Amazon partnered with Element Six, a division of De Beers, to cultivate lab-grown diamonds that have the potential to revolutionize quantum computer networks, reported Bloomberg.

Element Six will work with Amazon Web Services’ Center for Quantum Networking to develop next-generation data transmitting technology over long distances.

The transmission of data in quantum networking will be on the subatomic level and goes beyond today’s fiber-optic network. The lab-grown diamonds will be integrated into network components that allow data to travel longer distances without degradation. 

“We want to make these networks [quantum networks] for AWS, said Antia Lamas-Linares, who heads the Center for Quantum Networking. She believes the technology could be in use in a matter of years rather than decades. 

AWS is likely to adopt quantum networks in the second half of this decade as it offers faster and more secure data transmission technology. This will enable AWS to handle a greater share of the world’s computing and information storage, thereby increasing Amazon’s profits.

… and who knows, Amazon may also venture into selling jewelry with synthetic diamonds to compete with Pandora’s lab-grown diamond jewelry line. 

Via SchiffGold.com,

There’s no sign of a slowdown in central bank gold buying.

In February, central bank gold reserves rose by another 52 tons, according to the latest data compiled by the World Gold Council.

It was the 11th straight month of central bank net gold purchases.

Through the first two months of 2023, net central bank gold purchases came in at 125 tons. This is the strongest start to a year since 2010.

China was the biggest buyer in February. The Peoples Bank of China increased gold holdings by a reported 24.9 tons. It was the fourth consecutive month of reported Chinese gold purchases. In that time, China’s official gold reserves have grown by 102 tons.

The Chinese central bank accumulated 1,448 tons of gold between 2002 and 2019, and then suddenly went silent until it resumed reporting in November 2022. Many speculate that the Chinese continued to add gold to its holdings off the books during those silent years.

There has always been speculation that China holds far more gold than it officially reveals. As Jim Rickards pointed out on Mises Daily back in 2015, many people speculate that China keeps several thousand tons of gold “off the books” in a separate entity called the State Administration for Foreign Exchange (SAFE).

Last year, there were large unreported increases in central bank gold holdings.  Central banks that often fail to report purchases include China and Russia. Many analysts believe China is the mystery buyer stockpiling gold to minimize exposure to the dollar.

Turkey continued to pile up gold, adding another 22.5 tons of gold to its hoard in February. The Central Bank of Türkiye was the biggest gold buyer in 2022 and has increased its gold holding for 15 straight months.

Turkey has been battling rampant inflation. Price inflation accelerated to as high as 85% last year and was at 64% in December. The Turkish lira depreciated by almost 30% last year.  Meanwhile, the price of gold in lira terms increased by 40% on an annual basis, according to Bloomberg.

After a pause in January, India went back to buying gold in February, adding 2.8 tons to its reserves. India ranks as the ninth largest gold-holding country in the world. Since resuming buying in late 2017, the Reserve Bank of India has purchased over 200 tons of gold. In August 2020, there were reports that the RBI was considering significantly raising its gold reserves. India now holds 790 tons of gold.

After a massive 44.6-ton increase in its gold reserves in January, Singapore continued its buying spree in February with another 6.8-ton purchase.

The Central Bank of Uzbekistan added 8 tons of gold to its reserves, following three consecutive months of sales.

Mexico bought 0.3 tons of gold in February.

The National Bank of Kazakhstan was the only notable seller in February, decreasing its reserves by 13.1 tons.

It is not uncommon for banks that buy from domestic production – such as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan – to switch between buying and selling.

The Central Bank of Russia disclosed its gold reserves for the first time in over a year, reporting gold holdings of 2,330 tons at the end of February 2023. That was a 31-ton increase since its last report. The timing of the gold purchases remains unclear.

The World Gold Council said it expects net central bank gold buying to continue through 2023. According to the WGC, emerging market banks remain relatively under-allocated to gold.

Overall, we expect further buying, with EM banks at the forefront of this trend as they continue to redress the imbalance in gold allocations with their developed market peers.”

Total central bank gold buying in 2022 came in at 1,136 tons. It was the highest level of net purchases on record dating back to 1950, including since the suspension of dollar convertibility into gold in 1971. It was the 13th straight year of net central bank gold purchases.

According to the World Gold Council, there are two main drivers behind central bank gold buying — its performance during times of crisis and its role as a long-term store of value.

It’s hardly surprising then that in a year scarred by geopolitical uncertainty and rampant inflation, central banks opted to continue adding gold to their coffers and at an accelerated pace.”

World Gold Council global head of research Juan Carlos Artigas recently told Kitco News that the big purchases underscore the fact that gold remains an important asset in the global monetary system.

Even though gold is not backing currencies anymore, it is still being utilized. Why? Because it is a real asset.”

By Henry Ren and Michael Msika, Bloomberg Markets live reporters and analysts

With credit conditions steadily tightening, equity traders are switching back to the “bad news is bad news” narrative as they brace for a recession. So how to position for it? Europe’s tech and luxury sectors — less sensitive to economic downturns given their secular trends — seem like a good place to start.

Tech has flipped from being last year’s laggard to be one of Europe’s market leaders in 2023. The Stoxx 600 Tech Index is up 19% year-to-date, with chip shares such as ASM International and STMicroelectronics up more than 40%. Meanwhile, an MSCI index of luxury shares has rallied 24% this year, with China’s post-Covid reopening helping companies such LVMH and Hermes scale record highs.

Luxury and tech are both classed as growth sectors, benefiting when bond yields slide and central banks ease off the policy-tightening pedal. Tech is particularly sensitive to peak-rate expectations, given companies’ future earnings hinge on low borrowing costs. And both sectors received an extra boost from recent financial turmoil, which pushed investors to seek shares in companies perceived to have robust balance sheets and promising business models. The below chart shows the lockstep moves between bond yields and tech shares.

Citigroup strategists upgraded European tech stocks to overweight on March 23, citing their preference for quality growth. The firm’s analysts agreed. “Our base case view at the start of the year was for the sector outperformance to resume and we reiterate the same,” Citi’s Amit Harchandani told clients last week. Goldman Sachs strategists concur, also  upgrading the sector to overweight and predicting a further 25% share price upside.

A look at Europe’s top tech stocks shows each has a fundamental story to tell. ASML for instance expects a 25% revenue increase this year, SAP’s sale of its Qualtrics cloud business is seen boosting profit, while Prosus is benefiting from its stake in China’s Tencent. Infineon is enjoying robust chip demand from the car industry.

All that has already boosted the sector’s earnings forecasts by 3.9% this year, beating the Stoxx 600’s 1.1% rise and the Nasdaq 100’s 0.7% upgrade. Infineon, which just raised revenue forecasts, enjoyed a larger lift to estimates, as did its peer STMicro. As a result of this, the Stoxx Tech Index trades around 23.8 times forward earnings — at about its five-year average. The Nasdaq 100 on the other hand, carries a 5% premium to five-year multiples.

Still, not all tech is favored. Companies reliant on discretionary consumer spending, such as keyboard maker Logitech and video-game producer Ubisoft, are underperforming. Tech names with high debt or low profitability — Sinch, Ams-OSRAM and Just Eat Takeaway feature here — also remain in the cold.

The sector may also struggle to sustain its rally if things worsen. Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson, for instance, considers tech to be a cyclical-oriented sector, and says health-care and utilities will offer better protection during downturns. Another risk is that peak interest rates are further than expected and central banks double down on rate hikes. A subsequent bond selloff could well crush tech, as was the case in 2022.

“Tech will certainly be vulnerable to moves in the bond market in the short term,” Marcus Morris-Eyton, a portfolio manager at Allianz Global Investors, said. However, he expects companies with clear technology leadership to outperform, especially as they have “none of the balance sheet questions that investors are currently debating in other sectors.”

“A significant proportion of our lethal aid [for Ukraine] is procured overseas and for both operational and commercial reasons, the detail of these contracts will not be published,” the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has told parliament.

The announcement raises suspicion that Britain is sending more controversial weaponry to Ukraine that it does not want made public. Declassified first reported last week that the UK was sending ammunition containing depleted uranium to Ukraine. Vladimir Putin, Russian president, responded by announcing he would station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus. 

The MoD said the only contracts it will publish will be those with British companies for equipment replenishing existing stockpiles. 

It is unclear which foreign companies the government does not want to reveal its contracts with—or what weapons systems they are for.

The UK provided £2.4bn in military equipment to Ukraine in 2022 – more than any country other than the United States. It has committed to providing the same amount in 2023.

The UK has supplied 10,000 anti-tank weapons, including 5,500 NLAWs, which are designed by Saab in Sweden and made by French arms manufacturer Thales in Belfast. The UK has also provided Javelin and Brimstone missiles. 

UK lethal aid to Ukraine has also included thousands of surface to air missiles including Starstreak, again produced by Thales. 

“The UK arms export regime is defined by a chronic lack of transparency,” Katie Fallon, advocacy manager at Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), told Declassified. 

“That the public might never know how a large part of the weaponry budgeted for Ukraine is being spent, not only raises the risk of corruption, profiteering and procurement of inappropriate equipment, but it also reduces the ability of the UK public to provide badly needed scrutiny of government actions taken in their name.”

Read the rest of the report at Declassified UK…

Authored by Michael Maharrey via SchiffGold.com,

China and Brazil recently finalized a trade deal in their own currencies completely bypassing the dollar, but that’s not the only bad news for the world’s reserve currency.

Last week, a Russian official announced that the BRICS nations are working to develop a “new currency,” yet another sign that dollar dominance is waning.

State Duma (the Russian legislative assembly) deputy chairman Alexander Babakov said the transition to settlements in national currencies is the first step. We’ve already seen this occur with recent oil deals between India and Russia being settled in currencies other than dollars.

The next one is to provide the circulation of digital or any other form of a fundamentally new currency in the nearest future. I think that at the BRICS [leaders’ summit], the readiness to realize this project will be announced, such works are underway.”

That summit is scheduled for August.

Babakov said the BRICS nations are developing a strategy that “does not defend the dollar or euro” and that “a single currency” would likely emerge within BRICS, pegged to gold or “other groups of products, rare-earth elements, or soil.”

Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa make up the BRICS block. It accounts for about 40% of the global population and a quarter of the global GDP.

Last year, Iran officially applied to join BRICS, and according to a report by The Cradle, several nations have expressed interest in joining the bloc, including Saudi Arabia, Algeria, UAE, Egypt, Argentina, Mexico, and Nigeria.

Former Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O’Neill coined the BRIC acronym. In a recent paper published by Global Policy Journal, he urged the expansion of BRICS.

“The US dollar plays a far too dominant role in global finance,” he wrote.

“Whenever the Federal Reserve Board has embarked on periods of monetary tightening, or the opposite, loosening, the consequences on the value of the dollar and the knock-on effects have been dramatic.”

It’s clear that many countries are trying to minimize their exposure to the dollar.

Confidence in the greenback continues to erode thanks to the profligate borrowing, spending and money creation by the US government. America’s use of the dollar as a foreign policy weapon also makes many countries wary of relying solely on dollars.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the dollar’s share of global foreign-exchange reserves fell below 59% at the end of 2021, extending a two-decade decline.

Strikingly, the decline in the dollar’s share has not been accompanied by an increase in the shares of the pound sterling, yen and euro, other long-standing reserve currencies…

Rather, the shift out of dollars has been in two directions: a quarter into the Chinese renminbi, and three quarters into the currencies of smaller countries that have played a more limited role as reserve currencies.”

This is a big problem for the US government.

Uncle Sam depends on the demand for dollars to underpin its profligate borrowing and spending. The only reason the US can get away with massive budget deficits and an ever-growing national debt to the extent that it does is due to the dollar’s role as the world reserve currency. It creates a built-in global demand for dollars and US Treasuries that absorb the money creation and maintain dollar strength. But what happens if that demand drops? What happens if BRICS develops its own currency and no longer needs dollars to trade?

If the demand for dollars tanks, the greenback’s value will quickly erode away. That means even worse price inflation for Americans. And in the worst-case scenario, it could collapse the dollar completely.

Authored by Chris Menahan via InformationLiberation.com,

Neocon control of America has led to the collapse of American global hegemony and the shredding of our nation’s moral authority, according to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

“The collapse of U.S. influence over Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom’s new alliances with China and Iran are painful emblems of the abject failure of the Neocon strategy of maintaining U.S. global hegemony with aggressive projections of military power,” Kennedy said Monday on Twitter, sharing an article from Reuters on OPEC+ cutting production to spike the price of oil in defiance of the Biden regime.

“China has displaced the American Empire by deftly projecting, instead, economic power,” Kennedy continued.

“Over the past decade, our country has spent trillions bombing roads, ports, bridges, and airports. China spent the equivalent building the same across the developing world.”

Kennedy ominously added that “The Ukraine war is the final collapse of the Neocon’s short-lived ‘American Century’,”

“The Neocon projects in Iraq and Ukraine have cost $8.1 trillion, hollowed out our middle class, made a laughingstock of U.S. military power and moral authority, pushed China and Russia into an invincible alliance, destroyed the dollar as the global currency, cost millions of lives and done nothing to advance democracy or win friendships or influence,” he concluded.

Kennedy is absolutely correct.

His point was further underlined last month when Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador went off on the U.S. State Department for accusing Mexico of “human rights abuses” when the Biden regime is working to imprison former President Donald Trump, extradite Julian Assange and bombed the Nord Stream pipelines.

Mexico’s President AMLO says the United States cannot talk about human rights with Julian Assange detained, cartel violence with President Joe Biden bombing the Nord Stream pipeline, or democracy while arresting the leading presidential candidate Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/BIh93L1I43

— kanekoa.substack.com (@KanekoaTheGreat) March 22, 2023

The release of ChatGPT by OpenAI in late 2022, with billions of dollars in funding from Microsoft, is said to have led to a surge in productivity among some white-collar workers. A Nobel Prize-winning labor economist has proposed that this development might open up the possibility for a four-day workweek, reported Bloomberg. 

Professor Christopher Pissarides of the London School of Economics, an expert in the impact of automation on employment, has suggested artificial intelligence tools are leading to productivity gains that might allow people to work shorter hours. 

Pissarides said AI tools make a shorter workweek more feasible: 

“I’m very optimistic that we could increase productivity. 

“We could increase our well-being generally from work and we could take off more leisure. We could move to a four-day week easily,” he said in an interview at a conference in Glasgow. 

AI tools allow workers to complete tedious tasks, such as emails, proposals, reports, coding, or designs, that would typically take minutes, if not hours, to finish in mere seconds. 

“They could take away lots of boring things that we do at work … and then leave only the interesting stuff to human beings,” Pissarides said. 

There’s a lot of uncertainty about AI’s effects on the workforce, and only some workers will benefit from AI tools. Pissarides is concerned the productivity AI boom could lead to millions of lost jobs. 

Calls for implementing a four-day workweek are gaining momentum. A notable six-month pilot test of the four-day, 32-hour workweek, which began in February 2022 of 33 companies employing about 1,000 people in the US, Ireland, and Australia, found revenues were unchanged and, in some cases, increased. 

What’s apparent is that integration of AI tools in the workforce will increase productivity, but this will only lead to mass layoffs as businesses incorporate more automation. Cue the calls for universal basic income… 

By George Lei, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and analyst

Equity markets in both mainland China and Hong Kong have stalled in April after two straight quarters of stellar rallies. Asia-focused money managers appear to have maxed out their China stock exposure, and the next leg in the reopening trade will depend a lot on institutional investors elsewhere shifting their allocations as the latest data revived fears that a US recession could be in store.

Equity inflows into onshore markets from Hong Kong via the stock connect program slowed last month after reaching a post-pandemic high in January and February. Meanwhile, aggregated net inflows from active long-only managers into China/Hong Kong stocks moderated from $5.2 billion in January to $1.2 billion the following month and $330 million in March, according to EPFR data.

Purchases in 1Q were largely driven by portfolio rebalancing as money managers in Asia ex-Japan added China/HK stocks to their equity holdings, according to a research report from Morgan Stanley. Current allocation by Asia ex-Japan portfolios is at the top quintile versus history, a level that appears to be “enough to capture market upside,” according to the US bank.

On the other hand, active weights from global equity managers have remained mostly unchanged, wrote analysts led by Gilbert Wong, Morgan Stanley’s head of Asia quantitative research. Investors outside the region are unlikely to boost their allocation unless relations between Beijing and Washington warm up, China’s long-term growth prospects meaningfully improve or a “black swan” event hits the outlook for developed markets.

Ironically, the black swan scenario might be the most likely catalyst at this point that could tip portfolio reallocation in favor of China. China’s domestic growth recovery is real but will be gradual, largely due to weak confidence that prevents corporates from hiring and consumers from spending, according to Macquarie.

It’s unwise for US investors to chase mega-cap growth stocks that contributed to over 80% of S&P 500 gains in 1Q, UBS Global Wealth Management said in a client note on Wednesday. With tech expensive and the latest data flashing recession risks, the Swiss bank recommends diversifying beyond the US and growth in global equity portfolios, favoring China and other emerging markets.

Authored by Brian Wilson via AmericanThinker.com,

Mass murders and school shootings have become so commonplace that the average person can accurately predict the results.

From politicians to special interest groups to private citizens who share the same anti-gun, anti-2nd Amendment sentiment, the responses have been reduced to redundant, recycled talking points.

• Enough is enough

• Ban assault weapons

• Who needs weapons of war?

• We need gun violence prevention legislation to keep or children safe.

‘Assault weapons”? There is no legal definition of ‘assault weapon.’ At best, it’s a poor attempt at fear via semantics. In fact, such weapons so referenced are only guilty of objectionable cosmetics having one or more: black color, flash suppressor, magazine capacity, pistol grip, folding stock and the dreaded bayonet lug due to the rash of drive-by bayonetings so prevalent in America today. Operationally, they are no different than the millions of semi-automatic hunting and target rifles languishing peacefully in millions of homes where, on a daily basis, they kill no one.

As previously noted, gun legislation that will “keep our children safe” is a lie within a lie. Federal and State laws regulating firearms number in the thousands. Banning ‘assault weapons’ to ‘keep our children safe’ is a cruel lie told by liberal politicians to uninformed parents.  Nevertheless, hysterical ‘elected officials’ and their ilk continue with lies and hysterical tirades whenever a tragic opportunity makes headlines. And then the news cycle moves on leaving frustration, anger, sorrow, and even more ignorance in its wake.

In fact, no legislation is capable of keeping children, women, the elderly or anyone “safe.” No legislation is capable of keeping anyone “safe” from anything. Individual responsibility exercised with situational awareness is the only ‘protection’ universally available. No legislation required.

The shock and tragedy of murder — especially of children — are major contributors to the resulting cognitive dissonance that stuns survivors.

Emotion stampedes intellect; rational thought is the primary casualty.

This is how lies, distortion, and misinformation thrive in the face of facts, logic, and reason.

Some examples:

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” is one of the oldest clichés in defense of gun ownership. Due to cognitive dissonance, that simple logic escapes otherwise reasonable people and forecloses objective discussion. Prior to guns, spears killed people. Prior to spears, rocks; prior to rocks, hands. People have been killing people long before the firearm.

“End gun violence!” is another slice of empty rhetoric. Guns are not violent nor do they operate independently. While labeled ‘simplistic’ by the anti-gun camp, the simplicity is undeniable — which frustrates the opposition and renders them more vitriolic, but still without logic or reason. The person operating the firearm is initiating violence. Cars are not blamed when used in vehicular homicides, the driver is. Liquor isn’t held responsible for a DUI, the imbiber is — and should be in both examples. Many people favoring gun control resent the culpability of the shooter; it’s easier to blame the scary firearm. Even the policeman’s gun is never blamed regardless of the details of the incident.

“Gun violence” is a transparent ad hominem, not a solution.

As proven repeatedly, an armed presence reduces the chances — and opportunities — for lethal mayhem.

That’s why banks, stores, soldiers, celebrities, and the very same politicians who would disarm you surround themselves with well-armed protection.

Schoolchildren must settle for Gun Free School Zone signs because the teachers union, school officials, and, sadly, some parents don’t like the appearance of armed security in their schools.

It’s a sign of their failure to protect students. Do they prefer the dead bodies of children and teachers instead? Aren’t off-duty policemen more readily available than waiting on unconstitutional legislative efforts to deny citizens their 2nd Amendment rights when history and statistics reveal failure and tragedy wherever those efforts have been successful?

Imperfect men enacting imperfect laws over imperfect society will consistently yield imperfect results. Bad things happen and always will. Time and circumstance guarantees it.

“Legislation that will keep our children safe” must be a warning to parents and everyone else. 

Since politicians’ anti-gun proposals cannot possibly have any positive effect reducing crime, what is their real agenda?

At least 10,000 locked-down, stressed-out active duty army soldiers slipped into obesity during the pandemic, according to new research, which looked at weight trends among service members between February 2019 and June 2021.

“I could notice it,” said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Daniel Murillo, who stands at 5 ft, 5 inches tall and weighed as much as 192 pounds. “The uniform was tighter.”

Early pandemic lockdowns, endless hours on his laptop and heightened stress led Murillo, 27, to reach for cookies and chips in the barracks at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Gyms were closed, organized exercise was out and Murillo’s motivation to work out on his own was low. -AP

Increases were seen in the US Navy and the Marines too, according to the Associated Press.

Out of nearly 200,000 Army soldiers analyzed, almost 27% who were healthy before the pandemic became overweight. Nearly 16% of those who were previously overweight became obese. Prior to the pandemic, around 18% of soldiers were obese. By 2021, it was 23%.

“The Army and the other services need to focus on how to bring the forces back to fitness,” according to Tracey Perez Koehlmoos, director of the Center for Health Services Research at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland, who led the research.4

According to federal research, fat people cost the military more than 650,000 workdays each year, while obesity-related healthcare exceeds $1.5 billion each year for current and former service members and their families.

Military leadership has been sounding the alarm over obesity in the US military for over a decade, however the pandemic appears to have exacerbated the problem, according to Marine Corps Brigadier General Stephen Cheney, who co-authored a recent report on the problem, AP reports.

“The numbers have not gotten better,” he said during a November webinar held by the American Security Project. “They are just getting worse and worse and worse.”

In the last fiscal year, the Army failed to reach its recruiting goal for the first time ever – by a margin of 15,000 recruits, or 25% of the requirement – largely because 75% of those aged 17 to 24 don’t qualify for various reasons, including being too fat – the biggest individual disqualifier which affects more than 10% of potential recruits.

“It is devastating. We have a dramatic national security problem,” Cheney said.

Extra weight can make it difficult for service members to meet core fitness requirements, which differ depending on the military branch. In the Army, for instance, if soldiers can’t pass the Army Combat Fitness Test, a recently updated measure of ability, it could result in probation or end their military careers.

Koehlmoos and her team analyzed medical records for all active duty Army soldiers in the Military Health System Data Repository, a comprehensive archive. They looked at two periods: before the pandemic, from February 2019 to January 2020, and during the crisis, from September 2020 to June 2021. They excluded soldiers without complete records in both periods and those who were pregnant in the year before or during the study. -AP

Murillo has been able to slowly reverse the weight gain, dropping his BMI from nearly 32 to just over 27, which falls within the Defense Department’s standard.

One potential solution noted by Dr. Amy Rothberg, an endocrinologist at the University of Michigan who directs a weight-loss program; a new category of effective anti-obesity drugs, including Wegovy (semaglutide). The DoD’s health plan, TRICARE, covers such drugs (and funded, but ‘didn’t influence’ the study which led to this report).