Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com,

Catherine Austin Fitts (CAF), Publisher of The Solari Report and former Assistant Secretary of Housing (Bush 41 Admin.), says the U.S. government is so fraudulent that it will self-destruct much sooner than later. 

CAF predicts, “If you look at FTX, my question is how much of the money sent to Ukraine got laundered right back for the (2022 midterm) election?”

”  So, to me, Ukraine is not a destination point, it is a through put point… At this point, and I hate to say it, but we are in full scale implosion.  The corruption is that bad.  That’s why I am telling you what we need is sovereignty.  The federal government is not going to deliver…

The financial coup has reached a point where if you want sovereignty, the only person who can deliver that is your state governor and your legislature…

If you’ve got a great state AG, if you have great legislature, if you have a great governor, you better start supporting them.  They are the people that can protect your sovereignty.  You need governmental sovereignty if you are going to have individual sovereignty, and you better do it now.  You have no time to be entertained by Joe Biden, Trump and Hunter Biden.”

The federal government corruption was turbocharged in 2019.  CAF says,

“While everyone was focusing on the teenage sex life of the Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh, the House, the Senate, the White House, Democrat and Republican, both sides of the aisle got together and approved Statement 56 of the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) which said they could keep secret books.  That was everybody—together. 

So, there is no Right vs Left.  There is no Trump vs Biden.  There is a machine in control of a spending machine that is financed with our taxes, and debt borrowed in our name, that is being sold into our pension funds and retirement accounts…

That machine, to keep balancing the books, is implementing a depopulation plan.  That is the reality that has to be faced and changing the President won’t matter…

If you want to make real progress against the machine, you’ve got to talk turkey about where your money is going, who are the local leaders and who are your state legislators who are going to support you when this machine fails you completely.  If it doesn’t fail you in 2023, it will fail you in 2024.  So, you better be ready.”

CAF says a big trend in 2023 that is already underway is people realizing the CV19 injections were not meant to save you but harm and kill you.  CAF say the CV19 injections were a bioweapon meant for depopulation, and everybody in America will know this in 2023.  CAF says,

“The mainstream media has done a good job painting a different picture, but at some point, you cannot defy reality, and that is coming out.  We have already seen it translate into market action.  We see life insurance companies trading down 30% and the funeral home business trading up 20%.  That is a 50% divergence.”

CAF talks about the importance of physical gold and silver in the not-so-distant future.  CAF also talks about using cash, growing clean food, paying down debts, Central Bank Digital Currency, places to live to weather the coming storm, taxes and the strength of binding together for sovereignty against the machine.

In closing, CAF says, “Get out of fear and stay out of fear. . . .You think a snowflake is weak and fragile until enough of them get together, and then they can shut down New York City. . . . If we can face it, God can fix it.  Don’t go to fear.”

There is much more in the 1-hour and 5-minute interview.

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he goes One-on-One with the Publisher of The Solari Report, Catherine Austin Fitts for 2.20.22.

*  *  *

To Donate to USAWatchdog.com Click Here

There is much free information on Solari.com.  You can search for all the free information CAF talked about by using the search box in the upper right-hand corner on the homepage of Solari.com.

On Tuesday the Taliban suspended university education for all women, and Afghan girls promptly began being turned away from any college campuses, sparking limited attempts at protest.

But on Wednesday it emerged that the ban on education has extended to all levels and ages, even down to elementary schools, which has effectively been suspended for all girls. 

Teachers too, have been impacted, as The Wall Street Journal reports, “In a gathering in Kabul with private-school directors, clerics and community representatives, Taliban officials on Wednesday also barred female staff, including teachers, from working in schools, closing off one of the few professions that had remained open to Afghan women under the new government, according to school principals who attended the meeting.”

The new hardline Islamist Taliban laws are so sweeping that they go beyond school campuses, as women can now no longer visit mosques or religious seminaries. 

Already there had been a long pause in girls’ schooling following the August 2021 Taliban takeover of the country amid the large-scale US-NATO troop withdrawal, with secondary schools shuttered starting in March. More recently, in some locations many women had just passed college entrance exams and were ready to pursue higher education.

The WSJ is basing its reporting on a high-level Taliban meeting this week where the decision against women in schools at all levels was made: 

According to attendees at the meeting, the Taliban said the ban on girls’ schooling would be temporary. However, during their first rule in the 1990s, the Taliban also said a prohibition on girls’ education that they had promulgated was temporary, but was never lifted it.

After the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August 2021, they closed schools across the country. Most schools eventually reopened, but girls in secondary school were told to stay at home until conditions—which the Taliban didn’t define—were ready for them to return to classes. The announcement to return to school never came.

The US State Department quickly condemned the “Taliban’s indefensible decision to ban women from universities” – though clearly the Taliban will remain undeterred as the expanded policy is being made known the following day.

Price warned of the further negative impact the decision will have on any Washington engagement with Taliban officials. “With the implementation of this decree, half of the Afghan population will soon be unable to access education beyond primary school,” Price said.

Meanwhile, large pallets of what’s been dubbed humanitarian aid has been showing up at Kabul’s airport, after having been delivered from an undisclosed country or entity. Fox reported last week:

A large package containing around $40 million in cash for “humanitarian aid” was seen on an airport tarmac in Afghanistan, officials there said last week.

The money was handed over to the Da Bank of Afghanistan, the Taliban-controlled central bank of Afghanistan, which is headquartered in Kabul. The bank tweeted several images of the cash. One shows packages of U.S. $100 notes bound in plastic, boxed and bagged in an airport.

۱۴۴۴ جمادي الاول ۲۰ مه – افغانستان ته د ۴۰ میلیونه ډالرو نغدي بشري مرستو بله کڅوړه را ورسېده او په کابل کې یو سوداګریز بانک ته و سپارل شوه. pic.twitter.com/VcyPK6c1aR

— Da Afghanistan Bank- Afghanistan (@AFGCentralbank) December 14, 2022

“Another package of humanitarian aid worth $40 million dollars arrived in Afghanistan and was handed over to a commercial bank in Kabul. This is the second package that has arrived in Afghanistan this week,” the Afghan central bank said.

Is the Biden administration quietly releasing seized Afghan national assets as a goodwill gesture, and amid a severe humanitarian crisis? If so, the timing will prove interesting and controversial given the first thing the Taliban has done after receiving the likely Western aid is to bar women from schools.

Authored by Steve Vannelli via Knowledge Leaders Capital blog,

In a recent San Francisco Federal Reserve Publication titled “Monetary Policy Stance is Tighter Than Fed Funds Rate,” the authors argue that the “all in” policy rate is actually higher than the Fed Funds rate would suggest. They open:

“The Federal Reserve’s use of forward guidance and balance sheet policy means that monetary policy consists of more than changing the federal funds rate target. A proxy federal funds rate that incorporates data from financial markets can help assess the broader stance of monetary policy.”

How is the rate constructed? Per the Fed’s explanation: 

“This measure uses a set of 12 financial variables, including Treasury rates, mortgage rates, and borrowing spreads to assess the broader stance of monetary policy. Using principal components, common movements among the 12 financial variables are extracted. The first three principal components are then mapped to levels of the federal funds rate, where the mapping reflects the pre-2008 correlations between them. Until December 2008, the mapping is nearly exact by construction; after 2008, the mapping from financial conditions to the funds rate diverges. This separation displays how the proxy funds rate responds to developments in financial conditions such as forward guidance and balance sheet operations.”

The SF Fed is kind enough to post the data behind the rate so I can download and analyze it. Below is a picture of the rate alongside the traditional Fed Funds rate.

The first, simple observation, consistent with the Fed’s study is that the proxy is considerably higher than the simple Fed Funds rate. This hasn’t always been the case, especially in the 2008-2014 period when the Fed was accumulating assets and providing dovish forward guidance.

Next, let me use the proxy rate to calculate the yield curve inversion out to 10 years. At -281bps currently, this is the deepest inversion since 1981. Importantly, every single recession since 1980 has been preceded by a 1+% inversion, helping explain the cacophony of calls for a recession next year.

The Fed has repeatedly expressed the need to get the Fed Funds rate above the inflation rate to create a positive real fed funds rate. Mission accomplished! The SF Proxy rate deflated by the core PCE price index 1-year percent change is now +1.17%, nearly equal to the level that precipitated the last recession.

Perhaps the market senses that this elevated proxy rate is enough to cool the US economy significantly in the quarters to come, helping explain why 2-year US Treasury yields appear to be rolling over. Historically, once the Fed Funds rate hits the 2-year UST, that tends to signify the end of the tightening cycle.

The SF Fed wraps up its research piece with: 

“Looking at the funds rate alone would suggest that policy is relatively looser than most rules would prescribe. In contrast, by accounting for the broader stance of policy, our proxy rate indicates that policy is tighter than most rules prescribe.”

Perhaps reflective of the uncertainty of how this new proxy rate will impact the economy, the Fed, in its last meeting, was almost unanimous in its assessment of uncertainty regarding the path of growth, employment and inflation.

*  *  *

Sign up for reports from Knowledge Leaders Capital.

In addition to just trying to keep its business afloat, Peloton now looks like it has…other problems.

And in other news, it isn’t just Instagram where scantily-clad profiles are looking to follow you, become instant friends and make small talk about how you can Venmo them money or join their crypto trading room. And, just like at the strip club, we hate to inform you that they’re probably not actually that interested in who you are as a person. 

The workout company said this week that it is starting to block accounts on its platform that have been created with “inappropriate content” – which can include anything things like explicit profile pictures. 

“Today, Peloton is taking active action against accounts being intentionally created with inappropriate content, including explicit imagery in their profile picture,” the company wrote in an email to its members at the beginning of the week. 

“These explicit images are a direct violation of our standards and terms of service,” the company said in a statement this week. 

Users “may not use someone else’s name, or any name, location, other public profile information or image that violates any third party rights, is against the law, or that is offensive, obscene or otherwise objectionable,” the company’s Terms of Service says.  

Over the last weekend, a Peloton fan site said that “multiple members reported getting new ‘suspicious-looking’ follower alerts overnight”, Reuters reported, perhaps prompting the review by corporate. 

The company’s new CEO called Peloton a “work in progress” that’s in the midst of a turnaround last month, Bloomberg said.

We guess the “robust demand” story at Tesla is finally over…

The EV company, which has seen its stock shellacked over the last month and its CEO pre-occupied with his latest tryst in Twitter, is reportedly implementing a hiring freeze and a new round of layoffs, according to a report by electrek. 

The move comes after the company had already asked some executives to “pause all hiring” and cut 10% of their staff back in June, the report notes. The latest round of layoffs has been attributed to Elon Musk’s “very bad feeling” about the U.S. economy.

Musk took to Twitter just yesterday to blame Tesla’s stock price plunge (it’s down about 20% over the last month) on the Federal Reserve inhibiting demand. 

As electrek correctly notes, the hiring pause and layoffs at the company should be even more alarming now, as Tesla was looking to forge forward with new factories in places like the U.S. and Germany. 

Over the last few months, production at Tesla’s key Shanghai plant has also been under scrutiny, with the plant scheduled to take a several day break before the new year, ostensibly to allow demand to catch up to supply and potentially to make upgrades and modifications to its line. 

“Tteams will be expected to make layoffs during the first quarter of 2023,” electrek wrote. “It’s not clear how extensive the hiring freeze will be as Tesla is still planning to expand in some manufacturing locations. No further details were made available at this time.”

The layoffs also come after price cuts and temporary discounts on some Tesla vehicles that have left some sell side analysts to pose the question of whether or not the company is seeing a demand problem. 

And the “diamond hands” over at electrek have certainly taken notice. They warned their pro-Tesla readership: “Until now, Tesla shareholders could still hold on to the thought that while the stock is doing poorly, Tesla’s financials and operations are still virtually unaffected. Now it looks like there might be some worrying trends that Tesla is seeing internally leading to those moves.”

By Simon White, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and analyst

The unexpected risk next year is not a recession, which looks very likely based on the data, but that one happens faster than almost all expect. Front-end Eurodollar or Fed Funds flatteners should do well in such a scenario.

Sometimes it is prudent to be skeptical when all the experts agree, but based on a dispassionate analysis of the data, there is a very high likelihood the US has a recession next year. Indeed, it would be remiss not to forecast one when there is such a weight of data pointing in that direction.

One of the most stark examples is the rapid tightening in financial conditions, to an extent only seen around recessions.

A slump next year should therefore not be shock; but what could surprise is the speed of its onset. That is down to recessions’ regime-shift nature, and the fact that economic data is often revised significantly lower in recessions. So not only is the economy deteriorating in real time, it was already doing much worse than the data intimated. There are already some cracks in job-market data which suggests downward revisions are on their way.

The Fed could thus begin to cut rates sooner than the market expects (currently the first full 25 bps cut is priced in for November next year). Suddenly weaker job market data and inflation which, according to leading indicators should still be falling, would give it enough cover to begin to take back some of its rate hikes. On top of that, real Fed Funds could also be positive as early as March.

How will the short-term rates curve behave in such a scenario? What happened in 2019 when Powell reversed rate hikes serves as a good template. We can see from the chart below that as the Fed cuts rates and becomes more dovish, the curve – already inverted and pricing in cuts – flattens more.

Bringing it back to today, July versus August Fed Funds trades -6 bps and would flatten to around -25 bps if the Fed cut 25 bps as early as July next year, while the one-month negative carry is on the low side at 4 bps. July versus October Fed Funds is similar, or Sep 23 versus Dec 23 Eurodollars (although the negative carry is more). Also, out-of-the-money call spreads on Sep 23 or Dec 23 Eurodollars, taking advantage of rising call skew, should perform well in an early recession scenario.

A surprising admission has come in a Washington Post report Wednesday morning following a months-long investigation into the Sept. 26 Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipeline sabotage attacks. While there remains consensus that the explosions were indeed the result of a deliberate act of sabotage, numerous officials in the West now say the evidence is not pointing to Russia.

WaPo begins by recounting the frenzied rush to immediately blame Moscow, which began within a mere hours into the massive gas leaks into the Baltic Sea: 

After explosions in late September severely damaged undersea pipelines built to carry natural gas from Russia to Europe, world leaders quickly blamed Moscow for a brazen and dangerous act of sabotage. With winter approaching, it appeared the Kremlin intended to strangle the flow of energy to millions across the continent, an act of “blackmail,” some leaders said, designed to threaten countries into withdrawing their financial and military support for Ukraine.

And then comes this admission: “But now, after months of investigation, numerous officials privately say that Russia may not be to blame after all for the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines.”

The Post issued the rare about-face of accusations after interviewing a total of 23 diplomatic and intelligence officials in nine countries who have been privy to the international investigation into the sabotage incident which has threatened European energy supplies going into winter.

“There is no evidence at this point that Russia was behind the sabotage,” one European official is quoted as saying.

Further, the report indicated, “Some went so far as to say they didn’t think Russia was responsible. Others who still consider Russia a prime suspect said positively attributing the attack — to any country — may be impossible.”

Among other prime suspects and theories, typically echoed in independent and alternative media, is that the United States is to blame. At least one UN official and prominent economist shocked a Bloomberg panel in suggesting this in early October…

Shocking moment of truth on Bloomberg when Professor Jeffrey Sachs says he believes the US was behind the Nord Stream pipelines destruction. The reporters start to lose it, of course. pic.twitter.com/CteWb7utcv

— sarah (@sahouraxo) October 3, 2022

A German government assessment that was the result of its own investigation has confirmed that explosives were places on the outside of the pipelines and underwater structures, while seismologists have detailed three explosions that caused four total leaks on NS-1 and 2.

The absolute consensus is that a nefarious actor did it, but as WaPo concludes of the various European assessments: “…even those with inside knowledge of the forensic details don’t conclusively tie Russia to the attack, officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share information about the progress of the investigation, some of which is based on classified intelligence.”

A question that hasn’t been asked enough in the wake of the sabotage attack is… Cui bono?

Update (0925ET): Nasdaq-listed Core Scientific filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. early Wednesday, confirming late Tuesday reports that the miner would seek Chapter 11 protection on the following day.

The company said in a statement that the decision followed “a comprehensive review of potential alternatives and exhaustive discussions with various company stakeholders.”

Core Scientific added that it expects to enter into a restructuring support agreement with the Ad Hoc Noteholder Group, representing more than 50% of the holders of its convertible notes.

“The filing of these cases was necessitated by a decline in the Company’s operating performance and liquidity suffering from the prolonged decrease in the price of bitcoin, the increase in electricity costs necessary to power the Company’s data centers, and the failure by certain of its hosting customers to honor their payment obligations,” per the statement.

“In response to these factors, the Company has actively taken steps to decrease monthly costs, delay construction expenses, reduce and delay capital expenditures and increase hosting profitability.”

Core Scientific said it is “committed to operating normally” as it moves “swiftly through the process” of restructuring.

“During this process and upon emergence, the Company will continue to operate its existing self-mining and hosting operations, which remain significantly cash flow positive on a debt-free basis,” per the statement.

“The Company remains dedicated to providing hosting services and self-mining in its state-of-the-art data centers.”

*  *  *

As CoinTelegraph’s Arijit Sarkar detailed earlier, just days after a creditor offered to help Core Scientific avoid possible bankruptcy, reports have emerged confirming the Bitcoin mining company’s fate. Core Scientific is reportedly filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Texas owing to falling revenue and low BTC prices.

On Dec. 14, financial services platform B. Riley offered to provide Core Scientific with $72 million in non-cash financing – $40 million with zero contingencies and $32 million with conditions – to retain value for stakeholders. The decision was made after Core’s valuation fell from $4.3 billion in July 2021 to $78 million at the time of reporting.

As a direct result of an extended bear market, Core Scientific had to sell 9,618 BTC in April to stay operational. A CNBC report quoted a person familiar with the company’s finances as saying that the Bitcoin mining company would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy early on Dec. 21.

While the company continues to generate positive cashflows, the income is not sufficient to cover the operational costs, which involve repaying the lease for its Bitcoin mining equipment.

The report also suggests that Core Scientific will continue its mining operations and has no plans to liquidate. When B. Riley offered a lending hand, the company’s stocks momentarily surged nearly 200%, but has since seen a steady decline.

Core Scientific’s share price movement on Nasdaq.

On Oct. 26, a Core Scientific filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission indicated financial distress. According to the company, the primary reasons for this situation were low Bitcoin prices, increased electricity costs, an increase in the global Bitcoin hash rate and the bankruptcy of crypto lender Celsius, which wiped out the debts owed to Core Scientific.

Core Scientific has not yet responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

Tech giant Microsoft recently restricted its cloud users from mining cryptocurrencies as a measure to increase the stability of its cloud services.

As Cointelegraph reported, Microsoft updated its acceptable use policy on Dec. 1 to clarify that “mining cryptocurrency is prohibited without prior Microsoft approval.”

The company said its intent was to protect customers by reducing the risk of disruption or impairedservices in the Microsoft Cloud.

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

Vice President Kamala Harris said on Monday that she expects and “would require” social media companies to work with the Biden administration to prevent so-called misinformation and disinformation, and to “protect democracy.”

During an interview with NPR that aired on Monday, Harris was asked for her thoughts regarding the changes made at Twitter since Elon Musk took over the platform.

“I think about this issue a bit differently, which is my deep and profound concern about how misinformation and disinformation have infiltrated information streams in our country,” Harris said.

The vice president pointed to her four years as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, during which she was actively involved in the investigation into alleged Russian interference with the 2016 elections.

Harris said that reports on the matter, both classified and public, showed that there was a “profound amount of intentional disinformation and misinformation targeting specific demographics to take advantage of what might be preexisting disparities and skepticism about the role and importance of government.”

She added that this was allegedly done to weaken American democracy.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in a file photo. (Office of the POTUS)

Big Tech Must ‘Cooperate’ With Government

“When I see how social media is used in that way, it causes me a very deep level of concern,” Harris said. “So, what I would say about any social media site is this: I fully expect and would require that leaders in that sector cooperate and work with us who are concerned about national security, concerned about upholding and protecting our democracy, to do everything in their power to ensure that there is not a manipulation that is allowed or overlooked that is done with the intention of upending the security of our democracy and our nation.”

The vice president’s comments come amid reports of federal government collusion with Big Tech companies to censor users. White House officials have denied claims that the administration colluded with social media companies to censor free speech on multiple topics, including COVID-19.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Dec. 14 wrote to the five largest tech giants—Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft—demanding documents relating to their alleged censorship practices and the “nature and extent of your companies’ collusion with the Biden Administration.”

“Big Tech is out to get conservatives, and is increasingly willing to undermine First Amendment values by complying with the Biden Administration’s directives that suppress freedom of speech online,” Jordan wrote.

“This approach undermines fundamental American principles and allows powerful government actors to silence political opponents and stifle opposing viewpoints. Publicly available information suggests that your companies’ treatment of certain speakers and content may stem from government directives or guidance designed to suppress dissenting views,” he added.

Then Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey addresses students during a town hall at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi, India, on Nov. 12, 2018. (Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters)

Dorsey Says Government Seeking to Control Public Conversation

That letter came as Twitter CEO Elon Musk has taken to the platform in recent weeks to unveil the so-called “Twitter Files,” which detail how conservative commentators had their tweets censored by the platform and how staffers worked to suppress a New York Post article about Hunter Biden’s laptop ahead of the 2020 election.

Following the release of the files, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wrote in a blog post that social media must “be resilient to corporate and government control.”

Dorsey added that governments seek to control and shape the public conversation and will use “every method at their disposal” to do so, which the businessman said includes the media.

“It’s critical that the people have tools to resist this, and that those tools are ultimately owned by the people. Allowing a government or a few corporations to own the public conversation is a path toward centralized control,” Dorsey added.