ultimately giving Chinese firms an unfair advantage in global markets. 

Expanding our coverage on automaker Stellantis, a new report from Wall Street Journal journos on Friday reveals a leaked email from Stellantis Chief Financial Officer Natalie Knight, who informed her team of white collar workers about the need to take “drastic measures” to shore up the Jeep and Ram parent’s finances. 

Knight told her team, “The Doghouse is back!” As she explained, this belt-tightening initiative involves heavily scrutinizing requests for purchases from outside vendors to ensure maximum cost savings. 

She said the doghouse “is the name for much stricter attention and control around purchase requisitions,” adding, “If we apply more discipline, we can ensure big savings for the company.”

On Monday, Stellantis reduced its margin forecast for the entire year, indicating that production will be reduced and that more promotional incentives will be available to customers in an increasingly competitive auto market. 

The Western trans-Atlantic auto manufacturer wrote in a statement that the adjusted operating income margin will slide to 5.5% to 7% this year, down from a previous forecast for a double-digit percentage. It now projects an industrial free cash flow range of negative 5 billion euros ($5.6 billion) to negative 10 billion euros, versus prior guidance of positive cash generation. 

In markets, shares of Stellantis in the US were down about 17%, the largest weekly decline since late February 2022. 

Also on Monday, Stellantis’ head of investor relations told Wall Street analysts that despite “significantly negative” industrial cash flow in 2024, cash on hand will be plentiful at the end of the year. The automaker’s business downturn this year is a significant reversal from last year. 

Knight also told her team they must preserve cash. She told staff that spending deemed non-essential must be cut, adding “That calls for drastic measures to ensure we deliver the best financial results for 2024, 2025 and beyond.” 

She also referenced the term “Darwinian times,” which Stellantis Chief Executive Carlos Tavares previously used. He used the term when referring to the taxing transition to EVs, pressuring the entire auto industry. 

“Stellantis’s cash drain stems not only from lower profits, but also from its efforts to reduce a glut of unsold vehicles on dealer lots in the United States,” WSJ noted. The automaker also revealed that vehicle shipments in North America would have to be slashed by 200,000. This comes after third-quarter sales in the US crashed 20%. 

Bernstein analyst Daniel Roeska told clients Thursday that Stellantis faces a short-term cash headwind of about $4.4 billion. 

Taking a look at broader auto markets, the MSCI World Automobiles Index, comprised of major automakers, such as Tesla, Toyota, Ferrari, GM, Benz, Honda, Ford, Stellantis, BMW, and VW, has chopped sideways for two years, below the late 2021 peak. 

 

By Philip Marey, senior US strategist at Rabobank

Markets remain concerned by developments in the Middle East. This morning oil prices were subdued, but still heading for a weekly gain of about 8%. Meanwhile, markets are waiting for Israel’s pending retaliation against Iran and today’s US Employment Report.

Yesterday, the union of East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers reached an agreement with port operators, ending three day strike at ports from Maine to Texas. Port operators offered a 62% wage increase over six years, after the White House pressed the shipping lines and cargo terminal operators who employ the longshore workers to raise their earlier offer of 50%. The agreed wage increase is lower than the 77% demanded by the union (International Longshoremen’s Association, ILA), but it is a better deal than the union of the West Coast dockworkers reached last year. The base hourly rate for ILA port workers will be raised from $39 to $63 over six years. Note that many dockworkers currently earn more than $100,000 per year. The agreement lasts until January 15, 2025, while the two sides negotiate on other issues, such as automation on the docks. Obviously, the strike and wage increase have raised the incentives for cargo terminal operators to invest in automation: robots don’t strike! Or will they? Perhaps it depends on how much artificial intelligence you put in them.

While this deal averts shortages and price spikes in the short run, as many forward-looking importers brought in products earlier or diverted cargo to West Coast ports, it will lead to higher costs for shipping lines and cargo terminal operators, who are likely to pass some of it on to manufacturers, farmers and retailers. President Biden released a statement that “collective bargaining works, and it is critical to building a stronger economy from the middle out and the bottom up.” Note that Biden repeatedly made clear to the employers of the dockworkers that he would not use his federal powers to break the strike. We are likely to see a similar position taken by a Harris administration, so if she wins in November, other unions may feel encouraged to follow a similar path as the ILA.

While Biden seems to have been involved in the solution to the domestic port strikes, he seems to have been sidelined by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, who is betting that he can get away with anything now that the Democrats and Republicans are in the final weeks of a close race for the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. As the Israeli invasion of Lebanon continues, the Middle East is still waiting for Israel’s retaliation against Iran’s ballistic missile attack earlier this week.

Yesterday’s ISM services survey sent a stagflationary message that the FOMC may not want to hear. While the prices paid index jumped to 59.4 in September from 57.3, the employment index fell from 50.2 to 48.1, which is in contractionary territory.  Having shifted its focus from fighting inflation to preventing a further labor market deterioration, this report raises some questions for the Fed. Fortunately, the business activity index improved to 59.9 from 53.3, offsetting some of the concerns caused by the weak employment index.

 

A shocking firsthand account from a SpaceX engineer in storm-battered North Carolina reveals that Biden-Harris’ Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) blocked shipments of critical goods for relief efforts into the region. There have been numerous reports this week of FEMA actively hindering relief efforts in the western part of the state, including threatening private helicopter pilots with arrests for conducting rescue missions. We also learned that the Biden-Harris administration drained FEMA funds to support illegal aliens, prioritizing non-citizens (future voters) over American citizens. 

Around lunchtime, Elon Musk shared a dire message from one of his SpaceX engineers on the ground in the storm-ravaged state. Musk said, “FEMA is not merely failing to adequately help people in trouble, but is actively blocking citizens who try to help!” 

Musk shared a dire warning from one of his engineers on the ground:

“Hey Elon, update here on site of Asheville, NC. We have powered up two large operating bases for choppers to deliver goods into  hands. We’ve deployed 300+ starlinks and outpour is it has saved many lives.

“The big issue is FEMA is actively blocking shipments and seizing goods and services locally and locking them away to state they are their own. It’s very real and scary how much they have taken control to stop people helping. We are blocked now on the shipments of new starlinks coming in until we get an escort from the fire dept. but that may not be enough.”

Just received this note from a SpaceX engineer helping on the ground in North Carolina. @FEMA is not merely failing to adequately help people in trouble, but is actively blocking citizens who try to help!

“Hey Elon, update here on site of Asheville, NC. We have powered up two…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2024

More from Musk. 

SpaceX engineers are trying to deliver Starlink terminals & supplies to devastated areas in North Carolina right now and @FEMA is both failing to help AND won’t let others help. This is unconscionable!!

They just took this video a few hours ago, where you can see the level of… pic.twitter.com/abpOsfNenF

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2024

What a mess.

Yeah, it’s not just SpaceX. They won’t let anyone help!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2024

Radio transmissions from first responders in Mecklenburg County provided firsthand accounts of the government blocking relief efforts by private citizens. This is disturbing.

Why is Fema blocking civilians?? pic.twitter.com/xB00fBcWaE

— theREALhotdoggity (@hotdoggitylife) October 3, 2024

Americans quickly understood by the end of the week the big theme in Biden-Harris’ botched hurricane response efforts, very similar to the dismal response in East Palestine, Ohio, as explained by The Bishop of Mises Institute: “This horrific natural disaster is a reminder of the extent to which the regime [Biden-Harris] hates the people who live there.” 

Folks were even more shocked when the US Homeland Security secretary warned that FEMA funds were running dry for hurricane disaster funding. This is because the Biden-Harris team diverted $1.4 billion to address the migrant crisis they helped create through open southern border policies. 

It makes sense. pic.twitter.com/TaMJkj2Mz3

— Planet Of Memes (@PlanetOfMemes) October 4, 2024

Prepper All Naturals on the ground

A group of citizen responders from Prepper All Naturals – a veteran-owned emergency food company which delivered $60,000 of meat and arranged for sanitary stations – reports that the scene is chaotic and unmanaged by FEMA.

“Things here are far worse than expected, or that is being reported. I won’t go into detail on the deaths. Too gruesome. There will also be more out there, especially in the remote places that will starve or die from disease,” said team lead Scotty Clay. “Search and Rescue Team here this morning. The team in our vicinity found 135 dead yesterday. The death toll will be bad. Many were way up high in the trees.”

“The damage is unprecedented. Many places  look like a nuclear war zone, with more than I could count (e.g., fire station) just totally washed away. Nothing but dirt left.”

Clay continued;

I remember going down to Winne and Beaumont after Rita hit. This is far far worse than that. How can that (hurricane force winds) happen 800 miles inland?

 

It will be at least six months, and maybe as much as year or more in some places to get power, water, roads, bridges and communications restored. 

Even before the storm was churning in the Gulf of Mexico, the Biden-Harris administration of far-left radicals weaponized the FCC against Musk and blocked Starlink from a rural federal contract that would’ve supplied the state with 20,000 terminals. If these terminals had been active ahead of the storm and during its early days, they could’ve saved lives. 

The Southeast should identify as ‘Ukraine’…

… to get the proper response from White House officials who despise those living in the Southeast because they’re Trump supporters. 

Here’s what X users are saying:

Unacceptable! Kamala Harris and this administration have to be held accountable! Americans are dying.

— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) October 4, 2024

So at first, they didn’t help, and now they are *hindering* people from helping.

This is criminal.

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 4, 2024

Everyone should read this thread to help understand at least partially why this is happening: $$$ ⬇️ https://t.co/z7nrZMyP1v

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) October 4, 2024

New York City schools will not be banning cell phones for students after consideration after neurotic parents, all likely slaves to their own cell phone addictions, pushed back against the idea.

Parents, apparently unable to remember a time in the not too distant past where cell phones had nothing to do with schooling, cited struggling to reach their children during a lockdown at two Upper West Side schools last month, Bloomberg wrote this week.

The Bloomberg report states that, as a result, New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks came out and said “now is not the time” to ban cell phones in schools.

“Parents were saying that ‘if an emergency happens, I need to be in touch with my child,’” he told Fox 5. He didn’t mention any outraged parents threatening legal action, but if we had to venture an unsupported guess, given what we know about New York City, we wouldn’t be surprised if that played a role as well. 

Ergo, Banks has reversed his stance on a proposal to limit phone use for over 1.1 million public school students across 1,800 campuses.

Initially pushing for a ban, Banks acknowledged on Wednesday that a balanced approach is needed. Speaking to Fox 5 New York, he noted that while cell phones can be a distraction, they also allow students to stay connected during emergencies. 

The shift comes as Banks prepares to leave office earlier than planned, according to Bloomberg. Originally set to retire at the end of the year amid a corruption probe, his departure was moved up to Oct. 16. Deputy Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos will take over.

The change of heart followed a Sept. 12 lockdown at Frank McCourt High School and a nearby elementary school due to a false report of a gunman. Parents were frustrated by the lack of direct communication during the incident.

Recall back in May we published what happened when several schools banned cellphones. Our friends at The Epoch Times found that it resulted in improved academics, reduced bullying, and reduced students’ need for counseling.

Citing a 73-page Norwegian paper, they wrote: “Banning smartphones significantly decreases the health care take-up for psychological symptoms and diseases among girls.”

The paper followed data from recent decades, mainly focusing on 2010 to 2020.

The researcher observed no negative impact from introducing such a policy.

“The phones are an absolute distraction. Even if a kid has the phone in their pocket during class, if the phone is on vibrate every time it vibrates, which is constantly, their mind automatically shifts away from what the teacher is teaching to the phone,” Tom Kersting, a psychotherapist who was a school counselor for 25 years, told The Epoch Times in agreement with the report’s findings.