An initial US Navy ship has reached Eastern Mediterranean waters off the coast of the Gaza Strip where its crew has begun constructing a floating platform for the ambitious Gaza humanitarian pier project ordered by President Biden, new satellite images published by Planet Labs show.

USNS Roy P. Benavidez is now some 5 miles from the shoreline location which serves as the base of operations, overseen by the Israeli military. The Associated Press writes that “A satellite image from Sunday by Planet Labs PBC showed pieces of the floating pier in the Mediterranean Sea alongside the vessel.”

Both US and Israeli officials have voiced that they hope to have a mobile pier in place and humanitarian deliveries being offloaded via maritime routes by sometime in the first part of May.

The causeway is expected to be at a length of 550-meters (1,800 feet) and will have Israeli military protection. US Army and Navy engineers are expected to remain at sea, especially after days ago the pier site came under mortar shelling by Palestinian militants who have warned against foreign forces stepping foot inside Gaza.

A new Reuters report meanwhile indicates the pier will cost US taxpayers at least $320 million to finish. This is double the early estimates which were floated earlier this year.

“The figure, which has not been previously reported, illustrates the massive scale of a construction effort that the Pentagon has said involves about 1,000 US service members, mostly from the Army and Navy,” writes Reuters.

“The cost has not just risen. It has exploded,” Senator Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Democratic-led Senate Armed Services Committee, has complained.

“This dangerous effort with marginal benefit will now cost the American taxpayers at least $320 million [US dollars] to operate the pier for only 90 days,” he continued.

Earlier this month, USAID director Samantha Power said that famine already exists in some parts of the Gaza Strip. WSJ has underscored this as well in its reporting last week: “Some U.S. officials have said the pier, which will float several miles off Gaza’s shore, will help get more aid into northern Gaza, where some residents are already living in famine-like conditions, according to estimates released last month by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, an international initiative tasked with assessing the risk of famine around the world.”

Many government officials especially from Global South countries have highlighted Washington’s contradictory approach to Gaza – on the one hand the US has been funding the Israeli military machine, sending controversial weaponry like 2,000-pound bombs, while on the other Biden has condemned the soaring civilian death toll and humanitarian catastrophe. Ironically, to some degree the United States is funding both sides of the conflict.

Update (2230ET): Columbia University announced Monday evening that it has begun suspending students who wouldn’t leave an pro-Palestine encampment by a 2pm deadline.

Students in the encampment along with hundreds of supporters spent Monday afternoon rallying in support of the movement, however by 4pm most of the protesters began to disperse after there was no sign of police action to arrest protesters or remove tents. Around 80 students remained by early evening.

And now, they’ll be suspended.

“We have begun suspending students as part of the next phase of our efforts to ensure the safety of our campus,” said University spokesman Ben Chang. 

At present, a core group of students remain.

At a news conference on Monday afternoon, Sueda Polat, a student organizer with the encampment, said that the university had not made significant concessions to the protesters’ main demand: divestment from companies with links to the Israeli occupation of Gaza. Columbia had also stopped negotiating. As a result, she said, the students inside the encampment “will not be moved unless by force.”

“We’ve been asked to disperse, but it is against the will of the students to disperse,” she said. “We do not abide by university pressures. We act based on the will of the students.” –NY Times

Earlier in the day faculty members, many wearing masks, were getting in on the action.

NOW: Columbia University faculty link arms and form a wall in front of the entrance to the ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’ as hundreds of students encircle the both lawns

Students remaining in the encampment were told they could face disciplinary action after 2PM pic.twitter.com/C1XRgHzs8b

— katie smith (@probablyreadit) April 29, 2024

Let’s see what tomorrow brings.

*  *  *

Columbia University has given protesting students until 2pm to leave their encampment and sign a form committing to abide by university policies through June 30, 2025, or by their graduation. Failure to do so will disqualify students from graduating this spring, or from participating in academic and extracurricular activities, Axios reports.

“It is important for you to know that the university has already identified many students in the encampment,” reads the Monday letter that was shared by Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine. “If you do not leave by 2pm, you will be suspended pending further investigation.”

ACTION ALERT:
– Columbia University admin threatens MASS SUSPENSIONS and DISCIPLINARY PROBATION (until June 2025) to Gaza Solidarity Encampment participants who don’t leave by 2 PM.
– Do not sign anything with administration.
– Show up at NOON to protect the encampment! ❤️‍🔥 pic.twitter.com/v1Qw5gXu0q

— Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (@ColumbiaSJP) April 29, 2024

“Sanctions include probation, access restriction, suspension for a term or more and expulsion,” reads the Monday notice – which doesn’t look like it’s going well.

Columbia University has threatened the students in the Gaza solidarity encampment with mass suspensions if they do not sign waivers by 2pm today. The students’ response: pic.twitter.com/SIJkWJWvji

— Palestinian Youth Movement (@palyouthmvmt) April 29, 2024

According to the letter, talks between university leaders and student leaders at the encampment are at an impasse and the unauthorized encampment and associated disruption to the campus has created an “unwelcoming environment” which violates various school policies – including rules governing disruptive behavior and harassment.

“Please promptly gather your belongings and leave the encampment,” reads the letter. “If you voluntarily leave by 2 p.m., identify yourself to a University officials, and sign the provided form where you commit to abide by all University policies through June 30, 2025, or the date of the conferral of your degree, whichever is earlier, you will be eligible to complete the semester in good standing (and will not be placed on suspension) as long as you adhere to that commitment.”

Well something is about to go down a Columbia. pic.twitter.com/ws6Ztpw8en

— Jarrett Stepman (@JarrettStepman) April 29, 2024

Officials say they hope the protesting students will sign the form and leave by the deadline. Those who refuse will be put on disciplinary probation.

Meanwhile, things are starting to get spicy:

And there he goes. pic.twitter.com/3e0sv1qke5

— Jarrett Stepman (@JarrettStepman) April 29, 2024

As the Epoch Times notes further, efforts to dismantle the encampment have failed, as university president Minouche Shafik has faced an outcry from many students, faculty, and outside observers for summoning New York City police to take down the unauthorized encampment, resulting in more than 100 arrests.

Protesters have vowed to keep their encampment unless three demands are met: divestment from Israel, transparency in Columbia’s finances, and amnesty for students and staff disciplined for taking part in the protests.

Ms. Shafik said in her Monday statement that Columbia would not divest from Israel but that the university has offered to publish a process for students to access a list of its direct investment holdings, in the interest of transparency. Columbia has also offered to make investments in health and education in Gaza. And the letter sent to protesters promises an amnesty of sorts.

She said that the campus has been roiled by divisions over the war in Gaza and, despite the fact that the school has provided space for protests and vigils that did not disrupt academic life, the encampment has gone too far.

“We must take into account the rights of all members of our community,” she wrote. “The encampment has created an unwelcoming environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty. External actors have contributed to creating a hostile environment in violation of Title VI, especially around our gates, that is unsafe for everyone—including our neighbors.”

“With classes now concluding, it represents a noisy distraction for our students studying for exams and for everyone trying to complete the academic year,” she continued, adding that Columbia would allow protests to continue on campus—by application with two-days’ notice in authorized locations—after the exam period and commencement.

“We have no intention of suppressing speech or the right to peaceful protest,” Ms. Shafik wrote, adding that the protesting students had been asked to commit to following the university’s rules, including those on the time, place, and manner of demonstrations.

“We urge those in the encampment to voluntarily disperse,” she added.

Various streets are being blocked. Sounds like they are creating a corridor to shuffle the protesters out. pic.twitter.com/vH8WutuQ7O

— Jarrett Stepman (@JarrettStepman) April 29, 2024

It comes as a group of 21 House Democrats criticized the “anti-Israel, anti-Jewish” encampment at Columbia in an April 29 letter to the school’s trustees.

“As a result of this disruption on campus, supported by some faculty members, many students have been prevented from safely attending class, the main library, and from leaving their dorm rooms in an apparent violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.”

The group, led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), is different from calls condemning the protests that have mostly come from GOP leaders. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Republican colleagues visited the campus last week and called for Ms. Shafik to resign.

Authored by Egon von Greyerz via VonGreyerz.gold,

Since the October 2023 gold low of just over $1,600 gold is up but is anyone buying?

Well no, certainly none of the normal players.

Gold Depositories, Gold Funds and Gold ETFs have lost just under 1,400 tonnes of their gold holdings in the last 2 years since May 2022. 

But not only gold funds are seeing weak buying but also mints such as the Perth Mint and the US Mint with its coin sales down 96% year on year. 

Clearly gold knows something that the market hasn’t discovered yet. 

RATES MUCH HIGHER 

For the last few years I have been clear that there will be no lasting interest rate cuts. 

As the chart shows below, the 40 year down trend in US rates bottomed in 2020 and since then rates are in a secular uptrend.  

I have discussed this in many articles as well as in for example this interview from 2022 when I stated that rates will exceed 10% and potentially much higher in the coming inflationary environment, fuelled by escalating deficits and debt explosion.

“But the Fed will keep rates down” I hear all the experts call out!

Finally the “experts” are changing their mind and  believe that cuts will no longer happen. 

No central bank can control interest rates when its government recklessly issues unlimited debt and the only buyer is the central bank itself. 

PONZI SCHEME WORTHY OF A BANANA REPUBLIC

This is a Ponzi scheme only worthy of a Banana Republic. And this is where the US is heading.  

So strongly rising long rates will pull short rates up. 

And that’s when the fun panic starts. 

As Niall Ferguson stated in a recent article:

“Any great power that spends more on debt service (interest payments on the national debt) than on defence will not stay great for very long. True of Habsburg Spain, true of ancien régime France, true of the Ottoman Empire, true of the British Empire”.

So based on the CBO (Congressional Budget Office), the US will spend more on interest than defence already at the end of 2024 as this chart shows: 

But as often is the case, the CBO prefers not to tell uncomfortable truths. 

The CBO forecasts interest costs to reach $1.6 trillion by 2034. But if we extrapolate the trends of the deficit and apply current interest rate, the annualised interest cost will reach $1.6 trillion at the end of 2024 rather than in 2034. 

Just look at the steepness of the interest cost curve above. It is clearly EXPONENTIAL. 

Total Federal debt was below $1 trillion in 1980. Now, interest on the debt is $1.6 trillion.

Debt today $35 trillion rising to $100 trillion by 2034.

The same with the US Federal Debt. Extrapolating the trend since 1980, the debt will be $100 trillion by 2036 and that is probably conservative.

With the interest trend up as explained above, a 10% rate in 2036 or before is not unrealistic. Remember rates back in the 1970s and early 1980s were well above 10% with a much lower debt and deficit.

US BONDS – BUY THEM AT YOUR PERIL  

Let us analyse the current and future of a US treasury debt (and most sovereign debt):

• Issuance will accelerate exponentially 

• It will never be repaid. At best only deferred or more probably defaulted on

• The value of the currency will fall precipitously

HYPERINFLATION COMING

So where are we heading? 

Most probably we are facing an inflationary period leading to probable hyperinflation 

With global debt already up over 4x this century from $80 trillion to $350 trillion. Add to that a Derivative mountain of over $2 quadrillion plus unfunded liabilities and the total will exceed $3 quadrillion. 

As central banks frenetically try to save the financial system, most of the 3 quadrillion will become debt as counterparties fail and banks will need to be saved with unlimited money printing. 

BANCA ROTTA – BANKRUPT FINANCIAL SYSTEM 

But a rotten system can never be saved. And this is where the expression Banca Rotta derives from – broken bench or broken bank as my article from April 2023 explained. 

But neither a bank nor a sovereign state can be saved by issuing worthless pieces of paper or digital money. 

In March 2023, four US banks collapsed within a matter of days. And soon thereafter Credit Suisse was in trouble and had to be rescued. 

The problems in the banking system have just started. Falling bond prices and collapsing values of property loans are just the beginning. 

This week Republic First Bancorp had to be saved. 

Just look at US banks’ unrealised losses on their bond portfolios in the graph below.

 Unrealised losses on bonds held to maturity are $400 billion.

And losses on bonds available for sale are $250 billion. So the US banking system is sitting on identified losses of $650 billion just on their bond portfolios. As interest rates go up, these losses will increase.

Add to that, losses on loans against collapsing commercial property values and much more.

EXPONENTIAL MOVES 

So we will see debt grow exponentially as it has already started to do.  Exponential moves start gradually and then suddenly whether we talk about debt, inflation or population growth. 

The stadium analogy below shows how it all develops:

It takes 50 minutes to fill a stadium with water, starting with one drop and doubling every minute – 1, 2, 4, 8 drops etc. After 45 minutes the stadium is only 7% full and the last 5 minutes it goes form 7% to 100%.

THE LAST 5 MINUTES OF THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM

So the world is most probably now in the last 5 minutes of our current financial system.

The coming final phase is likely to go very fast as all exponential moves do, just like in the Weimar Republic in 1923. In January 1923 one ounce of gold cost 372,000 marks and at the end of November in 1923 the price was 87 trillion marks!

The consequences of a collapse of the financial system and the global economy, especially in the West can take many decades to recover from. It will involve a debt and asset implosion plus a massive contraction of the economy and trade.

The East and South and especially the countries with major commodity reserves will recover much faster. Russia for example has $85 trillion in commodity reserves, the biggest in the world. 

As US issuance of treasuries accelerate, the potential buyers will decline until there is only one bidder which is the Fed. 

Even today no sane sovereign state would buy US treasuries. Actually no sane investor would buy US treasuries. 

Here we have an already insolvent debtor that has no means of repaying his debt except for issuing more of the same rubbish which in future would only be good for toilet paper. But electronic paper is not even good for that. 

This is a sign in a Zimbabwe toilet: 

Let us analyse the current and future of a US treasury debt (and most sovereign debt):

• Issuance will accelerate exponentially 

• It will never be repaid. At best only deferred or more probably defaulted on

• The value of the currency will fall precipitously

That’s all there is to it. Thus anyone who buys US treasuries or other sovereign bonds has a 99.9% guarantee of not getting his money back. 

So Bonds are no longer an asset of value but just a liability for the borrower that will or can not be repaid.

What about stocks or corporate bonds. Many companies won’t survive or experience a major decline in the stock price together with major cash flow pressures. 

As I have discussed in many articles, we are entering the era of commodities and especially precious metals. 

The coming era is not for speculation but for trying to keep as much of what you have as possible. For the investor who doesn’t protect himself, there will be a wealth destruction of an unprecedented magnitude. 

There will no longer be a question what return you can get on your investment. 

Instead it is a matter of losing as little as possible. 

Holding stocks, bonds or property – all the bubble assets – are likely to lead to massive wealth erosion as we go into the “Everything Collapse”.

THE NEW ERA OF GOLD AND SILVER

For soon 25 years I have been urging investors to hold gold to preserve their wealth. Since the beginning of this century gold has outperformed most asset classes. 

Between 2000 and today, the S&P, including reinvested dividends, has returned 7.7% per annum whilst gold has returned 9.2% per year or 8X.

In the next few years, all the factors discussed in this article will lead to major gains in the precious metals and falls in most conventional assets. 

There are many other positive factors for gold. 

As the chart below shows, the West has reduced its gold reserves since the late 1960s, whilst the East is growing its gold reserves strongly. And we have just seen the beginning of this trend.

The US and EU sanctioning of Russia and the freezing/confiscation of the Russian assets in foreign banks are very beneficial for gold. 

No sovereign states will hold their reserves in US dollars any more. Instead we will see central bank reserves move to gold. That shift has already started and is one of the reasons for gold’s rise. 

In addition, gradually the BRICS countries are moving away from the dollar to trading in their local currencies. For commodity rich countries, gold will be an important part of their trading. 

Thus there are major forces behind the gold move which has just started and will reach further both in price and time than anyone can imagine. 

HOW TO OWN GOLD

But remember for investors, holding gold is for financial survival and protection of assets. 

Therefore gold must be held in physical form outside the banking system with direct access for the investor. 

Also gold must be held in safe jurisdictions with a long history of rule of law and stable government. 

The cost of storing gold should not be the primary consideration for choosing a custodian. When you buy life insurance you mustn’t buy the cheapest but the best.

First consideration must be the owners and management. What is their reputation, background and previous history. 

Thereafter secure servers, security, liquidity, location and insurance are very important. 

Also, high level of personal service is paramount. Many vaults fail in this area. 

Preferably gold should not be held in the country where you are resident, especially not in the US with its fragile financial system. 

Neither gold nor silver has started the real move yet. Any major correction is likely to come from much higher levels. 

Gold and silver are in a hurry so it is not too late to jump on the gold wagon.

A tornado outbreak on Saturday night across southern Oklahoma decimated a major distribution center for budget retailer Dollar Tree. The facility supplies stores across the Oklahoma-Texas area, plus other surrounding states, which may spark supply chain issues. 

Professional storm chaser Aaron Rigsby posted several aerial images of the Dollar Tree distribution center in the Marietta area on X. The photos show the damage left behind after a tornado ripped through the center of the massive warehouse. 

Images from Marietta, OK Tornado. Would appear as if cars and semis were tossed off the interstate last night next to the Dollar Tree DC that was impressively shredded to bits. #OKwx pic.twitter.com/2y46FeJfdF

— Aaron Rigsby (@AaronRigsbyOSC) April 28, 2024

Another storm chaser, Brandon Clement, posted an up-close drone video of the wreckage, showing millions of products that won’t arrive on store shelves anytime soon.

A tornado hit Matietta, OK. Destroying the Family Dollar Distribution center. It also hit a Dollar store, hospital and flipped cars and semis on I-35. #Tornado #Damage #OKWX #Oklahoma #WXTwitter pic.twitter.com/7AF7bgBcQ0

— WxChasing- Brandon Clement (@bclemms) April 28, 2024

Marietta is located in Love County. The country’s sheriff’s office posted on Facebook that “power lines everywhere and buildings have been destroyed.” 

“Significant damage to dollar tree warehouse, homeland, dollar general, nursing home, and part of the hospital,” the sheriff’s office said. 

With the Marietta distribution center offline, this may spark significant disruptions in the supply of goods to stores located in Texas, Oklahoma, and surrounding states. 

Dollar Tree operates 25 distribution centers nationwide, serving over 15,500 stores.  

There is no official statement from the company specifying supply chain impacts. 

Will anti-bitcoin crusader Liz Warren demand that British Pounds be banned next?

shut up https://t.co/7ytElXwXR5 pic.twitter.com/AiTKkB6aKJ

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 22, 2024

Jo-Emma Larvin navigated through London’s Heathrow Airport on a fateful day in August 2020, pushing a cart laden with seven suitcases. Traveling business class to Dubai, Larvin and her companion passed through security, seemingly no different from the throngs of other travelers. Yet, unbeknownst to airport authorities, her bags held a clandestine cargo: millions of British pounds, wrapped in rubber bands and sealed in plastic.

Their destination? An international money launderer, adept at converting cash into gold or other currencies, the Wall Street Journal reports, without mentioning bitcoin once, because let’s face it: 99% of all money laundering involves not crypto but cold, hard cash!

The money launderer, who charges a hefty fee to clients to exchange cash for gold and other currencies, has been operating via Heathrow to Dubai – the former doesn’t scan outbound luggage for cash, while the latter welcomes sacks of it. They’re also the #1 and #2 of the world’s busiest airports for international passengers.

The UK mandates passengers declare amounts exceeding $10,000 to customs authorities. Larvin, however, risked arrest by not disclosing her precious cargo, not that anyone would notice. The suitcases slid through Heathrow’s baggage-handling system and its 3-D scanner, designed to detect explosives rather than contraband currency.

The next morning in Dubai, the women calmly collected their bags, declaring $2.8 million at customs, a practice fully permitted by UAE law. While the UAE allows any amount of cash to enter its borders, the laxity of international airports in monitoring money flows has created a loophole, one exploited by money launderers worldwide.

Each year, more than $2 trillion in proceeds from illegal enterprises enters the global financial system, with a significant portion smuggled across borders by air. According to estimates by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the Financial Action Task Force, “hundreds of billions in illicit cash” fly out of the UK and other nations to countries with fewer regulations.

One of the reasons for so much airline smuggling is that banks around the globe have stepped up the reporting of suspicious transactions, making it more difficult to launder money using traditional wire transfers. So it’s back to even more traditional ways of money laundering.

“You just can’t walk into a bank with this much money without being flagged,” said George Voloshin, of ACAMS, an industry group for financial crime-fighting professionals. “You will be arrested at the next branch.“

Larvin and her boyfriend became two operatives in an intricate web of money launderers working for a UAE-based kingpin. Over a few months in 2020, this network smuggled around $125 million, primarily from the UK to Dubai. “How did they manage so much money in such a short time?” wondered Ian Truby, a senior officer at the UK’s National Crime Agency. “Security isn’t designed to detect such activities.”

Three weeks after her initial journey, Larvin returned to Heathrow with her boyfriend, carrying eight suitcases filled with cash. “It’s fucking ridiculous,” he texted, voicing concern about drawing attention. “Talk about conspicuous.”

The pair’s operation ultimately contributed to unraveling a broader international laundering scheme.

The Kingpin

Documents, court records, and interviews reveal how a man named Abdulla Alfalasi spearheaded the smuggling operation, transporting cash from Heathrow to Dubai since 2017. He expanded during the pandemic, once departing with 11 suitcases weighing 463 pounds and reporting $850,000 in Dubai. Alfalasi’s connections, including his father-in-law’s involvement in developing Dubai’s airport, provided an air of legitimacy.

He recruited Michelle Clarke, an executive assistant from Leeds, who soon began recruiting others, including Larvin. The scheme enticed participants with promises of easy money, business-class flights, and luxurious accommodations. Yet the allure was short-lived for many.

In October 2020, two couriers were intercepted at Heathrow, and a subsequent investigation uncovered a vast network of 36 international couriers. Clarke was arrested in Zanzibar in December, carrying $9 million in gold on a private plane.

Authorities eventually arrested Alfalasi and several couriers, unveiling details of the operation. Alfalasi pleaded guilty to money laundering and received a 9-year, 7-month prison sentence. His assets, including vehicles and watches, were seized. Clarke remains under investigation in Dubai for money laundering.

In texts to the Journal, Larvin’s boyfriend, Jonathan Johnson, said that he and Larvin were simply two ordinary people who were hoodwinked. He suggested that if what they did was such a big crime, why aren’t airports scanning luggage for cash?

Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

With the state facing a record-high budget deficit, tax collections are failing to meet California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal projections, which could put further pressure on the state’s finances.

As of April 25, the state’s franchise tax board is showing personal income tax collections on track to approximately match estimates for the month.

However, corporate tax revenues of $4.16 billion equate to more than $500 million below forecasts for the month and are off by $1.4 billion for the fiscal year.

Some economists point to disruptions in the technology industry—with thousands of California jobs slashed across several companies in recent months—as a contributing factor in declining corporate and personal income taxes.

“The loss of tech jobs has also hurt California’s public finances, which have grown heavily dependent on Silicon Valley,” Joseph Politano, independent writer for online data and economy newsletter Apricitas Economics, posted April 14 on Substack. “It will mean less future potential revenue—forcing the state to raise tax rates or pare back spending on investment, social services, and more.”

Sales and use taxes are also driving the shortfall, missing estimates by $1 billion since November.

In March, such receipts came in $653 million below forecast, which the finance department said, “reflect ongoing weakness in taxable sales.”

Data analysts blamed inflation and high-interest rates, in part, for the lackluster sales tax collections, as cash-strapped consumers are managing their finances by reducing spending on some items.

“This decline reflects consumer challenges balancing higher prices and financing costs with essential household needs,” Andy Nickerson, president and CEO of HdL Companies—a data and consulting services provider for local governments—said in an April 16 tax report summary. “As the Federal Reserve considers a delay in softening rates, [we anticipate] consumer spending may continue to stagnate, delaying a return to normal historical growth trends in 2024.”

Cumulative March tax receipts came in $243 million below estimates and contributed to a $5.8 billion shortfall since November—representing a 4 percent miss—according to a recently released report from the state’s Department of Finance.

While personal income tax receipts exceeded expectations in March, estimated payments since November were down $4.7 billion, suggesting weakness in tax collections for the 2023 tax year, the finance department reported.

With the income tax due date of April 15, more details will be available in the first week of May once calculations are complete. Preliminary information from the state’s controller’s office suggests the governor’s estimate could be $6 billion or more higher than actual revenues collected.

While Mr. Newsom’s January proposal was based on forecasts, a revision due in May will be able to incorporate receipts received, which should provide more clarity.

“All of these results suggest that April revenues, in the aggregate, may come in several hundred million dollars below monthly estimates,” Jason Sisney, budget director for Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, said in a Substack post April 25. “It is virtually certain that the May Revision will downgrade revenue projections from those the Governor released in January.”

Mr. Newsom is expected to provide the revision on or before the May 14 deadline.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office predicted earlier this year after weak tax collections in January that revenues would miss the governor’s estimates by about $16 billion for the 2023–2024 fiscal year and another $9 billion for 2024–2025.

But following personal income tax revenues in February and March that were closer to estimate, Mr. Sisney believes the shortfall will not be as large as the analyst’s office suggested.

“Based on revenue trends to date … it is difficult for me to see revenues dropping quite that much,” he said.

Disparities in estimates between the governor and the analyst’s office have existed since January regarding the severity of the budget deficit.

Mr. Newsom estimates a $38 billion shortfall, while analysts forecast a $73 billion gap in funding. Some of the differences lie in the governor’s calculation of solutions proposed, which the analyst’s office says accounts for about $20 billion of the discrepancy.

With the numbers in flux, lawmakers and policy experts are awaiting final totals so that budget proposals can be debated in earnest.

Mr. Newsom recently approved a “budget bill junior” crafted by Democratic lawmakers as an early action plan to address a portion of the deficit.

Approximately $17 billion to chip away at the deficit—including deferrals, delays, borrowing, and some $3.6 billion cuts—primarily to one-time funding—were enacted by his signing of Assembly Bill 106 on April 15.

Who could have seen this coming?

ICYMI from Nov 2023, when gold was still 1900

Behind The Mysterious Explosion In Gold Prices: China’s “Massive Accumulation Of Gold”https://t.co/6Yg2HPmMwf

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 28, 2024

In November 2023, with gold trading around $1900/oz, we highlighted the beginning of a precious metal buying-binge from China, noting that the prcie for physical gold had never been more expensive at the time (while western gold prices were still below their prior record highs).

Additionally we noted the total lack of demand for so-called ‘paper gold’ via ETFs as holdigs underlying these vehicles was declining, as investors rotated from paper to physical:

“The rising interest in gold bars and coins was primarily driven by investors’ safe-haven demand, supported by global geopolitical instability and weak performance of investment products denominated in Chinese yuan.”

Source: Bloomberg

Now, a few months later, we get confirmation as The South China Morning Post reports that consumers in China bought 308.9 tonnes (10.9 million ounces) of gold in the first quarter, representing a 5.9% increase compared to the same period in 2023.

Having burned out in Chinese gold ETFs, we recetly noted that, amid a notable pick up in capital flight that the Chinese had “grabbed gold by the throat.”

Sure enough, as SCMP points out, Chinese consumers are increasing their appetite for gold, seeking to protect their assets amid a volatile stock market, a depreciating yuan and property doldrums, which analysts said would continue to boost international gold prices coupled with geopolitical uncertainties.

Purchases of gold bars and coins, which largely reflect investment and hedging demand, surged by 26.8 per cent year on year to 106.3 tonnes, while gold jewellery sales declined by 3 per cent from a year earlier to 183.9 tonnes.

“Gold represents the only safe asset for [Chinese consumers] to protect their wealth against domestic inflation, asset price declines as well as against geopolitical risks,” said Chen Zhiwu, the chair professor of finance at the University of Hong Kong.

“I expect Chinese household demand for gold to rise more in the future. And the Chinese central bank will also continue to purchase more gold to prepare for more geopolitical turmoil ahead.”

China’s central bank bought 160,000 ounces of gold bullion in March, marking its 17th consecutive monthly purchase and bringing its total reserves to 2,262 tonnes (72.74 million ounces), as it aims to diversify holdings away from US bonds amid strained bilateral relations.

“The escalation in gold holdings by global central banks, coupled with heightened gold demand in the Chinese market, has emerged as significant drivers propelling recent gold prices beyond market expectations,” the Bank of China said on Friday.

“In the future, gold prices are expected to sustain their robust upwards trajectory, driven by ongoing global central bank efforts to de-dollarise, escalating geopolitical uncertainty, and shifts in the [US] Federal Reserve’s monetary policy,” the report said.

China eclipsed India as the largest purchaser of gold jewellery in 2023, with consumption totalling 630 tonnes last year, representing an annual increase of 10 per cent.

“The China story is one of the reasons supporting gold prices, but the global risk-off sentiment is also fuelling the demand,” said Gary Ng, senior economist at Natixis Corporate and Investment Bank, who expected China’s demand for gold to remain resilient in 2024.

“Beyond China, whether the US can take inflation is another determinant for future gold prices, which is probably the biggest uncertainty.”

However, as TD Securities’ Daniel Ghali points out another potential source of gold strength.

With little trace in exchange data, buying activity must be OTC. However, price action in basis, forwards, and BoE gold suggest the buying program is price insensitive, has a sense of urgency, and deep pockets. This mysterious bid may point to curiously aggressive OTC buying activity, which appears to be highly correlated with acute currency depreciation pressures.

Ongoing currency pressures could explain the sense of urgency behind this bid, with a high correlation with the CNY’s deviation from its fix inching towards its fixed band.

Historically, this has been associated with a significant outperformance as the exceptional buying activity underpins a squeeze from those using the traditional playbook.

Finally, US election dynamics are a positive for gold, according to TD Securities’ Bart Malek.

A Republican administration is likely to push lower taxes, with spending largely unchanged. The resulting higher deficit projections, from the already very high numbers, should help gold, as it suggests higher inflation, lower real rates and continued central bank buying. A likely even more adversarial stance toward China and Iran taken by a Republican administration would also contribute to gold’s good fortune and should see oil well supported.

Simply put, gold remains a good sanction-proof private- and central-bank-diversifier.

Authored by Roger Simon via The Epoch Times,

I am writing this column in the hopes you will pass it around.

To be honest, I write every column in the hopes it will be passed around, times being what they are. I’m arrogant enough to think what I have to say is at least somewhat needed. More humbly, G-d gave me a modicum of writing skill I have concluded for a reason and, more than ever in my life, I, at the age of 80, seem constrained to use it. I rarely stop, and when I do, all I seem to think about is what I’m going to write next, except when I’m playing tennis… And even then…

Today’s title is, of course, a knock-off of “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” written by Ed and Patsy Bruce, but made famous, as these things go, by others—the estimable Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. If you’ve been living under the proverbial rock and haven’t heard their fabulous recording—and even if you have; I listen to it all the time—it’s right here.

It begins: “Cowboys ain’t easy to love/And they’re harder to hold.” If you replace “Cowboys” with “Activists,” it still makes sense, maybe more. Trust me—I’ve been there myself, years and years ago. We were wrong then. They’re worse now.

This is all a long way around to what my theme is – the cause of the civilization-threatening unholy mess we are in with so many of our supposedly premier institutions of higher learning – indeed the world’s supposedly premier institutions of higher learning – Ivy League on down, turned into satanic campgrounds celebrating a group of bloodthirsty maniacs that make the Nazi Party seem like… well, let’s just leave it there.

Except that 1939 has come back. From Wikipedia:

“On February 20, 1939, a Nazi rally took place at Madison Square Garden, organized by the German American Bund. More than 20,000 people attended, and Fritz Julius Kuhn was a featured speaker. The Bund billed the event, which took place two days before George Washington’s Birthday, as a pro-‘Americanism’ rally; the stage at the event featured a huge Washington portrait with swastikas on each side.”

Déjà vu all over again? The proverbial canary in the coal mine come back for yet another bow?

Yes, but now it’s arguably worse. No more wrapping themselves in the flag. George Washington, no longer revered, is just another statue to be toppled. It’s “Death to America” all the way down at our leading universities and it’s spreading.

It’s Rashida Tlaib’s world. We just live in it.

Mammas, don’t let your babies grow up to be activists—see what I mean?

I’m not talking about the loyal readers of this site. I’d be astonished if they were the kind of parents or grandparents who would countenance that kind of thing. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they (you) know plenty who are.

Also, I know many fine people who have done their bests with their progeny only to find that years of critical race theory (flagrant or masked) and other assorted “woke” excrescences in the schools, not to mention the inability to concentrate brought on via the supposed gifts of Silicon Valley, have made it impossible anyway.

When looking for blame for what happened to this generation of college students, half or near of whom seem to prefer Hamas to Israel, most point at the educational system itself, so neo-Marxist “woke” from kindergarten up it’s hard to imagine how they could be more so, and to the media who cheer it along, amplify it, and excuse its excesses.

But it all starts in the home. In other words, someone was not home to give these young people guidance and rein in at least some of their excesses—the parents.

It’s not been just an abdication of responsibility. In more cases than we would like to know, the parents may also have cheered them on, seeing in their rebellious children the vindication of their own, much more tepid, rebellions years ago.

In yet other cases it’s more direct, and worse.

As illustration, recall how, back in 2020, former president Barack Obama proudly announced his daughters’ participation in protests led by Black Lives Matter, an organization that proved to be a financial rip-off not just of other blacks, but of all who contributed to their racialist con game. (That link, by the way, comes to you via the oh-so-chic folks at Harper’s Bazaar.)

Of the three causes mentioned, the parents may, in the end, be the most to blame, though needless to say a fourth element, our government, has its portion too, an amazingly large one, fomenting what Christopher Rufo sees as internal “color revolutions” via such amusements (for children yet) as “Drag Queens for Palestine.”

It’s impossible to know how many of these protestors come from single-parent homes, but it’s almost certain to be a high percentage. This is a national disaster in itself.

It’s hard to know in general how many of them there are or even who they are because they wear masks or keffiyehs covering their faces (for fear of COVID or, more likely, identification by future employers).

What we are seeing on our campuses is the product of a family environment imploding or, sadly, already imploded. Much of this is and has been intentional.

I apologize to all of you for being so “hobbyhorsical,” as Laurence Sterne termed it hundreds of years ago, on this topic, but the situation we are in is indeed civilizational. One can only praise the few governors—Texas, Florida—who have stood up to the onslaught and properly used the National Guard to return their universities to what was supposedly their real purpose—something called education.

So let’s end with some good news. It was long overdue, but the Ivy League and similar institutions are finally losing their luster. It is being widely reported that many students and their families—not just Jewish ones—are deciding to go elsewhere, to the Midwest and South, for their studies that might be more even-handed.

Others are deciding that college isn’t such a great thing after all and are going to trade schools. Good on them. (I wonder how many of those trade schools are having pro-Hamas demonstrations. Not many, I’d wager.)

Finally, a word about a word—“activists.” It is used as well to characterize adherents of what we often think of as good causes. I say—bag it. Let’s leave that term to the Left. That way you don’t have to let your babies grow up to be “activists,” because, chances are, they’re not going to be the kind you want.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

OnlyFans creator and TikTok star Farha Khalidi says that the Biden administration paid her to push “full on political propaganda,” and asked her not to disclose that she was advertising for them.

Speaking with commentator Richard Hanania, Khalidi said she’d been asked to boast about Ketanji Brown Jackson after Jackson was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Biden.

“I was doing full-on political propaganda,” she said, adding “The funny thing is they’re like, do not disclose this is an ad because technically it’s not a product so you don’t have to disclose it’s an ad. Because I think they just wanted, like, some edgy girl of color to just tell people — like when they nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson, they’re, like, ‘Can you say “as a person of color,” you know, that you feel “reflected”?’”

Watch:

NEW: OnlyFans creator Farha Khalidi says she was paid by the Biden Administration to spread “political propaganda” & was told to not disclose her videos were ads.

Everything about Biden is fake.

Khalidi says the Biden admin reached out to her because they wanted someone with… pic.twitter.com/CQ40K5IHID

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 28, 2024

Khalidi has 1.8 million TikTok followers.

Speaking of propaganda, and we’ll save you the eye bleach by not posting his picture… director Steven Spielberg is also helping the Biden campaign with reelection, NBC News reported on Friday.

The filmmaker will help to “convey the president’s successes and his vision for the country” to delegates and viewers of the Democratic National Convention, scheduled to take place August 19-22 in Chicago. Spielberg has been meeting event organizers, who expect more than 5,000 delegates from across the country to officially select Biden as the presidential nominee.

Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

Do not believe the White House/mainstream media-concocted narrative that the four criminal court cases – prosecuted by Alvin Bragg, Letitia James, Jack Smith, and Fani Willis – were not in part coordinated, synchronized, and timed to reach their courtroom psychodramatic finales right during the 2024 campaign season.

These local, state, and federal Lilliputian agendas were designed to tie down, gag, confine, bankrupt, and destroy Trump psychologically and physically. They are the final lawfare denouement to years of extra-legal efforts to emasculate him.

Indeed, the nation is by now worn out by these serial assaults on constitutional norms: the Hillary-funded Steele dossier subterfuge; the pre-election Russian laptop disinformation campaign; the two impeachments without special counsel reports; the impeachment Senate trial of a private citizen; the effort to remove Trump’s name from state ballots; the ongoing attempt to emasculate the Electoral College; or the radical opportune changes in state election laws to ensure massive mail-in balloting.

Recently, Andrew McCarthy has reviewed in depth this coordination between White House personnel and prosecutors, long known and long denied by the left.

Biden, for example, had complained to aides about Attorney General Merrick Garland’s tardiness in getting special federal prosecutor Smith appointed – and thus apparently ensuring Trump was convicted before the election.

Nathan Wade, Fani Willis’s now-fired paramour prosecutor, visited and consulted with the White House counsel’s office when he was acting supposedly as a purely local county prosecutor. The January 6th left-wing-dominated congressional committee consulted with the Biden administration in sending forth its criminal referrals about Trump’s purported role in the protests. And to handle his pseudo-indictment against Trump, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg hired Biden Justice Department official Vincent Colangeio.

Two, the prosecutors’ delayed criminal indictments and E. Jean Carroll’s civil suit were predicated only on Donald Trump running for reelection. After his 2020 defeat, the loss of the two Republican senate seats in Georgia, and the January 6 demonstrations/riot, Trump was written off by pundits as politically toxic.

Then his historic comeback in the subsequent year terrified the left. The reboot prompted the subsequent indictments and suits years after the purported crimes. It was left unsaid that had Trump not been a conservative Republican and leading presidential candidate, he would have never been indicted.

Three, most of the indictments either had no prior precedent in criminal law or will likely never be used again, at least against anyone left-wing. Moreover, many of the writs relied on manipulation of statutes of limitations.

Neither Bragg nor any other local prosecutor had previously transformed a supposedly local affidavit misdemeanor into a supposed federal campaign finance violation, a gambit so preposterous that it had been passed on by federal attorneys.

Letitia James was the first New York Attorney General to indict a state resident for the supposed crime of overvaluing real estate to obtain a loan, which was paid back timely and in full, to the profit of lending institutions. No bank, after auditing Trump’s assets and viability to pay back loans, was unhappy to loan to him. But all were quite happy to profit from the hefty interest—and would likely be happy to loan to him again.

James sought to make Trump a criminal without ever finding a crime, much less a victim. Nor, until the checkered and unethical career of Fani Willis, had any local prosecutor ever indicted an ex-president for a supposedly improper phone call questioning whether all the state’s votes had been fully counted.

Alvin Bragg’s case was nonexistent given the statute of limitations on supposed misdemeanors committed over six years prior—until Bragg transmogrified the accusations of minor crimes into felonies and, with them, extensions granted supposedly due to the COVID lockdowns.

In Carroll’s case, her unsubstantiated accusations of a sexual assault were also well past the statute of limitations until a left-wing New York legislator and unapologetic Trump hater passed a special law—a veritable bill of attainder aimed at Trump—waiving the statute of limitations for a year in cases of accusations of long-past sexual assault in the state of New York.

Four, all the indictments and suits took place in either blue cities, counties, or states. And most of the jury pools in or near New York, Atlanta, or Miami were or will be heavily Democrat. So far, the New York judges who have overseen Trump’s civil and criminal trials—Justices Engoron, Kaplan, and Merchan—were all liberals, appointed by Democrat or liberal politicians, and some have donated to Democrat causes. They were not shy about expressing disdain for defendant Trump. No changes in venues were ever allowed.

Five, all the prosecutors, Bragg, James, Smith, and Willis, are likewise either Democrats or associated with liberal causes. In the case of Bragg, James, and Willis, all three ran for office and raised money on promises and boasts of getting Donald Trump. And all three have now set the precedent that local and state prosecutors can warp the law and use it to go after an ex-president and leading presidential candidate of the opposite party for naked political purposes.

Six, all these cases were equally applicable to high-profile Democrat politicos. E. Jean Carroll’s defamation suit was the most laughable of all the court dramas, but its outline and protocols just as easily could have applied to Tara Reade. She came forward to accuse candidate Biden of having sexually assaulted her years earlier—roughly about the same period’s as Carroll’s fluid timelines. Her story is about as believable or unbelievable as Carroll’s. But the difference was that whereas the media canonized the delusional and self-contradictory Carroll as a useful anti-Trump tool, it demonized Reade as a crazy loon and liar—and a potential impediment to Biden’s 2019-20 primary campaign.

Bragg had to torture the law to fabricate a federal campaign finance indictment against Trump. But Hillary Clinton clearly violated federal campaign statutes—and was variously fined—when she tried to hide her “opposition research” payments to Christopher Steele as “legal expenses.” In truth, Steele was hired and paid to concoct a fake anti-Trump dossier and likely should have been barred from working for a presidential campaign given he was not a U.S. citizen.

In the case of Smith, simultaneously with his case against Trump, his twin special prosecutor, Robert Hur, found that Joe Biden had unlawfully removed classified files for much longer than Trump (30 years plus), in a much less secure location (his rickety garage), and without a president’s authority to declassify his documents. Moreover, he had disclosed their contents to his ghostwriter, who destroyed evidence under subpoena by Hur. Yet unlike Trump, Biden was not charged, given that Hur claimed that Biden, in his opinion, was so old and amnesiac that he might win sympathy rather than a conviction from a jury.

Willis indicted Trump for supposedly trying to pressure officials to “find” missing Trump ballots, thus supposedly violating “racketeering” statutes, as he oversaw an attempt to find troves of ballots he thought had been cast for him. Of course, in the same state, Stacy Abrams, after losing the gubernatorial race of 2018, claimed she had actually won, despite losing by over 50,000 votes. She sued to overturn the election and then made a celebrity-political career touring the nation, falsely claiming she was the real governor and her victorious opponent was an illegitimate governor.

For that matter, in 2016, left-wing organizations, celebrities, and thousands of political operatives sought to overturn the Trump victory by appealing to the electors to renounce their states’ popular vote tallies and thus become “faithless electors.” In sum, there was a true conspiracy, or, better, a “racketeering” scheme, to use Willis’s parlance, to coordinate various groups to overturn the constitutional duties of electors to throw the election to Hillary Clinton. Clinton, along with the likes of ex-president Jimmy Carter and soon-to-be House Minority Leader Hakim Jeffries, would continue to deny that Trump was the legitimately elected president.

In sum, the number of suits against and indictments against Trump grew in correlation to his political fortunes. They were designed in the election year 2024 to do what Democrat voters likely cannot. They are ridiculous and sui generis, and will never be used against anyone other than Trump. They have done more damage to democracy, the rule of law, and equal justice to the law than all of the antics that Trump is accused of.

Moreover, they will set in motion a dangerous tit-for-tat cycle of weaponization that threatens the very constitutional order of the United States.

If Trump is elected to restore the rule of equal justice, will a Republican special counsel revisit Robert Hur’s work and find ex-President Biden quite capable of standing trial for the crimes Hur has already investigated and confirmed?

Will then a new Republican-appointed FBI director order a SWAT-like raid, with Fox News forewarned and Newsmax reporters on the scene, to descend into the Biden beach house?

Will county and state prosecutors in Utah, Montana, and Oklahoma feel that to stop this cycle of illegality, they must charge the Biden family members by bootstrapping local indictments onto federal crimes?

Will conservative women in the future come forward in Arkansas, Idaho, and Alabama to claim that in their past, they now suddenly remember that decades ago a prominent Democrat candidate harassed them? Will their right-wing lawyers cherry-pick the proper red-state judge?

Will conservative district attorneys find ways to indict Joe Biden on the various imaginative bookkeeping and “loan repayments” used to disguise the fact his corrupt family received well over $20 million from illiberal foreign interests, much if not all of it camouflaged to avoid income taxes?

Will some South Carolina legislator get a bill of attainder passed in the legislature, ending the statute of limitations for a year for all those in 2016 who sought to undermine the electors and flip them to Hillary Clinton?

In August or September, will a right-wing state prosecutor and a conservative judge find that Joe Biden’s creative bookkeeping warrants a $450 million fine, payable before appeal?

And will Republican officials and judges in purple states move to get Biden’s name off the ballot?

Such scenarios are endless and, given the current precedents, could all be justified as desperate deterrent measures to shock the left into ceasing their efforts to sabotage our constitutional system and rule of law.

A final note.

There is a divine order of balance in the world, one known variously by particular civilizations as kismet, nemesis, karma, or what goes around, comes around payback. We’ve already seen such forces at work: Sen. Schumer at the head of a mob at the doors of the Supreme Court, calling out threats to justices by name, only now finding pro-Hamas thugs circling his own home. Or Democrats during the Trump years straining to find ways to invoke the 25th Amendment, now humiliated into claiming a non-compos-mentis Joe Biden is “sharp as a knife.”

Tragically for the country, to stop this left-wing madness, the Trump travesties may not be the end, but the beginning of precisely what the Founders feared.