Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Below is my column in the New York Post on the curious use of lawyers by President Joe Biden in the classified document controversy. There was a clear decision made to rely on his own counsel rather than the FBI or security officers after the discovery of highly classified documents in a closet in a private office. The decision clearly brings greater control and protection for the President, but it can itself be viewed as additional evidence of gross mishandling of classified material. In the movie “All The President’s Men,” Woodward chastises his colleague Bernstein that “I don’t mind what you did; I mind how you did it.” President Biden may face the same objection in his decision to use counsel to search for classified material.

Here is the column:

The discovery of a fourth set of classified documents, at the Biden residence in Delaware, has further undermined the White House’s virtual mantra that the president “takes classified documents very seriously.”

Putting aside the repeated movement of highly classified documents over six years, one curious element has emerged in this scandal: the use of private counsel.

Not only did President Joe Biden enlist lawyers to clear out his private Washington office; he then used them — rather than security officers or the FBI — to search for additional classified documents.

The initial use of lawyers is notable. While it seems a fairly pricey moving crew, Biden could argue a trove of documents might require a judgment on where they should be sent and whether they belong to Biden, the Penn Biden Center or the government.

But why was a legal team sent in six years after Biden took the documents on leaving as vice president? Were the lawyers specifically selected because they had clearances, an acknowledgment there might be classified material unlawfully housed in the office?

After the fourth batch of documents was discovered this week (the third found in Delaware), Richard Sauber, referred to as the “special counsel to the president,” stressed that he has a clearance. Sauber admits the lawyers who found the first batch at the residence didn’t have clearances but says he found the later documents.

It remains unclear which lawyers were involved in which discoveries, whether they had clearances and (if so) at what level.

In fact, it seems to suggest Biden continued to use uncleared lawyers after his team found highly classified documents Nov. 2 in the Penn Biden office closet in Washington.

That itself could be viewed as gross mishandling of classified information.

It’s strange Biden did not use security officers or the FBI to conduct further searches. The president has a host of people who regularly handle classified material. So why use the lawyers?

The answer appears the same as in the case of Hillary Clinton’s emails: control. Using private counsel allows Biden to raise attorney-client privilege. Trump also used counsel, but eventually the FBI raided his home to search and remove not just classified material but documents found in boxes with that material.

While that attorney-client privilege can be overcome under a “crime/fraud exception,” it adds a level of initial protection. It also allowed Biden to control the discovery and initial record of the discovery of classified information.

The key to any investigation will be the chain of custody extending back to the documents’ removal in 2017 when Biden left office. How these documents appeared in their discovered locations is known only to his lawyers. It’s a link in the chain of custody that Biden effectively controls.

With Mar-a-Lago, the FBI was criticized for staging documents to be shown in the storage room. The photos were then leaked to an eager media. There will be no staged photos of documents alongside Time magazine covers for Biden.

Nor were documents he housed with classified documents removed. Indeed, it’s not clear if the FBI will know what documents were stored in the same boxes.

What was potentially lost is significant. Classified documents are generally supposed to be in folders with a thick, colored border and large printed classification warnings. Were some of those folders observable before they were moved? If so, anyone could tell a pile contained classified material, including the president and passersby.

Likewise, the initial discovery could show the context of surrounding material. The FBI at Mar-a-Lago carefully photographed that context and its search. Here, we’re relying on counsel to have kept such a record when most lawyers would be reluctant to do so given the risk to their client.

The key is that unlike FBI agents, these lawyers are not acting on behalf of the public interest but for the president’s personal interests.

If there are criminal charges, the key witnesses will be lawyers representing the president as an individual. They are more likely to minimize incriminating or embarrassing elements.

And they are themselves under scrutiny. Since they may not have had sufficient clearances to do this work, it is in their interest to downplay any expectations or warnings of additional classified material scattered around Biden’s home or office.

Concern over the use of lawyers has only grown with time. Biden not only continued to have his lawyers search after the first discovery, but did so for months through subsequent discoveries.

After finding highly classified material in Biden’s garage Dec. 20, private counsel — not the FBI — found another document in an adjacent room Jan 11. Sauber found more classified documents the next day.

Those last two findings followed White House assurances that the “thorough” search was “completed.” It obviously wasn’t thorough enough.

They raised another question. It would seem unlikely a document with a proper classified cover could be missed. The folder has thick red or yellow borders running around the edges and large black classifications like “TOP SECRET” emblazoned across the top. If that was missed, the earlier searches were clearly negligent.

Alternatively, and more concerning, the internal documents might have been removed from the folders and stored without cover. That would indicate someone removed and reviewed them — an act showing knowledge of the classified status. If they were removed at Biden’s residence, he would be the chief suspect in such use.

It would utterly destroy the “inadvertence” defense.

Today’s Twitter Files drop contains several notable pieces of evidence.

First, that lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry launched a ‘massive lobbying blitz to crush any effort to share patents/IP for new covid-related medicine,” according to The Intercept‘s Lee Fang. As part of this effort, lobbying group BIO “wrote to the newly elected Biden admin, demanding the U.S. gov sanction any country attempting to violate patent rights and create generic low cost covid medicine or vaccines.“

Of note, Pfizer and BioNTech raked in $37 billion in revenue in 2021 alone from the COVID-19 vaccine, while Moderna made $17.7 billion the same year (and has recently announced a plan to hike the price of the Covid-19 vaccine by approximately 400%).

BioNTech, which developed the Pfizer vaccine, “reached out to Twitter to request that Twitter directly censor users tweeting at them to ask for generic low cost vaccines.“

5. That brings us to Twitter. The global lobbying blitz includes direct pressure on social media. BioNTech, which developed Pfizer’s vaccine, reached out to Twitter to request that Twitter directly censor users tweeting at them to ask for generic low cost vaccines. pic.twitter.com/6cVIRcUDZV

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) January 16, 2023

According to Fang, “Twitter’s reps responded quickly to the pharma request,” while “A lobbyist in Europe asked the content moderation team to monitor the accounts of Pfizer, AstraZeneca & of activist hashtags like #peoplesvaccine.”

Meanwhile, the “fake accounts” flagged by the pharmaceutical companies for action were real people – one of whom Fang spoke with on the phone.

8. It’s not clear what actions Twitter ultimately took on this particular request. Several Twitter employees noted in subsequent messages that none of this activism constituted abuse. But the company continued monitoring tweets.

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) January 16, 2023

“For more than two years, a global movement has been speaking out against pharmaceutical greed and demanding that everyone, everywhere has the tools to combat pandemics,” said Maaza Seyoum, a campaigner for the People’s Vaccine Alliance. “Whatever nasty tricks companies and governments pull,” she continued, “we cannot and will not be silenced.”

Second, ‘Pfizer & Moderna’s lobbying group, BIO, fully funded a special content moderation campaign designed by a contractor called Public Good Projects (PGP), which worked w/Twitter to set content moderation rules around covid “misinformation.”‘ according to Fang.

BIO funded the PGP campaign, “Stronger,”  to the tune of $1.275 million. Its focus? Helping Twitter ‘create content moderation bots,’ selecting which public health accounts would be verified, and helping to crowdsource content takedowns.

Of note, the Moderna/Pfizer-funded campaign included regular emails to Twitter officals with takedown and verification requests.

“Here’s an example of those types of emails that went straight to Twitter’s lobbyists and content moderators. Many focused on @zerohedge, which was suspended.“

Fang includes a screencap of an email with two excel spreadsheets containing said requests.

13. Notably, this massive push to censor and label covid misinfo never applied to drug companies. When big pharma wildly exaggerated the risks of creating low-cost generic covid vaccines, Stronger did nothing. The rules applied only to critics of industry. https://t.co/FTzQsGKM9i

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) January 16, 2023

From Fang’s Intercept piece, below is one of the flagged tweets in question – which links to a ZeroHedge article aggregated from NakedCapitalism, and which logically posits; “if a vaccinated person and an unvaccinated person have roughly the same capacity to carry, shed and transmit the virus, particularly in its Delta form, what difference does implementing a vaccination passport actually make to the spread of the virus?”

“if a vaccinated person and an unvaccinated person have roughly the same capacity to carry, shed and transmit the virus, particularly in its Delta form, what difference does implementing a vaccination passport actually make to the spread of the virus?”https://t.co/HNiND8uInP

— Stephanie Seneff (@stephanieseneff) August 29, 2021

“To try and stifle digital dissent during a pandemic, when tweets and emails are some of the only forms of protest available to those locked in their homes, is deeply sinister,” said Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now.

More on one of the people behind this effort, courtesy of Twitter user @TexasLindsay_

2. The woman advocating for the censorship of inconvenient truths at the behest of her funders rife with COI’s is Savannah Knell, MPH MSSP, the Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships at The Public Good Projects (PGP). pic.twitter.com/vkdUaAt5xQ

— TexasLindsay™ (@TexasLindsay_) January 16, 2023

4. Knell claims to have extensive experience in Public Health Comm. & Social Marketing. And aims to “largely focus on managing the development & execution of strategically targeted & tailored behavior change campaigns with an eye toward health equity.” pic.twitter.com/2N7yFsBGsn

— TexasLindsay™ (@TexasLindsay_) January 16, 2023

“To translate the above into layman’s terms she is a narrative enforcer. She’s funded by Big Pharma and aided by Big Brother to be the ministry of truth. She aims to create social norms by means of censorship and propaganda. She wants to tell you & I—how/what to say and think.“

Meanwhile, as this bullying progressed this was happening…

*PFIZER JUMPS AS MUCH AS 6.8% TO RECORD DEFYING MARKET ROUT

behold Pfizer McPfizerface pic.twitter.com/hCZwT0DAW6

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) November 26, 2021

Finally, as this latest ‘Twitter Files’ thread spreads across a holiday market, Elon Musk himself has opined on the efforts to bully the former Twitter executives into censoring ZeroHedge:

Zerohedge can be jerks at times, but they did nothing warranting suspension

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2023

We’ll take the ‘being jerks’ jab… isn’t that what the media is supposed to be?

Via SchiffGold.com,

Peter Schiff recently appeared on Dan Bongino’s Unfiltered on Fox News to talk about the economy, inflation, the stock market, the Federal Reserve and investing in 2023. Peter said the recession that everybody denies exists is going to get worse, and so is inflation.

Some people in the mainstream seem to think a big stock market rally is in the cards. Peter said the optimism is unfounded.

I don’t think it’s going to be a good year for the stock market. I think there are going to be some stocks that do well. Unfortunately, most Americans don’t own those stocks.”

Peter said the ones that most investors do own are going to go down.

The very popular stocks that a lot of people have crowded into during the bubble – these stocks, even though they’ve come down a lot in 2022, they still have a long way to fall. And I think there’s a lot of risk in 2023, not just in the market, but in the economy.”

Bongino referenced an op-ed in the New York Post by Ken Fisher arguing that the bad news, especially in the job market, is already written into the script and priced into the market. That means we may well have a “summer of love” in the stock market with a healthy rebound. Peter said people are underestimating just how bad the news is going to get.

First of all, a lot of people think inflation is going to come down. It’s not. I think the decline is what’s transitory. I think we’re going to be making new year-over-year highs in inflation before the end of the year.”

Peter has been arguing that a declining dollar and an ultimate Fed pivot away from monetary tightening will mean more inflation down the road, even if we get some relief in the CPI over the next few months. He drove this point home in a recent podcast.

That is the really important point that seems to be lost on everybody. What investors are trying to figure out is ‘has inflation peaked?’ Have we seen peak inflation? Now, I think the answer to that question is no. I don’t think inflation has peaked. Now, it may have peaked for a short period of time. It may take until the second half of 2023 before we get a year-over-year rate of inflation that was higher than the high water mark for 2022. Who knows? Maybe it will take into 2024. But the one thing that I’m certain of is that we’re not going anywhere near 2%. And that is what investors still don’t understand — that the days of low inflation are over, and we’re living in an era of high inflation. That is a complete game-changer for the Fed and the Fed has yet to come to terms with this new reality, nor has the market.”

And during his discussion with Bongino, Peter said the notion the economy is about to rebound is nothing but a fantasy.

The recession that everybody denies exists is actually going to get worse. So, we’re going to have a weaker economy and stronger inflation. The markets are not expecting that, and neither is the Fed.”

Congressional Republicans are crying foul over the double standard applied to President Biden’s mishandling of classified materials vs. the treatment former President Trump received.

To review, President Biden’s lawyers – who didn’t have clearance to view classified documents, allegedly stumbled upon a cache of them at his old office at the Penn Biden Center on Nov. 2, 2022, the day before midterm elections. After waiting nearly two months, more documents were found on December 20, January 9 and January 12 – the date on which AG Merrick Garland finally appointed a special counsel to investigate.

Trump, on the other hand, who has a potential constitutional argument that he could have declassified the documents recovered from his locked safe at his highly surveilled Mar-a-Lago residence, was treated to a raid by Biden’s DOJ

“Where’s the raid of Biden’s garage?” asked House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA).

There’s always a double standard. @FBI, where’s the raid of Biden’s garage?

— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) January 12, 2023

“Now, we learn that Biden kept additional classified materials at his home in Delaware in his GARAGE. Yet there was no raid. No ransacking of Biden’s home. Nothing,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw tweeted, trying to get back in MAGA’s good graces.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) called the situation “another faux pas by the Biden administration,” by “treating law differently based upon your political beliefs.”

“That’s why we had to provide a new entity from our Church-style [committee] to look after the weaponization of what’s gone on that you want an equal playing of the law to all Americans.”

McCarthy also pointed out the fact that officials have not released any photos of the documents recovered from Biden’s office and home. The Justice Department included a photo of materials retrieved from Trump’s residence in a court filing that was made public. –The Hill

“More classified documents Biden took from the Obama White House have been found at Biden’s Delaware house next to his Corvette. Biden assures the public it’s OK because his garage is locked… So, when’s the FBI raid?” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) in a Thursday tweet.

Trump was also ‘raided’ by the media, so to speak.

.@jheil: “Despite the possible political ramifications … the right decision on that is going to be you can’t let this go … you can’t let it go without accountability.” pic.twitter.com/AvBqqQ0Rtx

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 16, 2023

.@MilesTaylorUSA: “This is a big national security concern … It is very likely the ex president will be indicted. After the indictment … I worry that if the Republicans will retake the House and Senate, they will try to find a way to give the ex-president amnesty.” pic.twitter.com/Rc1TLaQ8uI

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 16, 2023

And crickets over Biden aside from scant cardboard reporting on the matter.

In fact, CNN‘s Jake Tapper is earning his paycheck carrying water for the regime:

CNN asks Comer, who’s trying to make a big deal out of Biden’s handling of classified documents, to explain a clip of him saying last November that investigating Trump’s mishandling of classified docs is “not a priority” for him pic.twitter.com/jaGSbnC4Ew

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 15, 2023

Meanwhile, House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) has sent letters to the National Archives and the White House Counsel’s office requesting documents and communications pertaining to the classified materials, along with a request for information about the documents themselves and who may have been able to access them.

And Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), the top GOP member of the House Intelligence Committee, sent AG Garland and DNI Avril Haines a request for a classified briefing about the documents.

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

New York City mayor Eric Adams has taken aim at the Biden administration for failing to take action and enact immigration reform to stem the illegal immigration crisis at the southern border while declaring there is “no room” in New York City for the “migrants” being sent to the city.

Adams, a Democrat, made the comments during a visit to the Texan border city of El Paso on Jan. 15 where he was joined by El Paso Democratic Mayor Oscar Leeser.

Busloads of illegal immigrants have been shipped to Democratic-run sanctuary cities such as New York, Washington, Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles in recent months, which has placed a strain on those communities as has been the situation in border towns for many years, and in some cases, has further exacerbated an already existing housing and homeless crisis.

Adams said on Sunday that migrants are being given a “false impression” about what to expect in New York via websites advertising that the city is home to automatic employment opportunities and will house migrants in hotels, as opposed to offering sheltered housing.

“There’s a conversation among those who are asylum seekers and migrants who are given the false impression that if you come to New York City, everything is fine. We have to give people accurate information,” Adams said, according to The New York Post.

A group of migrants from Texas wait in line outside Port Authority Bus Terminal to receive humanitarian assistance in New York on Aug. 10, 2022. (Yuki Iwamura/AFP via Getty Images)

“And that is what some of the centers are doing here. They are truly explaining to people that this is what is happening in New York right now. In New York, you go there, you’re going to be living in congregate settings, and there is no more room in New York. That should be coordinated by our national government,” Adams added.

A National Emergency

The New York mayor also called for a coordinated response to the crisis within cities seeing an increase in arrival of illegal immigrants, which he said should be aided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

“This is a national emergency and crisis that must be addressed,” he said, while urging lawmakers in the U.S. Congress and the Biden administration to enact immigration reform.

Adams made similar remarks on Jan. 13, when he said New York City was at “breaking point” and would likely be unable to continue sheltering illegal immigrants arriving at the city without help from the federal government.

Lugging gallon jugs of water, illegal immigrants thread their way along footpaths just north of the Mexico/Arizona border. The numbers of illegal immigrants who have perished trying to cross the southern Arizona desert has reached an historic high this year. (Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times)

‘We Don’t Deserve This’

“We are now seeing more people arrive than we have ever seen—averaging over 400 people each day this last week, with 835 asylum seekers arriving on one single day alone, the largest single-day arrival we’ve seen to date. All this is pushing New York City to the brink,” Adams said.

The mayor said the city had submitted an emergency mutual aid request to the State of New York, starting the weekend of Jan. 13, which initially asks the state for support in accommodating 500 arriving asylum seekers, although he stressed that the number will “balloon” in time.

Adams has previously said that the influx of migrants into New York could cost the city as much as $2 billion—money that the city will struggle to grant as it deals with a major budget shortfall.

The number of illegal immigrants crossing the border has surged during Biden’s first two years of presidency, with border patrol agents making more than 2.2 million arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border in the 2022 fiscal year, which ended in September.

New York is currently housing around 26,000 illegal aliens, and another 3,100 arrived in the last week-and-a-half, Adams said on Sunday.

“Our cities are being undermined,” Adams said. “And we don’t deserve this. Migrants don’t deserve this and the people who live in the cities don’t deserve this.

“We expect more from our national leaders to address this issue in a real way.”

The annual conference of the World Economic Forum begins today in Davos, Switzerland. Global elites landed in luxurious private jets over the last few days in airports around Davos to discuss important global challenges, such as climate change, behind closed doors. 

“The rich and powerful are swarming to Davos to discuss climate and inequality behind closed doors using the most unequal and polluting form of transport: private jets,” Klara Maria Schenk, transport campaigner for Greenpeace’s European mobility campaign, told news website Politics.co.uk. 

Greenpeace International published a new report that showed 1,040 private jets flew in and out of airports around Davos for last year’s meeting, causing CO2 emissions from private jets to increase four times more versus a weekly average.

“Given that 80% of the world’s population has never even flown, but suffers from the consequences of climate-damaging aviation emissions, and that the WEF claims to be committed to the 1.5°C Paris Climate Target, this annual private jet bonanza is a distasteful masterclass in hypocrisy. Private jets must be consigned to history if we are to have a green, just and safe future for all. So-called world leaders must lead by example and ban private jets and useless short-haul flights,” added Schenk.

WEF hopes to tackle what they believe is a climate crisis plaguing the world despite most attendees arriving by private jets, which are the most polluting mode of transport per passenger

The world’s elite has arrived in Davos on over 1000 private jets to lecture you about climate change. pic.twitter.com/2WyDiqLbV6

— DiEM25 (@DiEM_25) January 16, 2023

And motorcades of WEF attendees were spotted in gas-guzzling SUVs and high-end sedans. 

▪️Over 2,500 delegates
▪️Over 1,000 private jets
▪️Motorcades

Yes, it’s the annual WEF Davos jamboree of hypocrisy where a bunch of e̴l̴i̴t̴e̴s̴ / parasites preach to us plebs about saving the planet and use virtue as a smokescreen for their own greed. pic.twitter.com/MLL97DfFFz

— James Melville (@JamesMelville) January 13, 2023

Meanwhile, climate protesters spent Monday morning blocking at least one airport used by the super-rich. 

@debtforclimate activists blocking the elites arriving on private jets to attend #WEF – the 1% is responsible for the illegitimate debt of the global South & the climate crisis most felt in Africa & Asia. pic.twitter.com/3WeO4NMwKn

— Payal Parekh (@payalclimate) January 16, 2023

and we are successful: the first planes have landed with WEF-guests, who are blocked from driving up to Davos by our activists. If you block climate action, we block you. We demand:#debtcancellationnow #polluterspay #stopneocolonialWEF #stopgreenwashing pic.twitter.com/Qr26S74GRr

— Debt for Climate Switzerland (@Debt4ClimateCH) January 16, 2023

BREAKING: We are blocking the private airport used by #Davos23 attendees to demand the richest 1% pay their climate debt!#DebtforClimate is putting pressure on the global elites to demand debt cancellation for the Global South to enable a just transition!#MakeThemPay pic.twitter.com/s61c4lwZ4a

— Debt for Climate (@DebtforClimate) January 16, 2023

5/6 We demand that the rich pay their #ClimateDebt through the unconditional cancellation of all foreign debts of countries in the Global South to enable #JustTransition and #polluters pay for the #LossAndDamage they cause in the countries most affected by the climate crisis. 👇 pic.twitter.com/DAmljQpOxi

— Debt for Climate (@DebtforClimate) January 16, 2023

“Davos has a perfectly adequate railway station, still these people can’t even be bothered to take the train for a trip as short as 21 km. Do we really believe that these are the people to solve the problems the world faces?” Schenk said.

And remember, these elites will discuss how to reshape the world while guarded by soldiers and private security forces.

Given the unique nature of the event – with more than 50 heads of state and government, heads of the UN and EU etc expected to attend – security in #Davos is extremely tight. Army/police are everywhere and the whir of helicopters enforcing a strict no-fly zone is commonplace. pic.twitter.com/A3ts61TQAV

— David Walsh (@David_M_Walsh) January 15, 2023

I remeber in the 90is. All was easy going with zero security. But what is happening in the last few years in davos, army/police present,is just batshit crazy arrogant. Took the picture today on way up to davos pic.twitter.com/QSDbFPdQ6Q

— 12grad Sonnig (@marcograss2) January 12, 2023

The fact that WEF attendees arrive in droves of private jets only to discuss the climate crisis is hypocrisy at its finest. If there was actually a crisis, wouldn’t these so-called climate warriors take public transportation to save the planet? Maybe the crisis that WEF promotes is just manufactured hype. 

Authored by Bruce Wilds via Advancing Time blog,

Yes, we have a problem, and claims of a lower CPI cannot inflate away the reality that inflation hurts consumers. To start with consider the argument inflation is much higher than the government reports. That said, Jay Powell is most likely very serious about ending the Fed put which has been a huge contributor to the wealth effect and inequality. This has also been a big driver of financial and economic growth.

If Powell accomplishes his goal it is expected to result in a more “responsible” and less speculative financial system. As things stand, most Americans are watching their wages falling behind the price of goods. As people are forced to buy less economic growth slows. This would of course extend down to falling prices as the wealth effect slams into reverse. All this brings with it risk and probably a lot of pain. This issue is intensified because the ability to simply roll over debt and refinance has been greatly diminished. Both liquidity and rates reduce this possibility. Trends are not friendly to growth anywhere in the world.

Lower CPI Does Not Signal Growth Ahead

Even if inflation drops like a stone, that does not mean it will not return with a vengeance or signal growth will pick up. Feeding into this is that many people today do not want to work. The five-day service sector office work week became a thing of the past when people were told to stay home during the pandemic. Mediocre production on the part of workers coupled with the potential that Geo-political issues may soon create a slew of new commodity shortages. Supply chain problems and disruptions tend to limit the supply side of growth.

Powell’s decision to risk driving the economy into the dirt to create a more sustainable economic future conflicts with the priority of politicians. Their main goal is to get reelected, and if this means handing out free money to stimulate the economy, so be it. The big question is how big the next wave of checks will be, $2,000 maybe $3,000? An issue we cannot ignore is that each stimulus has less effect than the one before. 

A matter that should overshadow the liquidity/interest rate argument is rooted in the importance of savers being rewarded and not punished over time. Lowering interest rates because inflation drops a tad does not address the need of savers to be able to earn a safe return on their savings. This means allowing them to benefit even after both taxes and inflation. Bogus promises by the government to meet this need by selling Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) fall short. Anyone wishing to protect a substantial nest egg will find the government greatly limits such purchases.

Flipping back to the stock market and the idea people should buy stocks because we are in a bear market and they have had a big pullback could be flawed. If indeed we are in the process of a stock market bubble popping, they could continue down a lot farther. So far we have not seen a total capitulation where investors come to a place where they want nothing to do with stocks. 

Consider the famous John Maynard Keynes quote; “Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.”

This is true for both the upside and downside. Flawed is thinking stocks will come soaring back. History shows following such a fall it can take several decades before this happens.

Trying to put together all the opposing views being thrown out there into some kind of order, is a mind-boggling task. The notion all currencies are about to be debased may have more to do with governments than central banks. This feeling of distrust in the future value of so-called “paper money” may spur inflation higher as people swap it for real assets. One thing remains certain amongst all this noise and that is protecting our buying power and wealth will continue to tax our ingenuity.

It was just a couple of days ago we first noted that Tesla was getting blowback in China, where it has slashed prices in order to try and spur demand for its vehicles. Over the last few days, that anger towards the company appears to be ramping up in the U.S., as well, after Tesla also slashed prices domestically.

Such was the takeaway from a new Bloomberg article that spoke to several Tesla owners and “fans”, who didn’t seem happy about the company’s recent move to slash prices.

One 32 year old Tesla “fan girl” named Marianne Simmons told Bloomberg: “I feel like I got duped. I feel like I got taken advantage of as a consumer. Right off the bat, I’m out $13,306. It’s such a large reduction that it’s going to affect a lot of people who just bought a vehicle.”

She had just shelled out $77,000 for a white Model Y. “I would not buy a Tesla again. That’s saying a lot for me. I was a huge Tesla fan girl. I’d go with a competitor like Lucid or Rivian,” she added.

Ivan Drury, director of insights for research website Edmunds.com told Bloomberg: “For any existing owner it’s a kick to the teeth. Anyone who bought a Tesla recently will feel an immediate impact and wish they leased it.” 

Another new Tesla owner, Andrew Checketts, from Santa Barbara, California, told Bloomberg that Tesla was “hounding” him about discounts at the time he made his purchase – but if he had waited, he could have saved far more money. He said: “I have solar scheduled to be installed soon. Really having a hard time giving Tesla any more of my money and can’t even look at the car this morning.”

Owner Jack Bradham, who purchased a black Model Y long-range edition in December, is irked that the vehicle got a $12,000 discount right after he purchased it. He said customer service from Tesla has been non-existent: “There’s no one to contact. I called and tweeted to them, no response.”

The price drops are hitting the resale value of Teslas also. Austin Flack, another owner, tried to list his 2018 Model 3 with the Full Self-Driving Beta software package for $51,000 last month. He has since reduced the price to $36,000 and fears he’ll have to try and cut it to $30,000. 

As the report notes, the base price of the Model Y is down an astonishing 20% to start the year, with the vehicle now listed at $53,000. The Model S plaid is down 14%. 

The situation in the U.S. echoes that of China, where customers stormed  showrooms to protest price cuts. 

Customers were demanding rebates and credits, claiming that they had overpaid for the same cars that weren’t marked down at the time they were purchased, a new report from Reuters says. Prices of Tesla vehicles in China are now between 13% and 24% lower than they were in September. 

By Sebatsian Bea of One River Asset Management

It was all about the Fed – or was it? US policy rates rocketed higher last year, dominating broader market dynamics. That’s all you needed to know. But there were quiet outliers. Turkey was the top-performing equity market in US dollar terms – a surprise given the unexpectedly rapid Fed tightening. Stablecoin being stable in both price and assets was probably not on your bingo card under the digital-1929-crash column.  

Financial strains are a stress test for any ecosystem. Heed the things that live on, and respect how others became extinct. This is routine in the natural world. The pine tree adapted to fire by seeding only after a blaze when the soil is rich, and the sun isn’t obstructed by a canopy. After the burn, we see a scorched earth. Yet, seeds protected by pinecones are dispersed by fire, a resilience formed by nature’s trial and error.  

Stablecoin not only survived the digital downturn – it thrived. Settlement of US dollar stablecoin to the blockchain hit a record high last year, at more than $9 trillion. It is especially impressive given that the capitalization of the digital ecosystem fell by more than two-thirds. If investors were going to give up on digital, they would have left for traditional banking. They didn’t. Assets for the top-four stablecoin were stable, averaging $142 billion in 2022.  

The scorched earth of the digital economy brings the focus back to the “boring” basics. Market conditions demand this refocus. After all, Bitcoin and Ethereum are now a 64% share of the non-stablecoin capitalization, leaving the alternative asset universe at a modest $271 billion. And for a digital application like stablecoin to be resilient, so, too, must be the rails it’s built upon. Ethereum is that dominant base rail, running a 75% share of stablecoin supply. 

Ethereum was not only the base layer of choice for the most resilient application, it also successfully executed the migration to proof of stake last year. The number of Ethereum validators crossed 500,000 this week, up nearly 2-times from a year earlier – not bad for a bear market! Both are strong votes of confidence. But staking assets is still a one-way street. You can stake Ethereum and earn yield, but you cannot redeem…yet.  

That’s about to change. The Ethereum Foundation is set to launch its testing network to allow for withdrawals from staking nodes, the next big milestone. For investors, staking ether has been an exercise in patience. The annual ETH yield from staking has averaged roughly 10% since its introduction, a modest reward judged against ether’s 95% realized volatility over the period. Downside volatility has overwhelmed yield – 71% of ether staked is in a loss position.  

Will the unlocking of staked ether be a catalyst for another wave of rapid selling pressure? There is one natural vehicle for forced selling – ETH derivatives, like liquid staking. Liquid staking appeared as a solution for investors to earn some yield reward and stay liquid. These pools account for a substantial 33% of staked ETH. Liquidity is managed by reserves, like a central bank – 59% of reserves in stETH, the largest provider, are staked, and 41% are liquid.  

stETH traded at a significant discount to ether during last year’s stress (Figure 2). Think of this as a liquidity premium. Rapid sales of stETH led to a draining of liquid reserves. As reserves in staked ETH rose, redemptions were less likely to be met with the return of ether. If 100% of stETH reserves were staked, the only way to get liquidity is to sell stETH into the open market. The discount captures the liquidity premium needed to attract a buyer and clear the market.  

Ether selling pressure can build once the staking withdrawal mechanism is live. Trading at a discount, an investor could buy stETH, withdraw staked ether, sell the ether proceeds, and profit from the discount in the process. But with the current discount at a modest 68 basis points, this is unlikely to dominate. Options markets send the same signal – the skew to ETH puts is small with no differentiation around the expected date of the withdrawal mechanism going live.  

Ether staking withdrawals are unlikely to be a bearish event. On the contrary, there are positive impulses to ETH demand.  

For one, shorter lockup periods are associated with a higher rate of staking deposits. Ethereum’s staking rate is currently 13% versus 60% for assets with lockups of less than three days – where ether is headed (Figure 3).  

Further, ETH real yields are running high, at 5%-to-7% adjusted for its inflation (5.1% now). The average real yield for the top 22 assets is currently 3.2%, and even lower for other low-inflation assets (Figure 4).  

Ethereum won’t leap to the norm of other protocols – ETH ownership is less concentrated, and the low inflation rate means the cost of not staking is less. But the direction of traffic is clear – and positive. The bond math tells you that ether is the cheapest on the block(chain).

Germany’s Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has stepped down on Monday after what’s widely reported as a series of blunders and PR disasters, and amid accusations she’s been too slow and inept in providing Ukraine defense aid.

A member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), she’s been a headache for the Scholz government, and alongside rising criticism over the handling of Ukraine, she’s been accused of bungling Germany’s own defense readiness. 

Lambrecht made reference to some recent embarrassing PR moments in her resignation letter, which said in part: “Months of media focus on me doesn’t allow for fact-based reporting and discussion about soldiers, the army and security policy in the interest of German citizens.”

“The valuable work of the soldiers and many motivated people in the defense area needs to be in the foreground,” the letter added.

Criticism grew most fierce over the last two weeks over an awkward New Year’s Eve message and video her office published, as Deutsche Welle (DW) describes: 

The move comes after German media outlets reported on Friday that the defense chief intended to step down after a much-criticized New Year’s Eve message she posted on social media. 

In her message, Lambrecht mentioned the war in Ukraine with the sound of fireworks in the background. Members of the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) called out the message as tone-deaf and urged her to resign.

According to the same publication, “Her gaffes included taking her adult son on an official trip to a unit in northern Germany in a German Armed Forces helicopter, only to continue with him on vacation in Sylt.” Talk of her imminent resignation began on Sunday.

The New Year video that set off the most recent widespread criticism: 

Fireworks in Berlin on New Year’s Eve in the background – and the German defense minister talking about war in Europe in the foreground.

Christine Lambrecht’s New Year’s address posted on her Instagram sparked outrage and again increased calls for her resignation. pic.twitter.com/hQNE2T88Gu

— DW Politics (@dw_politics) January 2, 2023

Perhaps more importantly she’s been seen as emblematic of Berlin’s hesitancy to step up defense aid to Ukraine, amid pressure from other NATO allies. For example, she once came under fire for saying that 5,000 military helmets to Ukraine was “a very clear signal that we stand by your side.”

Currently, the Scholz government is coming under more and more pressure as other European countries like the UK and Poland begin sending heavy tanks to the Ukraine conflict. Already, Berlin agreed to send 40 Marder armored personnel carriers, as well as a Patriot air-defense missile battery to Ukrainian forces.