Earth Blasted With X-Class Flare, Sparking “Largest Solar Radio Event Ever Recorded”
The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center reported a massive solar flare from the northwest part of the Sun on Thursday evening that caused “one of the largest solar radio events ever recorded” across the Western Hemisphere.
“An X2.8 flare (R3) occurred from Region 3514; located over the far NW area of the Sun. This is likely one of the largest solar radio events ever recorded,” SWPC wrote in a post on social media platform X.
The Sun emitted a strong solar flare on Dec. 14, 2023, peaking at 12:02 ET. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an image of the event, which was classified as X2.8. https://t.co/4INrRFqIg7pic.twitter.com/2dJ1YMkiXS
SWPC continued, “These impacts were felt from one end of the Nation to the other. Additionally, SWPC is analyzing a possible Earth-directed Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) associated with this flare.”
This monster solar flare was classified as an X2.8.
On a scale of strengths that range from B class (weakest) to C, M, and X (strongest), the powerful bursts of energy can disrupt radio communications, electric power grids, and navigation signals and pose a risk to spacecraft.
Two older SUVs appear to come out of nowhere, slowly at first, then kicking up clouds of dust as they pick up speed along the southern side of the U.S.–Mexico border. Two white vans tail them to a gap in the border wall.
With covered faces, smugglers suspected of working for drug cartels exit the vehicles, which bear a mix of Californian and Mexican license plates. The coyotes, as they are known, glare through the slats in the 30-foot-tall border wall, while keeping an eye on their human cargo.
Within seconds, the doors on each vehicle are flung open and around 25 eager illegal immigrants jump out of each SUV and 50 from each van.
“Move it! Move it! Move it!” barks one of the coyotes as he turns his back to the wall and waves his arms toward a narrow footpath strewn with shreds of clothing and stray strands of razor wire where the wall ends at the base of a steep hill.
The illegal immigrants, a few with children, pick up their pace, dashing a few yards up an incline, around the wall, and into the United States.
The coyotes disappear into the desert as fast and efficiently as they arrive.
The chatter—mostly Spanish and some Mandarin—tapers off as U.S. Border Patrol agents, waiting on site, approach the illegal aliens along the wall to distribute plastic bracelets to them. The 150 new arrivals, mostly solemn but relieved to be out of the clutches of the cartels, march along the wall toward tents and makeshift shelters.
A Border Patrol Mobile Response Unit team stands watch over the camp near Jacumba on the southeastern fringe of San Diego County. One of three illegal immigrant encampments within about a 20-mile span along the border, Willow camp is flanked on the west by 177 camp, south of Boulevard, California, and Moon camp in Imperial County on the east.
A small sampling of illegal immigrants at the camps say they came from China, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Mauritania, Colombia, and Brazil.
Sam Schultz, whose family volunteers for a group called Border Kindness and are affiliated with the legal services organization Al Otro Lado, which means “to the other side” in Spanish, delivers food and water to the camps daily.
He told The Epoch Times on Dec. 5 he was worried about running out of supplies with so many illegal immigrants crossing that day.
Mr. Schultz said about 30 percent of the illegal immigrants in the latest wave to the Jacumba camps are from China.
Manny Bayon, a National Border Patrol Council union spokesman in San Diego, told The Epoch Times the number of illegal immigrants released into San Diego County has doubled in the last two weeks—from 400 to 500 per day to 800 to 1,000.
Dec. 5 and 6 marked two of the highest days on record for illegal immigrants apprehended at the border in a single day, although exact figures were not available, he said. About 1,000 illegal immigrants occupied the three camps on those days alone.
On Dec. 6, Senate Republicans blocked aid funding to Ukraine and Israel while asking the Biden administration to do something to halt the flow of illegal aliens across the southern border.
With detention facilities over capacity and asylum cases backlogged in the immigration courts for the next decade, Congress should force the Biden administration to secure the border, Mr. Bayon said.
“The Biden administration is not doing anything. They haven’t done anything in the last three years,” he said.
The union fully supports the move to block the budget until the border crisis is solved, Mr. Bayon said.
“They should even withhold funding to sanctuary cities.”
Chicago and New York—both sanctuary cities, which shield illegal immigrants from federal immigration authorities—are now realizing the surge in illegal immigration over nearly three years is a “bigger mess,” than anyone imagined, he said.
Morale Hits ‘Rock Bottom’
Another Border Patrol agent in Arizona, who spoke to The Epoch Times on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation, said most agents don’t believe they have the support of the Biden administration nor Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Border Patrol agents feel “100 percent betrayed by Mayorkas and the Biden administration,” he said.
Every patrol station is so over capacity, much of the manpower is going to process and transport illegal immigrants, which leaves fewer agents left in the field, he said.
Morale among agents, he said, has hit an all-time low.
“It’s rock bottom, by far the worst I’ve ever seen,” the Border Patrol agent said. “A lot of them are leaving. They’re leaving the patrol. They don’t even have a backup plan—no job. They’re just so sick and tired of having their hands tied. Guys are having a hard time even putting on their uniforms. Right now, we’re just Uber drivers. We’re just watching it all happen. We’re watching the destruction of our country.”
Although crossing the border by land anywhere but U.S. ports of entry is illegal, and illegal immigrants could be arrested and deported under current law, the Border Patrol has been told to stand down, the source said.
“We’ve been told we can’t stop anybody,” he said.
Meanwhile, the “actual bad guys,” who use illegal immigrants as their drug “mules” to smuggle fentanyl and cocaine, are evading capture.
“There’s no pulse check on that, because everybody is either … driving, processing, or providing medical attention,” the Border Patrol agent said.
“Agents signed up to defend the border and protect our country, and we’re just not being allowed to do it.”
Drug and sex trafficking have become worse in America, leaving agents voiceless and struggling with their consciences, because they know they’re not doing enough to push back against the Mexican cartels, he said.
“This is an absolute cash grab for them. The Biden administration is really helping facilitate it and embolden the cartels, and we have to just stand by, and you’re not allowed to speak about it,” he said. “We took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. We need more people to stand up, and the American people have a right to know what’s going on.”
From the moment President Joe Biden was sworn into office nearly three years ago, the message has essentially been that border is open, and now is the time for migrants to rush the southern border, he said.
On day one, the Biden administration signed executive orders and issued memos to temporarily suspend deportations of illegal aliens, reversed former President Donald Trump’s ban on travel from terror-prone countries, halted border wall construction, stopped adding people to the “Remain in Mexico” program, fortified the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and released a sweeping immigration package to Congress that included amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants.
“We’ve never had these kinds of numbers before. You literally have people coming in from all over the world, and in such massive numbers that it’s hard to stop,” the Border Patrol agent said.
National Security Threat
Alarmed by the number of military-age men coming into the country from all over the world, amid conflicts between Israel and Hamas, as well as Ukraine and Russia, the United States needs to tighten border security and step up its vetting process, said the border agent.
With Border Patrol arresting 172 illegal immigrants on the terrorist watchlist in fiscal year 2023, he is also worried about fighting-age men from Middle East countries entering the United States without rigorous vetting.
Boycott Harvard: Early Applications Plunge 17% As Hate Fills The Leftist Campus
Harvard College is led by controversial president Claudine Gay, who has single-handedly done more damage to the school’s reputation than anyone else in its nearly 500 years of existence.
Gay’s failure to tackle antisemitism on campus has been a major wake-up call for parents nationwide who aspire to send their children to the elite school. Parents quickly realize the school no longer prioritizes excellence through education but instead pushes toxic woke narratives and political indoctrination that is harmful to Western society.
New data from Bloomberg shows that a huge blowback is just beginning: The college received 17% fewer applications for early admission from high school seniors this year. Applications this year for non-binding early admissions were 7,921 versus 9,553 last year.
Applications were due Nov. 1, a little more than a month before Gay refused to answer US lawmakers on Capitol Hill if “calling for the genocide of Jews” is bullying and harassment in terms of the school’s code of conduct.
🚨🚨🚨Presidents of @Harvard@MIT and @Penn REFUSE to say whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” is bullying and harassment according to their codes of conduct. Even going so far to say it needs to turn to “action” first. As in committing genocide.
However, from the Oct. 7 attack on Isreal by Hamas through the application deadline date of Nov. 1, parents around the nation were shocked by videos and news headlines of chaotic pro-Palestinian protesters on the college campus.
Pro-Palestine/Hamas protest at Harvard today.
Most attendees in masks to hide their identities.
Protestors chanting against peace in the region until Palestine is free “from the river to the sea.” pic.twitter.com/Q1ot1RkQg3
“Mulitple times a week on my way to class, I walk by mobs of people chanting ‘from the river to the sea’…I talk to my Jewish friends on campus every day. They tell me how afraid they are to go to class…” – @Harvard student Jonathan Frieden. pic.twitter.com/t8uy94rQoD
Plaintiffs’ firm Edelson said it will boycott Harvard Law’s Spring Interview Program after the president of the university Claudine Gay’s Congressional testimony last week regarding campus antisemitism https://t.co/qfB51e4kctpic.twitter.com/BtfCL5XAH1
— No #MFP #LLSD Blue-pill of #MSMlies (@Becky__BT) December 14, 2023
Meanwhile, billionaire investor Bill Ackman has had his crosshairs on Gay, demanding that she “resign in disgrace.” On Sunday, he wrote an open letter to Harvard’s governing boards of directors about Gay’s removal.
Shortly after Ackman’s letter, 500 faculty members signed a letter to Harvard, urging them not to fire Gay.
Peak Harvard has likely arrived as Republican lawmakers swarm the leftist college and propose new legislation to strip it of billions of dollars in federal payments and tax breaks over its failure to tackle hate on campus.
Perfect timing from Elon Musk: He donated $100 million to launch a primary and secondary school, and ultimately a university, in Austin, Texas, this week.
DEI must DIE.
The point was to end discrimination, not replace it with different discrimination.
We’re sure the ‘school of Musk’ will focus on proper education to further humanity rather than the hate that is being taught in imploding liberal schools nationwide.
A storm and planned maintenance have forced Russia to suspend on Friday around two-thirds of the shipments of its flagship crude grade Urals from its Baltic and Black Sea ports, Reuters reported, citing traders and vessel tracking data.
The port of Primorsk on the Baltic Sea will see no shipments of Urals crude in the period December 13 to December 18, according to LSEG data and traders who spoke to Reuters.
In addition, Urals shipments from Novorossiysk, Russia’s primary port of loading Urals in the Black Sea, were also suspended on Friday because of a storm.
As of Friday, only one port in Russia, Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea, was loading and shipping the Urals blend.
Loadings from Ust-Luga, which loads both Russia’s Urals and Kazakhstan’s KEBCO blend, are scheduled at an average of around 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) for December, per estimates reported by Reuters.
Overall, all ports in Russia’s western regions, that is, the ports on the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea, are planned to load around 1.9 million bpd this month, down by 6% compared to November.
Russia’s crude oil shipments jumped in the four weeks to December 10, after storms in the Black Sea that had disrupted loadings in November subsided, tanker-tracking data monitored by Bloomberg showed earlier this week.
Russia’s crude oil shipments from all its ports averaged 3.2 million bpd in the four weeks to December 10, up by around 114,000 bpd compared to the four-week average to December 3, according to the data reported by Bloomberg’s Julian Lee.
Meanwhile, Russia’s oil revenues dropped in November to the lowest level since July as crude export prices dropped and volumes declined, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday.
Russia’s export revenues for crude and oil products fell by 17% month-on-month in November to $15.2 billion—the lowest export revenues for Moscow since July this year, the agency said in its Oil Market Report for December.
Rewarding Obesity, Southwest Giving Free Second Seats To ‘Customers of Size’
Southwest Airlines is receiving a mix of praise and scorn over a policy giving obese passengers free seats to hold their overabundant girth. Basic economics suggests that it will result in healthy passengers subsidizing the humungous. Worse, some thin passengers will get booted from flights to make room.
Southwest didn’t announce its “Customer of Size” policy with fanfare. Rather, it came to wide public attention after fat TikTokkers started educating each other on how to take advantage of it.
Southwest has caved to the cattle.
‘Customers of size’ will now receive a free extra seat to accommodate their poor health decisions.
Yes. Even if the airline is overbooked.
Which means someone who is not a busted can of biscuits will have to deplane so southwest can cater to… pic.twitter.com/ZC0D1Wc444
The standard for getting a free extra seat strikes us as a little vague. According to the airlines posted FAQ:
“The armrest is the definitive gauge for a Customer of size. It serves as the boundary between seats. If you’re unable to lower both armrests and/or encroach upon any portion of a seat next to you, you need a second seat.”
As word spreads and more and more heavy people belly up to take advantage of the policy, maybe we’ll see test seats at Southwest gates akin to luggage size-testing boxes.
While it’s not mandatory, the airline encourages jumbo flyers to buy a second seat in advance and then ask for a refund:
“The purchase of additional seats serves as a notification of a special seating need and allows us to adequately plan for the number of occupied seats on board. It also helps us ensure we can accommodate all customers on the flight for which they purchased a ticket and avoid asking customers to relinquish their seats for unplanned accommodation.”
That last part is particularly worrisome, as it anticipates times when the “customer of size” policy compels Southwest to bump a normally-proportioned passenger to clear a second seat for a huge one.
According to the New York Post, that hard-to-swallow scenario is exactly what was imposed on a mother and her two teen sons, who were told that their flight home after a vacation was overbooked.
“Please help me understand why do I have to spend the night without any accommodations in Baltimore because an oversized person didn’t purchase a second ticket,” she wrote in a TikTok video account of her treatment. The video captures a Southwest employee telling her, “Even if there are not enough seats, we have to accommodate that customer of size.”
It’s finally happened; Southwest Airlines has caved and is being praised for giving plus-size customers a buy one get one free.
Their policy now allows overweight flyers to purchase one seat and get another complimentary.
The free seat policy is apparently unique among domestic carriers. “Southwest is the only airline that allows you a second seat at no extra cost even if the flight is fully booked,” wrote self-identified “fat solo traveler” Kimmy in an October video that brought the woke policy to widespread attention. In the video, she boasts of eating up a free second seat more than a dozen times already.
Just the latest example of declining American society encouraging self-destructive behavior and then distributing the costs to everyone.
Iranians Claim IRGC Chased US Aircraft Carrier Out Of Persian Gulf
Days ago, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Shahram Irani vowed that his forces would soon “force” a US Navy aircraft carrier from waters off Iran’s coast. “It should be said that they have come [to the region] to sow division and meet their own needs… we will soon force them out of the region,” he had said.
It was confirmed from at least two weeks ago that the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower was patrolling the Persona Gulf at a moment of high tensions with Tehran, given the ongoing Gaza War. Additionally, Iran-backed Houthi attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea has intensified, become almost a daily occurrence at this point.
As a result the US Navy is beefing up its response in the Red Sea, also after two more shipping tankers were struck by missiles and drones fired from Yemen’s Houthis on Friday.
Iranian state media is now reporting that the USS Eisenhower has exited the Persian Gulf and vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz. Based on maritime tracking websites, the carrier has been out of the region already for at least several days and is now moving into the Mediterranean.
Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy, Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, said the carrier had exited the area following over two weeks of being closely monitored by IRGC assets:
“This flotilla was in the Persian Gulf for less than 20 days and has been under the IRGC naval forces’ intelligence oversight.”
Tangsiri went on the claim that the US carrier was only there for “propaganda” purposes related to supporting Israel, at a moment Israeli leaders have warned Iran against further support to its proxies such as Lebanese Hezbollah or the Yemeni Houthis.
The Iranians have been publishing videos which purport to show overhead area surveillance captured by drones…
⚡️BREAKING
IRGC releases video of their conversation with the US Navy
Before the aircraft carrier Eisenhower left the Persian Gulf.
The IRGC forced the US Navy to land its helicopters on deck and leave the Persian Gulf without provocations pic.twitter.com/yD9YRHQgif
A US Navy statement on the Eisenhower’s movement has not been immediately forthcoming in response to Iran’s claims. A statement from the ship’s commanders earlier this month said, “Our presence in the region is about deterring malign activities and deescalating tension and uncertainty.”
The large carrier could now possibly he headed to the Red Sea in support of operations against the Houthis and to help deter ongoing attacks on commercial vessels
Former President Donald Trump has secured another endorsement for his 2024 bid for the White House,with Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) making his long-standing quiet backing for the former president official and full-throated.
“President Trump doesn’t need to worry. I’m with him. He’s asked me several times to support him. I said yes,” Mr. Hawley told Politico in an interview on Dec. 12.
Earlier, Mr. Hawley said he thinks President Trump would surely win the Republican nomination but stopped short of officially declaring his endorsement. That has now changed, with Mr. Hawley’s announcement making him the 18th Republican senator to endorse the former president’s comeback bid for the White House.
“I’ve been saying for a year that I think he’s going to be the nominee,” Mr. Hawley said. “I support him. I’m going to vote for him.”
The Missouri Republican added: “You can put me down as support, endorsed, stand with.”
The Missouri Republican’s declaration of endorsement comes after President Trump took to Truth Social over the weekend to warn Mr. Hawley and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that Democrats are trying to figure out how to oust the two from their respective Senate seats and extend their razor-thin majority in the upper chamber.
“So interesting that the Democrats are looking hard at the Senate races in both Missouri and Texas,” President Trump wrote. “Josh and Ted must be very careful, stranger things have happened!!!”
The 2024 election cycle is vital to the Democrat Party as it looks to hold on to—or broaden—its slim Senate majority. This summer, Sarah Guggenheimer, a spokesperson for the Democrat-aligned Senate Majority political action committee (PAC), told Politico that Mr. Cruz and Mr. Hawley were major targets that Democrats want to oust.
At the time, Mr. Hawley told the outlet that he expects Democrat-aligned donors to spend $100 million to try and flip his Senate seat blue, while Mr. Cruz said that he’s taking the race “intensely seriously.”
While Mr. Hawley has endorsed President Trump, Mr. Cruz has not officially declared which candidate he is backing. In the 2016 primary, Mr. Cruz was then-candidate Trump’s chief rival for the nomination but ultimately endorsed him and campaigned on his behalf.
Mr. Cruz has, on several occasions, broken with President Trump on endorsements, supporting opponents of Trump-backed candidates ahead of the 2022 mid-term elections.
Mr. Hawley’s endorsement brings the number of senators officially backing President Trump’s election bid to 18 (out of 49 Republican senators), while just four senators have endorsed other candidates. The former president has also secured the official backing of nearly 90 House members, with no other candidate coming close in congressional endorsements.
President Trump is dominating the field for the Republican nomination, with the latest RealClearPolitics polling average showing him with 60.3 percent support, which is over 47 points ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (12.6 percent) and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (12.1 percent).
President Trump’s commanding lead in the primary polls is why he declined to participate in any of the GOP presidential debates.
Meanwhile, the former president has called on the GOP to take urgent action after a poll revealed that one-in-five mail-in voters admitted to committing at least one type of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Over 43 percent of 2020 votes were cast by mail, which is the highest percentage in U.S. history.
‘Biggest Story of The Year’
A survey carried out by Heartland/Rasmussen and published on Dec. 12 has bolstered President Trump’s longstanding claim that he was cheated out of a victory in the 2020 presidential election.
The survey shows that 17 percent of mail-in voters admitted to voting in a state where they are no longer permanent residents; 21 percent filled out ballots for others; 17 percent signed ballots for family members without consent, and 8 percent reported offers of “pay” or “reward” for their vote.
Further, 10 percent of all respondents to the poll (carried on a representative sample of 1,085 likely voters) said they know a friend, family member, co-worker, or other acquaintance who admitted to casting a mail-in ballot fraudulently.
In response to the concerning findings, President Trump took to Truth Social to demand urgent action.
“This is the biggest story of the year, and Republicans must do something about it,” the former president wrote. Further, he suggested that unless something is done quickly to address the problem of voter fraud, the issue will cast a pall over the 2024 election.
“Have to make a move now,” President Trump continued. “Get tough, get smart. Our country is being stolen!”
While Democrats and their allies claim that election fraud is little more than a myth, President Trump has said for years that voter fraud is a pervasive problem in U.S. politics —and insists he was robbed of a win in the 2020 election.
Israeli Troops Mistakenly Kill 3 Hostages Who Were Trying To Escape
In an incredibly rare and surprise admission, the Israeli army has owned up to killing its own citizens who had been held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The incident happened Friday in the densely populated northern Gaza town of Shejaiye, and resulted in three Israeli hostages being mistakenly killed – all of them young men who had been kidnapped on Oct.7. The men were trying to escape when they were killed by fire from Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Israeli troops “mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat,” according to an official military statement. “As a result, the troops fired toward them and they were killed. During searches and checks in the area in which the incident occurred, a suspicion arose over the identities of the deceased.”
Thinking they might have been captives, “Their bodies were transferred to Israeli territory for examination, after which it was confirmed that they were three Israeli hostages,” the statement continued.
The IDF then expressed “deep sorrow for the incident” and said it is under investigation. The three men were identified as Yotam Haim, Samer Talalka, Samer Talalka – and all were taken from kibbutz communities in southern Israel during the Hamas terror raids there over two months ago.
A group representing the families of kidnapped relatives, called The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, expressed “profound grief” – while prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed that it is “an unbearable tragedy” but also emphasized continued support for Israeli soldiers “who are devoted to the sacred mission of returning our hostages, even at the cost of their lives.”
“Even on this difficult evening, we will dress our wounds, learn the necessary lessons and continue with our supreme effort to return all our hostages home safely,” Netanyahu added.
Friday was full of tragedy and bad news for Israel, given also the bodies of three separate deceased were found. All had been kidnapped on Oct.7 – and two were soldiers who had been working at a border checkpoint:
The Israel Defense Forces announced on Friday that troops operating in Gaza had recovered the bodies of two soldiers and one civilian hostage who were taken captive by Hamas terrorists on October 7. The military also announced the deaths of three more soldiers as heavy fighting continued in the Strip.
The returned soldiers were named as Cpl. Nik Beizer, 19, and Sgt. Ron Sherman, 19. The civilian was identified as Elia Toledano, a 28-year-old French-Israeli citizen.
All of this is likely to increase the outrage and political pressure already being directed at Netanyahu. Kidnap victims families and their supporters have alleged the Netanyahu government’s hawkish approach to the crisis has unnecessarily endangered the lives of the more than 100 hostages that remain, following the weeklong truce.
The families were hoping for a extension of the deal, or the establishment of another deal, to get their loved ones back. Netanyahu has still vowed to pursue the goal of the complete eradication of Hamas undeterred.
Rudy Giuliani Ordered To Pay $148 Million To Defamed Election Workers
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was ordered to pay more than $148 million to a mother-daughter pair of Georgia election workers whom he accused of manipulating ballots in the 2020 election.
Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, sued Giuliani for defamation, after the Trump ally suggested they had engaged in election fraud in order to tip the election to Joe Biden in the critical swing state.
The two women testified that they were flooded with expletive-laden phone calls and messages, as well as threats and racist attacks. Freeman claimed that people showed up at her home, while Moss said that others tried to execute a citizen’s arrest at her grandmother’s house. They also called Ms. Moss’s 14-year-old son’s cellphone.
“This all started with one tweet,” Freeman told the jury, referring to a Giuliani tweet which read, “WATCH: Video footage from Georgia shows suitcases filled with ballots pulled from under a table AFTER supervisors told poll workers to leave room and 4 people stayed behind to keep counting votes.”
Lawyers for the two women asked the jury to send a message when deciding the amount Giuliani should pay.
“Send it to Mr. Giuliani,” attorney Michael J. Gottlieb, said in his closing argument on Thursday. “Send it to any other powerful figure with a platform and an audience who is considering whether they will take the chance to seek profit and fame by assassinating the moral character of ordinary people.”
Giuliani’s lawyer, Joseph Sibley VI, told the court that an award of the scale being sought by the plaintiffs would be the civil equivalent to the death penalty, as Giuliani has been struggling financially amid an indictment in Georgia on racketeering charges.
And so, with all that in mind, we shift attention to bank balance sheets as The Fed attempts to manufacture data on loans and deposits to ensure we don’t panic.
On a seasonally-adjusted basis, total bank deposits rose by $28.4BN, after falling $54BN the prior week…
Source: Bloomberg
On a non-seasonally-adjusted basis, total bank deposits jumped $65BN (the second weekly increase in a row) to the highest level since the SVB banking crisis (and deposit exodus)…
Source: Bloomberg
Even with deposit inflows and money-market outflows, the divergence did not improve much (yet)…
Source: Bloomberg
Excluding foreign bank deposits, domestic banks saw inflows on both an SA and NSA basis (+$36.4BN and $67.1BN respectively)…
Source: Bloomberg
Breaking it out, Large banks saw $30BN SA and $51BN NSA deposit inflows while Small banks saw $6.1BN SA and $15.3BN NSA deposit inflows.
Over the past six weeks, domestic banks have added $245BN in deposits (on an NSA basis) and lost $13BN in deposits (on an SA basis)…
Source: Bloomberg
Rather oddly, on the other side of the ledger, amid these surging deposits this week, loan volumes shrank for both large and small banks (-$3.7BN and -$1.7BN respectively)…
Source: Bloomberg
Finally, the key warning sign continues to trend ominously lower (Small Banks’ reserve constraint – blue line), supported above the critical level by The Fed’s emergency funds (for now)…
Source: Bloomberg
As the red line shows, without The Fed’s help, the crisis is back (and large bank cash needs a home – green line – like picking up a small bank from the FDIC).
QAll of which makes us wonder – you know, just thinking out loud – are we setting up for another banking crisis in March as:
1) BTFP runs out (it was only a 12 month temporary program), and
2) RRP drains to zero, at which point reserves get yanked which means huge deposits flight.
Is that why The Fed needed to bring rates down massively and fast, to reduce the bond losses on banks’ books?
