Prior to the $3.25 billion emergency takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS, mandated by Swiss authorities more than two weeks ago to avert a global financial crisis, the struggling Swiss bank had been contemplating for several months about slashing bonuses for its bankers. 

On Wednesday afternoon, the Swiss government, not Credit Suisse bank executives, moved forward with a plan to cancel or reduce bonuses. The Swiss Federal Council directed the Federal Department of Finance to eliminate or decrease top Credit Suisse bankers’ bonuses by 25% to 50%. According to the SFC statement, this action would affect bankers in the top three tiers of management.

For the bonuses already paid out, Credit Suisse has to examine whether some of those payments to employees can be recovered. The lender would have to report to FDF and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority on the matter. 

Bloomberg noted UBS is required that its “remuneration system continues to give appropriate consideration to risk awareness and includes as a criterion the successful, i.e., most profitable possible, realization of the Credit Suisse assets covered by the state loss guarantee.” 

The Swiss government’s move might lead to more Credit Suisse bankers jumping ship. Days after the state-brokered takeover of the troubled bank, there were reports of employees talking with job recruiters from competing firms. 

Perhaps UBS chair Colm Kelleher’s speech to shareholders on Wednesday, outlining the takeover of Credit Suisse entails “a huge amount of risk,” might be why Swiss authorities plan to cancel or reduce top banker bonuses. 

The Swiss government is penalizing top bankers and avoiding impacting lower-tier employees who weren’t responsible for causing the crisis. 

Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

Optimists about the U.S. economy and the dollar’s global reserve status have had the wind at their back for half of a century, so why should anyone expect them to consider an alternative viewpoint?

Therein lies the folly that our country faces.

There’s a reason that every financial disclosure, brochure, hedge fund letter or commercial always says “past performance is not indicative of future results” on it: because it isn’t. But that boilerplate-sounding warning is printed in size zero font and, as a result, also rests in the equivalent of size zero font in the brains of U.S. dollar bulls.

The fact is that warnings about the precarious nature of the U.S. dollar – whether bombastic or not – are probably more important today than they have ever been. But these warnings can’t compete with 50 years of the “trend being the United States’ friend”, a hurricane force tailwind that includes politicians on both sides of the aisle, the nation’s central bank, the treasury secretary and the roaring concert of all financial news media.

Those who believe the dollar is always destined to be the backbone of the global economy are like players at a roulette table who have a system of betting all of the inside numbers, except for the number 13. Given a small house edge and the fact that you have to lay 35 to win 36 (excluding the 0 and 00) means that, in order to start cashing in on your system in a big way, you have to get hot and tear off a ton of wins in a row. But when the odds are in your favor – and betting 35 of 36 total outcomes definitely skews them to your advantage – it’s almost a certainty you’ll “get hot” and start winning multiple spins in row. When you start winning dozens of spins in a row, it becomes impossible to hear the skepticism of the one person betting the 13 or warning you that eventually, it’ll come out.

Well right now, at the casino of the global economy, the U.S. is on a roll. We are on fire. We have figured out how to beat the house. We are casino gods.

We’ve won 1,000 spins of the roulette wheel in a row, without hitting the number 13. We are a shooter at a craps table that has made every point, over and over, for hundreds of days in a row. We are sports bettors hitting every leg of an 8 team parlay every single night for an entire month and pressing the winnings each time. We are playing multiple blackjack hands every hand, and we split and double down on every hand, and all we do is pull 20’s and 21’s. The dealer doesn’t even need to bust every hand, but it does.

The casino has plied us with drinks. We’ve been drinking top shelf for 50 years and have no idea how drunk we’ve become. The seduction of the win has blinded us to the sobering constant of the math on the other side of our “systems”. Like a slithering, unsuspecting cobra slowly making its way to our table on the floor while we high five our allies after every additional win, the snake of reality gets closer and closer, preparing to eventually bite us when we least expect it.

And the truly fucked up thing? When you’re betting it all, every hand, it only takes that one roll, or that one spin, to give back everything we’ve spent our entire winning streak accumulating.

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Which brings me to the point of today’s post: the idea that so-called “fear mongers” about the U.S. dollar – arguing for everything from a mundane DXY crash to a full out loss of reserve currency status – literally only have to be right once.

Most people will tell you that, mathematically, they acknowledge that the dollar’s run can’t continue for the rest of eternity. And we’ve never experimented with a monetary system the way we have now, so we don’t have any basis for comparison about how long the fiat circus is going to continue. 50 years of fiat is actually a relatively short amount of time, so there are good arguments for both continuing to ride the “hot streak” for a few more generations and also for hegemony ending suddenly, when we least expect it.

However, after 10 years of trying to figure out the dastardly scheme that is macroeconomics, I can’t remember a time where the idea of the dollar losing reserve status has been in the mainstream media as much as it is now.

And in the past few hours we’ve seen headlines like:

• Malaysia Prime Minister Says There’s No Reason To Continue to Depend on the US Dollar

• Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince is No Longer Interested in “Pleasing” the U.S.

• Chinese Yuan Replaces US Dollar as the Most Traded Currency in Russia

• Dubai Oil Benchmark Takes Center Stage as Russia, India Abandon Brent Benchmark

• Kenya signs deal with Saudi Arabia and UAE to buy oil with Kenyan shillings instead of US dollars. President of Kenya tells citizens to get rid of US dollars.

And also courtesy of @WatcherGuru, Saudi Arabia in just the past week has done the following:

1. Saudi Arabia to adopt economic strategy without US dependence, following decline in relations under Biden Administration, FT reports.

2. Saudi Arabia, Russia, UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, and Algeria to cut oil production output until the end of 2023.

3. Saudi Arabia partners with China to build a Chinese oil refinery for 83.7 billion yuan ($12.2 billion).

4. Saudi Arabia enters trade alliance with China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and four Central Asian nations to step further away from reliance on the US dollar.

5. Saudi Arabia partners with India to create an investment bridge emphasizing greater economic interconnectedness.

Initially, I wrote today’s article as a concession that I would stop writing about the risks facing the dollar – but then I took personal inventory and realized it’s not likely I would be able to commit to that.

Suffice it say, however, the mainstream is finally picking up the thread.

Even the mainstream media realizes what many of us have been screaming for years: that we are in uncharted waters, given the decades of low rates, Keynesian policy, current potential for serious stagflation and the global challenge that nations like Saudi Arabia, Russia and China appear to be mounting against the dollar.

Journalists that don’t even involve themselves in finance much even agree that we haven’t faced these financial conditions before, and are exercising caution.

If the US dollar’s global supremacy erodes, America will face a reckoning like none before.

My take: pic.twitter.com/yxTz16bi3N

— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) March 26, 2023

While we had a similar inflationary crisis back in the 70’s, we had only been off the gold standard for a couple years and our debt levels were nowhere near where they are today as a percentage of GDP.

Today we’re 50 years into the fiat experiment and we’ve drawn the ire of half the world.

Look, there are a lot of smart people on the other side of this argument – Brent Johnson, who I respect a ton, comes to mind – but even he can’t escape the fact that our situation, as it stands today, has never before occurred in the history of our country.

We have never been off a gold standard for 50 years, while separating economically and militarily from China, Russia and the Saudis, all while experiencing significant inflation and an economic slowdown.

And it is this very same fact – the fact that we have never been here before – that is also what makes it clear that we have no idea how or when things will change drastically.

To go back to the roulette analogy, the trend certainly seems to be continuing as our friend. But what happens when something unprecedented takes place at the casino?

For example, what if the dealer wants to drop two roulette balls in the wheel every time it spins now. And what if the craps dealer handed you three dice instead of two, and told you it was only going to take the two that landed the closest to 3 and 4? In those cases, the game changes drastically, as do the odds. This is exactly what’s happening all around the United States on a global stage.

If it isn’t enough that the BRICS nations have openly stated their intent to develop a global reserve currency, and that they’re hoarding gold while ending the petrodollar, OPEC snubbed President Biden for all the world to see, just hours ago, when it announced an unplanned cut of 1 million barrels of oil per day.

There is no doubt OPEC knows that energy prices are a huge contributor to inflation in the United States, and that inflation remains the main driver of monetary policy – at least until markets crash (coming soon, in my opinion).

And so the Saudi’s and OPEC have knowingly thrown a wrench in the gears of the United States because President Biden chose not to refill the strategic petroleum reserve in the $60 range when he had the chance over the last few weeks.

Biden is multiple steps behind the 8 ball. This plundering of the reserves and then missing the chance to buy it back is like something out of my shitty trading playbook. Biden is “trading” like the ultimate bagholder – except he’s not pushing around 100 shares of AMC, he’s speculating with the oil reserves that our country keeps for a military emergency.

As far as the dollar goes, I’m happy to be called a fear monger as long as I’m wrong.

Being a skeptic of monetary policy and coming by it honestly is very paradoxical in nature. On one hand, I want to warn about the way it appears things are going.

On the other hand, for my country, and everybody in it, our critics are right in the sense that I don’t want to be right. Deep down, I hope guys like Brent Johnson are right and the dollar remains a shining beacon on a hill for the rest of the world. And hey, if I could think myself into some cognitive dissonance enough to truly believe that a bullish dollar situation is more likely than the ones I write about, I would do it in a heartbeat. And I would probably sleep a lot better at night.

But the fact is that, like many of you, I can’t ignore what appears to be the obvious.

When you’re betting it all, it only takes that one ‘13’ to come up on the roulette wheel or the one ‘7’ to come up with the button on in craps. With the dollar, our nation is betting it all on remaining reserve currency in the way we abuse it – and it only takes us “fear mongers” once to be right before we wake up and everything is completely different than it has ever been before.

Sure, I never want this day to happen – but that doesn’t mean that the likelihood of it happening isn’t significant enough to prepare for it. For how I’m positioned personally, you can read my latest on my portfolio here and here and my earlier market forecast for 2023 or my 23 Stocks To Watch In 2023 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here).

QTR’s Disclaimer: I am not a guru or an expert. I am an idiot writing a blog and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning and generally trade like a degenerate psychopath. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities or any asset class – just my opinions of me and my guests. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in and I’m sure have lost more than I’ve made in my time in markets. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. Positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it three times because it’s that important.

QTR’s Fringe Finance is a reader-supported publication, consider subscribing here and get 50% off a subscription, for life: SUBSCRIBE

By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

Slowing, Slowing, Gone?

With baseball season coming, I couldn’t think of a better way to start this quick economic update.

Since we highlighted Excess Inventory, Increasing Delinquencies Falling Shipping last week, April has provided us with largely weak economic data.

• Manufacturing PMI fell further to 46.3 (the 5th month in a row below 50)

• JOLTS job openings actually fell and is back to levels last seen in the summer of 2021 (the Quit Rate at 2.6% was still higher than the historical average (2.4%), but well off its peak of 3%).

• Factory orders and durable goods remained in decline.

• ADP was “only” 145k, down from allegedly 261k last month.

• While the service sector is still hanging on, the ISM Services came in at 51.2, down from 55.1 and versus expectations of 54.4, making some (or at least me) wonder if the 49.9 print back in December wasn’t an anomaly after all? The employment component reverted lower again. Finally, new order dropped substantially was well (62.2 from 62.6).

Every bit of data this month has hinted at a slowing economy.

The inflation front is not being helped by oil, with WTI surging from $69 to $80 in less than two weeks, supported by OPEC+ cutting production, rather than from solid global growth prospects (I’m assuming the world’s leading oil exporters have a sense of where demand is heading).

Maybe this is “just” catching up to some overly good data in recent months (The Citi Economic surprise index shot from -10 in early February, to above 60, and was still at 48 before today’s data). Or maybe the data recently was skewed by bad “seasonal adjustments”, “low response rates”, a “shifting economy that isn’t fully captured in current data”, etc…

[ZH: We note that this decline in the macro surprise index has been driven (until very recently) by a collapse in ‘soft’ survey data]

We get NFP on Friday, while the stock market is closed, should make for some interesting trading late on Thursday and Monday.

From a positioning standpoint, I’m updated some things since Sunday’s Fortune Favored the Bold:

• Neutral on bonds. It felt foolish being constructive on bonds with he 10 year at 3.47%, but it fit my models. Here at 3.3% I’m neutral and would be tempted to be short, except the fact that NFP on Friday will be on a day with incredibly low liquidity (even by already low liquidity standards) and almost anything could happen. The 2-year at 3.7% holds little appeal and I am bearish on the economy!

• Medium bearish on risk assets. I am now firmly entrenched in the medium bearish camp and will keep that as stocks (and credit spreads) seem to be trading on recession and earnings fears and less on the hope that the Fed is done hiking and the view (ill advised, in my opinion) that the Fed finishing should send stocks significantly higher.

On the bright side, in the first week of April, everyone’s team is in the running to win the World Series! (unless you are a Washington Nationals fan, in which case you can give up already).

Well-known crypto tech executive Bob Lee was stabbed to death early Tuesday morning near downtown San Francisco.

The 43-year-old Lee was perhaps best known for starting Cash App, and as former CTO of Square. He was the chief product officer of San Francisco-based crypto startup MobileCoin.

“Our dear friend and colleague, Bob Lee passed away yesterday at the age of 43, survived by a loving family and collection of close friends and collaborators,” reads a statement from MobileCoin, which described him as “a dynamo, a force of nature … the genuine article.”

“Bob would give you the shirt off his back,” his father said in a Facebook post.

“He would never look down on anyone and adhered to a strict no-judgment philosophy.”

San Francisco police responded at around 2:35 a.m. to a report of a stabbing in the city’s relatively safe Rincon Hill neighborhood, where they found Lee still alive.

He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, CBS News reports.

I just got devastating news that our friend Bob Lee (@crazybob ) was killed in SF early today.

Bob was a dad, the former CTO of Square where he created Cash App & CTO of Mobile Coin. He was a generous decent human being who didn’t deserve to be killed.https://t.co/RnzA1Idpun

— Bill Barhydt (@billbarhydt) April 5, 2023

No arrests have been made in the case, nor has any information on potential suspects been released.

The Inland Empire in Southern California is home to 4,000 warehouses that occupy 1 billion square feet, with ownership of some of these warehouses by mega-corporations like Amazon, Walmart, and others. These massive warehouses receive imported goods from Asia via Los Angeles and Long Beach ports and store them before distributing them through a complex logistical network to fulfill the nation’s growing obsession with ordering goods online. 

Similar to using container rates and port activity to assess economic activity, observing warehouse activity throughout the 27,000-square-mile region of the Inland Empire spanning from east Los Angeles to the Nevada and Arizona borders is also indicative of economic trends.

Bloomberg reports the massive influx of cargo that flowed from Los Angeles and Long Beach ports through the warehouses during Covid has plunged to a three-year low. Also, the number of jobs has peaked, which means either employers are laying off because of shipment declines or due to automation – perhaps it’s both. 

Transport and warehouse jobs in the Inland Empire peaked last April at around 215k. As of February, the total number of jobs is about 202k.

In what could be an ominous sign of the regional banking crisis, combined with an aggressive Federal Reserve raising interest rates to sky-high levels to cool down the hottest inflation prints in decades, numerous prominent folks in the financial industry are forecasting a recession. 

Last week, ‘Bond King’ Jeff Gundlach warned of an imminent recession – within the next few months – as the yield curve suddenly steepens…

“The economic headwinds are building, we’ve been talking about this for a while, and I think the recession is here in a few months,” Gundlach said Monday during an interview with CNBC.

“All we really need is the unemployment rate to go higher.”

We shared a recent note with professional subs from Scott Feiler, Goldman Sachs’ consumer retail trader, who “is quickly turning negative on the consumer sector.”

The downturn in warehouse activity, declining port activity, and sliding container rates are alarming indicators of increasing recession threat, given that consumers make up a significant portion, around 70%, of GDP. 

Russian media has reported that a fire fire broke out at a building belonging to Russia’s Defense Ministry in the center of Moscow on Wednesday evening. TASS news agency was the first to report it, citing emergency services.

Widely circulating videos appear to confirm the report, though at this point the fire looks relatively small, coming from an office or offices inside the building. There are reports that it’s an office on the fifth floor or above.

Fire reported in Russia’s Ministry of Defence building in Moscow pic.twitter.com/mxqMNr2XYH

— Faytuks News Δ (@Faytuks) April 5, 2023

It’s as yet unclear what the cause is – whether accidental or possibly a drone or sabotage incident.

In January, amid increasingly bold drone strike operations on Russian soil launched from Ukraine, the Russian military erected surface-to-air Pantsir batteries on some Moscow buildings, including the top of the defense ministry building.

The Drive reported at that time, “The official reason for the apparent deployments is unclear, but Ukrainian forces have demonstrated their ability to conduct strikes at extended ranges using various types of drones. There could be other explanations, including this just being part of an ostensible exercise of some kind.”

Meanwhile, in Moscow, an office is on fire in the building of the Ministry of Defense on Znamenka Street, 19. pic.twitter.com/gTid5d6PIi

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) April 5, 2023

While alarming given the prospects for severe escalation, it’s anything but clear what the cause of this current fire is at this early stage.

developing…

For the second time within a year, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen will meet with a sitting US House Speaker. This time it could prove just as provocative as Nancy Pelosi’s August trip to Taipei, which triggered massive Chinese PLA drills which encircled Taiwan, and saw Chinese forces repeatedly breach the median line in the Taiwan Strait.

She’s meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California’s Simi Valley on Wednesday, alongside a bipartisan group of US lawmakers.

This marks the first time in history that Taiwan’s president meets with a house speaker on American soil. China has once again warned both sides against going through with such a visit, and has put its military on alert.

The military has already stepped up patrols near Taiwan, and is expected to conduct more muscle-flexing on news the meeting has commenced. 

“Special joint patrol and inspection operation began today in the central and northern parts of the Taiwan Strait,” the Chinese Maritime Safety Administration announced Wednesday. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning the day prior reiterated that the Tsai-McCarthy meeting contradicts the One China principle. 

NOW – Speaker McCarthy meets with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen. China has warned the U.S. not to go ahead with the meeting.pic.twitter.com/kUKMNRhoky

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) April 5, 2023

Tsai is currently on a 10-day trip to the US, including visits to two Central American states that are among the 13 global countries which formally recognize Taiwan independence. 

China’s Consulate General in Los Angeles lashed out ahead of the McCarthy meeting, saying it is “not conducive to regional peace, security and stability,” while warning it will “undermine the political foundation” of China-US relations.

PLA recently held multiple land, naval, air exercises focusing on amphibious landing missions, with experts predicting more drills to come should Taiwan regional leader Tsai meet with US house speaker McCarthy. https://t.co/OHD6GKaDmQ pic.twitter.com/QvPZuaRRdF

— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) April 5, 2023

“We will closely follow the development of the situation and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the consulate said Monday.

The White House has urged Beijing not to ‘overreact’ – with NSC spokesman John Kirby saying Wednesday, that there’s “no reason for China to overreact to the McCarthy-Tsai meeting”. 

“sheesh… that escalated quickly…”

In October 2022, Chinese government researchers proposed a digital currency based on a basket of Asian currencies.

In late March, China and Brazil agreed to transact solely in their national currencies, cutting out the greenback completely.

Also, in late March, a Russian state official spoke of a new currency for the BRICS alliance, as reported by Cointelegraph. It would be another effort to distance itself from the dollar, incorporating the burgeoning economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

On April 4, South China Morning Post Columnist Alex Lo opined additional reasons for dollar distancing could exist.

And now, as The Epoch Times’ Andrew Moran reports below, Malaysia has joined the group of several Asian nations trying to detach itself from dollar dependence.

Malaysia no longer believes it is necessary to depend on the U.S. dollar, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said during an address to the nation’s parliament.

Following last week’s state visit to China, the Malaysian prime minister revealed that Beijing is open to deliberations with Kuala Lumpur to establish an Asian Monetary Fund.

“When I had a meeting with President Xi Jinping, he immediately said, ‘I refer to Anwar’s proposal on the Asian Monetary Fund,’ and he welcomed discussions,” Anwar told lawmakers on Tuesday.

“There is no reason for Malaysia to continue depending on the dollar.”

The concept of an Asian Monetary Fund (AMF) was first proposed in 1997 by the Japanese government during the regional financial crisis. The objective would be that Asian countries fund the organization and ensure ample liquidity levels to weather economic storm clouds. However, the group was never formed due to U.S. and Chinese opposition.

Now that several economies have strengthened considerably since then, such as China and Japan, Anwar thinks now is the time to “discuss this.”

Anwar, who also serves as the finance minister, further confirmed that the two countries negotiated bilateral trade in yuan and ringgit after the Chinese government invested $39 billion into the Malaysian economy.

Many Asian countries, particularly net food importers, have been negatively affected by the greenback’s strength over the last eight years.

Since 2015, the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY), a gauge of the greenback against a basket of currencies, has mostly remained above 90.00. After the U.S. Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in March 2022, the dollar accelerated to its best level since the early 2000s. This was a headache for Asian currencies, including the Malaysian ringgit. The U.S. dollar had soared as much as 9 percent against the ringgit in October, before paring some of these gains.

China Grows Yuan’s Influence

Last summer, China created a yuan-pooling program with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), an institution for central banks. The Renminbi Liquidity Arrangement (RLA) would provide liquidity to countries in the Asia-Pacific Region during economic turmoil and market volatility.

Chinese yuan and U.S. dollar banknotes, on Feb. 10, 2020. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters)

The scheme includes the People’s Bank of China (PBC), the Central Bank of Chile, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Bank of Indonesia, and the Central Bank of Malaysia.

Experts note this is part of the Chinese government’s broader objective to internationalize the yuan. In recent years, China has signed dozens of bilateral currency-swap agreements, including with Western central banks, such as the Bank of England and the European Central Bank (ECB).

The Chinese yuan’s presence in foreign exchange reserves rose 0.81 percent quarter over quarter, to $298.44 billion to close out 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Currency Composition of Official Foreign Exchange Reserves (COFER) statistics. But the yuan’s share of global forex reserves was down 11.51 percent year over year in the fourth quarter.

While the de-dollarization campaign has generated significant momentum over the last 12 months, critics have asserted that global financial markets will take a long time to accept and trust the yuan.

However, while speaking at a financial forum on April 4, PBC governor Yi Gang noted that China would install safeguards and employ measures to protect the yuan and maintain financial stability.

In addition, the open market could play a crucial role in keeping the currency in check and preventing policymakers from currency manipulation. The CME Group launched options trading for yuan futures on Monday. This trading mechanism allows investors to bet or hedge against moves in the Chinese currency.

But the growing prominence of the yuan and the broader de-dollarization campaign could be bad news for the international community, says U.S. senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

Rubio warned that U.S. sanctions would become worthless over the next five years as more countries aligning with China will utilize currencies other than the dollar.

“Just today, Brazil … the largest country in the Western hemisphere, south of us, cut a trade deal with China,” Rubio said in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News.

“They’re going to … trade in their own currencies to get right around the dollar.”

Brazil and China signed an agreement on March 29 to settle trade and financial transactions in yuan and reals, effectively abandoning the U.S. dollar.

“They are creating a secondary economy in the world totally independent of the United States,” Rubio added.

“We won’t have to talk about sanctions in five years because there will be so many countries transacting in currencies other than the dollar that we won’t have the ability to sanction them.”

New data compiled by Bloomberg highlighted that the Chinese yuan surpassed the U.S. dollar as the most traded currency in Russia.

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

Twitter placed a label on NPR’s account Tuesday describing the outlet as “State-affiliated media,” with owner Elon Musk commenting that the description “seems accurate.”

Twitter’s guidelines state “Labels on state-affiliated accounts provide additional context about accounts that are controlled by certain official representatives of governments, state-affiliated media entities, and individuals associated with those entities.” 

BREAKING: Twitter just labelled NPR as US state media pic.twitter.com/PSNHKV7kMv

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) April 5, 2023

Musk quoted Twitter’s Help Center, which notes that “State-affiliated media is defined as outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution.”

Seems accurate pic.twitter.com/nx5TmJY7GX

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2023

NPR comrades, such as Climate & Energy Correspondent Jeff Brady, were annoyed:

Uh, no… pic.twitter.com/ki7vo9TIBi

— Jeff Brady (@jeffbradynews) April 5, 2023

Labeling @NPR state-affiliated media is wholly inaccurate and untruthful. NPR gets LESS THAN 2% of its funding from grants through the federal government. NPR’s newsroom is an absolutely free and independent newsroom; always has been. This label is a LIE and an insult. pic.twitter.com/2iS04hMeQ1

— Ashley Westerman (Valdez) (@_aswesterman) April 5, 2023

Others noted that Twitter’s guidelines also state that “State-financed media organizations with editorial independence, like the BBC in the UK for example, are not defined as state-affiliated media for the purposes of this policy.”

Twitter branding @NPR “state-affiliated media” literally conflicts with its own policy:

“State-financed media organizations with editorial independence, like the BBC in the UK or NPR in the US for example, are not defined as state-affiliated media…” 🤯https://t.co/u2bg3QICMS pic.twitter.com/FOCrac61Jm

— Ben Pauker (@benpauker) April 5, 2023

BBC gets about 70% of its funding from the government (via license fees), NPR gets about 1-2%. Former is not listed as state-affiliate media, but NPR is. Along with deverifying NY Times, illustrates how Musk is the one running a propaganda outfit to fit with his political views. https://t.co/OjZabXAKz2

— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) April 5, 2023

In 2020, Twitter made the move to label many accounts, including Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik, as well as reporters working for them as ‘state-affiliated media’, and said it would prevent tweets from those accounts appearing on the home screen, in notifications, or in searches.

However, NPR was left alone.

Twitter Labels RT As ‘State Affiliated Media’, But Ignores BBC, NPR

Twitter claimed it was doing this “to make the experience more transparent,” adding that “we don’t let state-affiliated media accounts advertise on Twitter. We’ll also no longer include them or their Tweets in recommendations, as we continue to support a free and independent press.”

For clarity: we don’t let state-affiliated media accounts advertise on Twitter. We’ll also no longer include them or their Tweets in recommendations, as we continue to support a free and independent press.

More on this policy and new labels: https://t.co/BY1jTO46Zc (2/2)

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) August 6, 2020

How much taxpayer funding NPR receives is unclear, with much of it being hidden in the form of grants, but estimates have suggested NPR’s budget is made up of 25 percent of taxpayer dollars, with its member stations receiving another 40 percent of public funds. Others argue it’s less than 2 percent.

NEW: Twitter has changed NPR’s Twitter handle to say “US state-affiliated media”

Thanks @elonmusk! Now do the New York Times and Washington Post! pic.twitter.com/1mgFnkSZUA

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 5, 2023

Might just be easier to label those media outlets that aren’t State affiliated at this point.

— Klay Thompson (@Thompsonklay) April 5, 2023

Now wrap your head around this tweet:

Elon Musk is now listing NPR as US state affiliated media. Good😂. But the hardcore US govt propaganda VOA is not listed. What is happening???? pic.twitter.com/o5kFzRzLUk

— Chen Weihua （陈卫华） (@chenweihua) April 5, 2023

So the question is, does NPR push an agenda and ideology influenced by the state?

The following examples would suggest yes, it certainly does:

NPR Denigrates Slain Shinzo Abe as “Divisive Arch Conservative”

NPR Declares Using Wrong Colour Emojis is Probably RACIST

NPR Slams Biden For Meeting With Historians Because They Were All “White”

“Ha ha, nobody’s trying to promote insect-eating…. That’s just a right-wing conspiracy theory…

“NOW BE LIKE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND EAT THE BUGS!!!

NPR, naturallyhttps://t.co/yEE4yGkIIK pic.twitter.com/61G9AfE0by

— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) April 4, 2023

NPR Claims That Calling a Riot a “Riot” is Racist

NPR Hides Fact That Man Accused of Plotting to Kill Biden Was a Bernie Bro Who Possessed Book on Islam

NPR Gushes Over Baghdadi: “He Was a Real Leader”

* * *

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If China thought trade war with Trump was bad, little did they know how much worse it would get under Joe “Big Guy” Biden.

As Rabobank’s Michael Every wrote this morning, “don’t forget President Biden is already running a US trade policy far more protectionist than his predecessor’s” and the latest example of that came this morning when Japan decided to join United States and the Netherlands in restricting exports of chipmaking gear to China, as the cold chip war between China and the west enters an exciting new phase.

Of course, Beijing wasn’t going to just sit there and do nothing as the US piled sanction upon sanction in hopes of sending China back into the stone age, and many expected that China would retaliate by squeezing the west where it had the most leverage, namely by limiting exports of another key tech supply-chain product: rare earth metals, and where China is the world’s dominant producer.

Well, it appears they were right because as the Nikkei reports, China is considering “prohibiting exports of certain rare-earth magnet technology in a move that would counter the U.S.’s advantage in the high-tech arena.” To do this, officials will file amendments to a technology export restriction list, which was last updated in 2020. In total, there are 43 amendments or additions in the draft list first announced in December by the commerce and technology ministries. Officials have finished taking public comments from experts, and the changes are expected to go into force this year.

The revisions would “either ban or restrict exports of technology to process and refine rare-earth elements. There are also proposed provisions that would prohibit or limit exports of alloy tech for making high-performance magnets derived from rare earths.”

As regular readers know, high performance magnets are used in a wide range of applications, such as motors for electric vehicles and various high-tech military devices.

The last time China suspended exports of rare earths, was in 2010 when it halted shipments to Japan following tensions surrounding the Japan-administered Senkaku Islands, which Beijing claims and calls the Diaoyu. Japan specializes in making high-performance magnets from rare earths while the U.S. produces products that use the magnets. That episode led to a heightened sense of alarm in Japan and the U.S. on the economic security front.

Since then, Washington has moved to forge a rare-earth supply chain on U.S. soil. And while China’s share of all rare earths produced globally dropped to roughly 70% last year from about 90% a decade earlier, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, China still remains the dominant producer of rare earths.

Furthermore, China still holds a tight grip on processing rare earths. Ironically, most rare earths extracted in the U.S. go to China for refining before being shipped back to the U.S. Good luck with that going forward.

Understandably, amid the heightened China-U.S. tensions, both Washington and Tokyo are developing rare-earth supply chains that are less dependent on China. The two countries are sharply restricting exports of advanced semiconductor technology to China with the aim of blunting the nation’s rise in the high-tech field.

The Chinese government, meanwhile, is looking to turn the country into a high-tech manufacturing superpower that can compete with the U.S. Because China is behind when it comes to advanced semiconductors, “they’re likely going to use rare earths as a bargaining chip since rare earths are a weak point for Japan and the U.S.” said a source in the resources industry.

“Japan intends to endeavor to strengthen supply chains for critical minerals and other commodities,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters Wednesday. “We’ll continue to closely monitor the institutional impact from China,” Matsuno added.