Updating this previous check-list of Reasons to Start Growing Your Own Produce
US FINANCIAL CRISIS The end of the petrodollar and the USD as the world’s reserve currency just happened: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/saudi-arabia-joins-china-led-economic-and-security-bloc-russia-also-member
Banking crisis in the US — 100 b USD withdrawn from banks: https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/03/24/100-billion-pulled-from-banks-but-system-called-sound-and-resilient.html
“Overall, JPMorgan Chase is telling us that the “most vulnerable” banks in this country have “lost a total of about $1 trillion in deposits since last year”
Yesterday, after the Swiss banking behemoth Credit Suisse had traded at an all-time low of less than two bucks; blown out its credit default swaps to unprecedented levels; and tanked the Dow Jones Industrial Average by more than 700 points intraday, Bloomberg News ran this headline at 12:54 p.m. – “US Treasury Reviewing US Banks’ Exposure to Credit Suisse.” By “exposure,” the Treasury really means how many billions of dollars of underwater derivatives are U.S. banks on the hook for as a counterparty to Credit Suisse. The Treasury also has to worry about U.S. banks’ exposure to Credit Suisse’s other major counterparties that U.S. banks do business with, even if the banks are not direct counterparties to Credit Suisse itself.If the U.S. Treasury Secretary and her staff at F‑SOC were just yesterday getting around to finding out which U.S. banks had counterparty exposure to Credit Suisse’s derivatives, we are all in very big trouble. The serious problems at Credit Suisse have been making headlines for two years, including here at Wall Street On Parade.
BRICS alliance ( Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Surpasses G7 in PPP-Adjusted Global GDP https://www.globalresearch.ca/brics-surpasses-g7-ppp-adjusted-global-gdp-scott-ritter/5813640
CBDCs
Tracker: https://cbdctracker.org/
Ten countries have already fully launched a digital currency, and China’s CBDC pilot is set to expand in 2023.It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see the end of the road of paper money, as well as the potential risk to political and economic freedoms that may come as a resulthttps://stablefordcapital.com/2022/10/14/fedcoin/
According to the Federal Reserve Bank’s own website, it has now narrowed the timing of its launch of FedCoin, called FedNow Service, as being launched in the middle of 2023.
Currently, over 120 firms have joined the Fed’s launch of its CBDC pilot program. Participants in the pilot will soon provide businesses and consumers with the ability to transact instantly and securely, giving them more flexibility and providing better liquidity for time-sensitive transactions. Access will be provided through what’s called the FedLine network, already serving over 10,000 financial institutions.
Essentially, FedNow provides the sort settlement speeds of stablecoin payments, but with the backing of the US government, and without the need to convert funds into other digital assets which might not have the same guarantees in terms of support. After all, if something happened to the FedNow network resulting in losses, the government could simply vote to issue new debt to make consumers whole again*. This mirrors the current system of US Treasuries which are often viewed as risk-free assets.
*This ^^^ is what the chair of the Federal Reserve has promised all bank depositors of failed banks — 100% guarantee on their deposits.
Major Australian bank quietly stops handling cash at some branches
Customers of one of Australia’s biggest banks will no longer be able to access cash at the counters of certain branches in the country.
ANZ customers can no longer access over-the-counter cash transactions at certain branches in Victoria.
The issue was discussed on air by 3AW’s Neil Mitchell after he was emailed by a listener about the puzzling move.
In a statement provided to the radio station, ANZ Victoria and Tasmania general manager Cameron Home confirmed “a small number” of branches “no longer handle cash at the counter”, but stopped short of revealing just how many branches were impacted.
“At these branches cash and cheque deposits and cash withdrawals continue to be possible through a smart ATM and coin deposit machines,” the statement reads.
The EU has set limits on cash payments (€7,000) and crypto-asset transfers (€1,000) that can be accepted by persons providing goods or services when the customer cannot be identified. These caps aim to restrict transactions in cash and crypto-assets, mitigating the risk of misuse by criminals.
https://www.coinfirm.com/blog/new-eu-aml-measures/
PROGRAMMABLE MONEY:
Public blockchain systems have generally followed one of two strategies for enabling programmability, denoted here as the transaction scripting approach and the virtual machine approach. While these approaches are not mutually exclusive and do not dictate a particular choice of recordkeeping format, certain combinations are logically and technologically complementary. Under the transaction scripting approach, a (small) program is attached to every discrete amount of value tracked by the system, indicating how that amount may be spent: https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/what-is-programmable-money-20210623.html :
Digital dollars would likely also be programmable in and of themselves, allowing for instant tax payments at the point of sale. Tax refunds and rebates could be instant, too.
And attempts to purchase a restricted item — like, say, a firearm without proper background clearance — could be automatically denied.
In many ways, programmable digital money would be a fantasy come true for economists. This is because economists believe economies are driven by human behavior, and human behavior is driven by incentives, and all kinds of incentives could be built into digital money.…
Economists, political leaders, and central bank officials could then use the “smart contract” feature of digital dollars to tweak or massage incentives in all sorts of ways.
For example, fossil fuel use might be embedded with a higher VAT (value-added tax) surcharge than green energy use. Buying sugary cereal might create a small debit, whereas buying broccoli creates a small credit. And so on.
Lloyds, Halifax, NatWest and two other banks to shut another 80 branches — see full list
Bank closures have become the norm over the last few years as more people choose to do their banking online rather than in a branch https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/breaking-lloyds-halifax-natwest-shut-29587887
WEF-BACKED “15 MINUTE CITIES” literally restricting people’s movement to within a few blocks of their homes
Lol! Irony alert: “With Paris leading the way, other cities around the world have been enticed by this model for resilient, vibrant communities”: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20201214-how-15-minute-cities-will-change-the-way-we-socialise
WEF 15 Minute City pitch: https://web.archive.org/web/20230306022337/https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/11/15minute-city-falls-short/
BUT YOU WON’T BE DRIVING ANYWHERE SO WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?Phase out of fossil fuel vehicles — most places it’s 2030 or 2040 but Norway is 2025:https://coltura.org/world-gasoline-phaseouts/
EU approves effective ban on new fossil fuel cars from 2035: https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/eu-approves-effective-ban-new-fossil-fuel-cars-2035–2022-10–27/
Countries, cities, carmakers commit to end fossil-fuel vehicles by 2040: https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/six-major-carmakers-agree-phase-out-fossil-fuel-vehicles-by-2040-uk-says-2021–11-10/