Below is the original url and post as it was published July 26/2019

https://pennyforyourthoughts2.blogspot.com/2019/07/intersecting-strands-epstein-lazard.html?zx=f5ad3319ccde1b6e

 In trying to keep this post to a readable length I’m going to break it into 2 parts

As mentioned in yesterday’s report, Epstein, Lazard & Banker Contacts Including Edmond Safra (Russia/Browder/Magnitsky) one name included in the “black book”,  that of Edmond Safra, took me back in time. 

This above paragraph is a reference to the report moved here yesterday

 Back to 2011, when a few of us got together and worked on this article Tuesday, 16 August 2011 Magnitsky Report at the then cooperative blog Suspicious Deaths.

Edmond Safra was connected, in a very shrouded manner, with Browder & Magnitsky. Take notice that the Lazard family is mentioned in the 2011 post. As reported in yesterday’s report Lazard employees loomed large in the black book of Jeffrey Epstein.

2011 report:

“In reviewing the stories of the Safra murder, as well as another associate of Browder who died in suspicious circumstances, Edouard Stern, it becomes very clear that these people — Browder’s close partners and associates — are extremely wealthy people. Stern, for instance, married into the Lazard family, one of the top banking families of the world. These are Browder’s peers. Stern was supposed to meet Browder the morning he was discovered dead in a latex bodysuit in his penthouse Geneva apartment, a murder which shocked the financial elite. Many people thought Safra and Stern were Russian mafia hits related to business deals, but both mysteries were supposedly solved otherwise”

 Russian mafia hits? Who or what constitutes the Russian mafia in the late 90’s? If we could define or clarify those questions it might help to understand these suspicious deaths.

Partying like it’s 1999?

 December 1999- Billionaire who blew whistle on Russian cash scandal is killed in Monte Carlo

“DEEP MYSTERY is surrounding the murder of one of the world’s wealthiest men, the banker Edmond Safra who died from smoke inhalation after two masked men set fire to his penthouse flat in Monaco

The attack – a month before the completion of the pounds 7bn sale of Mr Safra’s New York and Luxembourg banks to the British banking giant HSBC

The bodies of Mr Safra and a young woman, believed to be the nanny of his wife’s granddaughter, were found in a bathroom where they had taken refuge. Mr Safra’s bodyguard, who was stabbed by the raiders, was in a critical condition last night in the Princess Grace memorial hospital.”

  In time murder changed to accident and the “nanny” became a nurse. Doubtful this was an accident and it’s a question to me if  the ‘young woman’ in the bathroom was either a nanny or a nurse, when one considers the reports of Mr Safra having two bullets in him!

Safra Fortress Fire

“The two masked men, unable to break down the bathroom door, started a fire on the balcony of the apartment, which spread to the roof of the sea-front building and the flat itself.”

 Wouldn’t starting a fire on the balcony of the “apartment” in Monaco attract a whole lot of attention?

“The deal, agreed in outline in May, was held up when two employees of a subsidiary of Republic New York were accused, by a Japanese company and others, of helping a US financial guru to mount an elaborate fraud.

Legal claims in the “Princeton affair” are still outstanding but HSBC completed the Republic National deal last month after Mr Safra volunteered to take a $450m (pounds 280m) cut in his $3bn share of the sale”

1999 – Safra death raises questions and inspires reflections on banking dynasty

“The tragic and mysterious death of international banker Edmond J. Safra inspired reflections on a banking dynasty that dates back to the Ottoman empire, but had lately been tainted by scandal.

Safra, a devout Jew, was born in Beirut in 1932, and by the age of 16 he was working at the side of his father Jacob. In the late 1940s, when anti-Semitic riots swept the city, the younger Safra moved the family business to Brazil, which was a major refuge for Aleppo Jews fleeing Syria.

The Safras founded Banco Safra, Brazil’s fifth largest private bank, catering to the wealthy.

He later sold his interests in Brazil to his brothers and moved to Switzerland, where he started the Trade Development Bank, another private bank.

In New York, he launched Republic National Bank in the former Knox Hats Co. building on Fifth Avenue. Today, Republic New York Corp. has $67.8 billion in assets and is the 16th-largest bank holding company in the United States with branches in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, California, Delaware and Washington.”

 Keep the Republic National Bank name in your mind…

“In 1983, he sold the Trade Development Bank to American Express, but their relationship quickly soured. When Safra started a competing company in 1988, American Express launched a smear campaign, linking Safra to drug trafficking and the Iran-Contra scandal, according to Bryan Burrough’s book “Vendetta.”

Did American Express “launch a smear campaign” or did they simply ‘leak’ some inconvenient truths out to the public in order to pressure Safra for some unknown reason?

1999- Iran/Contra and the Safra Mystery – Robert Parry

“Press accounts continue to state erroneously that banker Edmond J. Safra, who died mysteriously when a fire swept his Monaco penthouse apartment, was cleared over involvement in the Iran-contra scandal and related money-laundering investigations.

Contrary to reports in The New York Times and other leading news outlets, Safra’s Republic National Bank was implicated – not cleared – in connection with the Iran-contra affair. According to the final report by Iran-contra special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, an officer of Republic National Bank in New York arranged clandestine cash transfers to Oliver North’s secret network in 1985-86."

After escaping any Iran-contra fall-out – thanks largely to the U.S. news media’s failure to examine the details of Walsh’s investigation – Safra’s Republic National Bank went on to become a major recipient of money from Russia. (in the 90’s when the Western bankers were plundering Russia) Millions of rubles poured into the New York-based bank from Boris Yeltsin’s government and from the shadowy world of Russian business.

Safra sold the bank to American Express in 1983 for $550 million.

After the deal, American Express executives grew suspicious about Safra’s rumored links to the Iran-contra operations and drug money laundering. Given their corporate responsibility for the Trade Development Bank, top American Express executives hired private detectives to examine those suspicions, some of which began surfacing in the international press.

When Safra got wind of the American Express investigation, he ordered counter-investigations of American Express, with Safra’s private investigators tailing the private eyes working for American Express. Safra then sued American Express for alleged defamation. At that point, American Express chose to avert a costly legal battle and limit the negative publicity by agreeing to apologize and donate $8 million to charities of Safra’s choice.

The American Express retreat was big news at the Wall Street Journal and other major newspapers that took Safra’s side and portrayed him as an innocent man smeared by a business competitor.

So, by the time Walsh’s report appeared in 1993 – confirming that Safra’s bank indeed was implicated in both the Iran-contra affair and illicit money laundering – the U.S. news media showed no interest in correcting the record. The false conventional wisdom held.”

 Safra, Iran-contra and illicit money laundering? The banking game never changes and we can see the routine, money shuffle/laundering in the situation with Yeltsin led Russia. 

Millions of rubles poured out of Russia, into the New York bank while IMF funds that were supposed to go to Russia made there way to the Republic National Bank and stayed put. 

For now this post will end with an odd but informative little documentary made by the BBC covering the intrigue around Safra, Browder, Magnitsky, Boris Berezovsky, Safra’s bank in New York and Browder’s Hermitage Capital Fund.

Safra’s bank was implicated in the Iran-Contra Affair. Edmond Safra’s name was in Epstein’s “little black book.” Jeffrey Epstein was linked to the Iran- Contra affair as well- Mentioned in the Cooper/Tucker interview- Intersecting Strands.

Back to my 2019 report- I'd included at the end of this report a link to a 2014 presentation- Through Sherlock's Eyes. It's about 25 minutes in length- Non fiction presented as fiction?

Truth is so very often much stranger than fiction.

Lots of instability..

Wall Street’s stock sell-off intensified in a major way Monday as concerns mounted over the health of the US economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell about 1,000 points. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) was crushed roughly 3.5% after the tech-heavy index entered into a correction with Friday’s sharp losses. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) losses cascaded about 3%.

( Dow Jones was down just over 1000 points a short time ago)

The global stock market is in the midst of a rapidly intensifying sell-off after Friday’s lackluster US jobs report added to concerns about the economy and on whether the Federal Reserve had waited too long to begin cutting interest rates. Of note, almost 100% of bets are on the central bank to cut rates by 0.5% by its September meeting, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

Some of the biggest companies in the stock market saw their values plummet at the open. Apple (AAPL) declined 4% amid the sell-off, and also after news that Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) had cut its stake in the company in half. Nvidia’s (NVDA) pull back continued, as it dropped as much as 13% before paring some of its losses. Tesla (TSLA) plunged more than 9%.

Crypto also took a beating, with Bitcoin (BTC-USD) sinking more than 10% to creep back toward the $54,000 level.

The concerns have spread throughout the world, as well. Traders in Asia greeted the week with a similar sell-off, as Japan’s Nikkei 225 (^N225) was routed by more than 12% in its biggest-ever daily loss. In commodities, meanwhile, oil was near its lows of the year, with WTI crude futures (CL=F) trading above $72 a barrel.

Online brokers are struggling to keep up with Monday’s market mayhem

According to data from Downdetector, online brokerages including Charles Schwab (SCHW), Robinhood (HOOD), Interactive Brokers (IBKR), Fidelity, Vanguard, and E-Trade were all having connectivity issues early Monday.

Stocks plunge, as tech leads losses and Dow drops over 1,000 points

The major averages plunged on Monday morning as markets abroad have sold off and amid intensifying worries about a weakening US economy.

Original url

http://pennyforyourthoughts2.blogspot.com/2020/01/fed-holds-interest-rate-steady-affirms.html

From more then 4 years ago

So far I don’t feel compelled to address the coronavirus or Trumps new map for peace in any substantive form. The coronavirus is garnering an excessive amount of coverage already. As for Trump’s idea of a “peace” plan, this was always going to be more pieces of Palestine for Israel’s expansionary benefit.  The very same plan is unfolding in the wider region around Israel. Trump has never hidden the fact that his primary concern was for Israel. Shrugs shoulders.

Central Bankers Hold Rates

The news that the US Fed held rates steady while committing to higher inflation is of more interest to me. Particularly when one considers that the Bank of England held their rate, which will be inflationary 

Financial Times

    The Bank of England on Thursday voted to keep interest rates on hold at 0.75 per cent as its Monetary Policy Committee decided the improvement in business sentiment since the general election made an immediate cut unnecessary.

As did Canada. Bank of Canada holds interest rate, but cuts growth forecasts as economy’s engine loses momentum


The EU is looking at ending negative interests rates.

Under growing pressure over record low interest rates, the European Central Bank has decided it’s time to give its unconventional policies another look.
The central bank on Thursday launched a review of its strategy, the first since 2003. The ECB is expected to spend the next year evaluating the tools it uses to maintain stable prices, including interest rates and bond purchases. It will also examine how it can take climate change into account.
“We have to look comprehensively at the effectiveness of our monetary policy,” President Christine Lagarde told reporters at a press conference in Frankfurt.
The ECB first introduced negative interest rates for the 19 countries that use the euro in 2014 in a bid to boost inflation and economic activity following the region’s debt crisis. But it has faced increased calls to put an end to a policy that’s dragged on for longer than initially expected

I’m getting the idea that the banksters are looking to increase taxation through higher inflation while the US debt is deflated away. What’s going on with these types of moves?

Is this a means of waging financial warfare against China? Thinking about the vast holdings that China has in US debt. In tandem with the coronavirus outbreak, which could wreak havoc on the Chinese economy.

China Owns How Much US Debt?

• China owns about $1.1 trillion in U.S. debt, or a bit more than the amount Japan owns.
• 5%The amount of U.S. debt that is held by Chinese entities. China took the top spot among foreign creditors at $1.123 trillion, followed by Japan, at $1.042 trillion, as of December 2018.  

How is increased inflationary pressure going to affect the consumer? In the US?  In Canada?
 In the EU? In the UK? And likely Australia, as well? What other the global implications should we consider?  This all feels very coordinated. But, why exactly? Anybody?

Fed Decision on Interest Rates

The central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee said Wednesday it will hold its benchmark funds rate in a range between 1.5% to 1.75%, where it has been since the latter part of last year.

The committee adjusted the language in its statement to reflect that policy is geared toward “inflation returning to the Committee’s symmetric 2 percent objective.”

The decision was unanimous. Several board members last year objected to the Fed’s rate cuts.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady at its meeting this week and tweaked its post-meeting statement to reflect what appears to be a stronger commitment to nudge up inflation.Meeting market expectations, the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee said Wednesday it will hold its benchmark funds rate between 1.5% to 1.75%, a range where it has been since the latter part of last year.
The decision marked the second straight meeting the Fed made no changes to rates following three consecutive reductions in 2019. The rate sets the standard for what banks charge each other for overnight lending but also is used as a benchmark for much consumer debt.
Little changed in the post-meeting statement, save for what could be interpreted as a bit more resolution toward raising what has been a lackluster pace of inflation. The committee adjusted the language to reflect that policy is geared toward “inflation returning to the Committee’s symmetric 2 percent objective.”
That language differed from the long-standing boilerplate statement that the Fed was looking to get inflation “near” the benchmark that it considers healthy for a growing economy.
In recent months, Fed officials have expressed concern over the inability to get inflation to the 2% level. While consumers welcome low prices, the Fed worries that low expectations will continue to keep inflation and, consequently, interest rates at below-normal levels, thus providing little flexibility to cut during future downturns.
Officials hope they can jawbone inflation higher by committing to keeping rates low until the inflation level rises. They even have indicated, through the “symmetric” terminology, that they will allow inflation to run above target for a while.
“We wanted to underscore our commitment to 2% not being a ceiling, to inflation running symmetrically around 2% and we’re not satisfied with inflation running below 2%,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said during his post-meeting news conference.
Powell said the change to the statement came following discussions at December’s meeting, when some members through “near” was a concession to sub-2% inflation.
Elsewhere, there were few changes in the statement.
The only other adjustment was a reduction in the characterization of consumer spending. That was cut from “strong” in December to “moderate” at this week’s two-day meeting.
While the Federal kept its benchmark rate steady, it did make an adjustment to the interest it pays on funds stored at the central bank. The Fed boosted the interest on excess reserves rate, known as IOER, 5 basis points to 1.6%.
Otherwise, though, the statement continued to see the labor market as “strong” and economic growth as “rising at a moderate rate.”
The decision was unanimous. Several board members last year objected to the Fed’s rate cuts.

In 2020 the Central Banks wanted to increase inflationary pressure in the global economy. They didn’t cut interest rates with a goal of increasing inflation. Because 2% was not the ceiling for inflation. Clearly indicating the central banks were okay with inflation being higher then 2% The “pandemic” certainly helped achieve this goal.

But, I suppose this was all just a unfortunate coincidence? Oh wait, I’m not a coincidence theorist!

Inflation as a wealth redistribution scheme

Inflation as a Process of Wealth Transfer

It is better to think of inflation as a process rather than a particular rate. The process starts with a particular type of monetary system, emerges in an expansion of the money supply by central bank printing and bank loans flowing into various areas of the economy, manifests itself in prices rising generally — though unevenly — higher than they otherwise would have been, finally leaving a wake of winners and losers.

This approach allows us to see inflation as not some inevitable force, but a deliberate process of wealth transfer enshrined in state policy.

Inflation as Trickery

Yet, mainstream economists believe that some degree of rising prices is “optimal.” Thus, central banks actually try to ensure consumer prices keep going up. But their reasons for this chiefly revolve around the trickery of inflation on unsuspecting people. For example, many inflation proponents argue that the best way to lower people’s wages to restore company profits is not to actually give them a pay cut, but to rather create inflation so they won’t fully notice their real wages falling.

Inflation robbed the majority of us of our savings and reduced our buying power drastically- Since 2020, based on actions of the central banks and governments, we’ve all gotten poorer and the very wealthy have accumulated more wealth stil! I don’t believe this was unintentional.

Excerpts below..

There’s no ducking it now. The widespread, serious negatives have reached a critical level. There are no cures available except a major reset of investor beliefs, rationale and expectations.

Importantly, this reset is not of the “typical” overoptimistic, fad-driven, easy-money booms. Instead, it is the return to traditional capital market operations that had been skewed by the Federal Reserve since 2008 — 15 years! Never has there been such an extended period and enormous, anti-capital market actions.

Note: “Had been skewed” is the proper description because the bond and money markets have now retaken their interest rate-setting role. That is a key step because using market-driven, demand-supply pricing of capital is at the heart of robust, successful capitalism.

The Fed’s two primary actions were near 0% interest rates that produced dramatic inequities, and $trillions of money creation that has led to high inflation – mirroring what all history has shown. Perhaps worse is the damage done to investors and others by those 15 years of improper Fed actions and misleading, even false, explanations.

So, now come the new education courses. They will be painful and, at first, seem wrong. In fact, the media is already attempting to explain away some of the current negatives and even add a positive spin by assuming there will be a return to those previous Fed-driven conditions. That won’t happen. When trends reverse, they die because successful investing always refocuses from the worn-out, past trend to the new, future-based one.

Why must there be a crash?

The recent 2+ month sell-off has been inadequate. The broad list of negatives and the strong investor mindset require a vivid upheaval to shake things up. And that means a scary plummet is required to produce the shock needed.

As to the negatives and the current selloff, I’ve discussed them in these previous articles:

• Sept. 23 – “Stock Market: Last Week’s Alarm Bells Are Serious“
• Sept. 30 – “Stock Market Selloff Is Confirmed“
• Oct. 13 – “Don’t Get Trapped – Investment Risk Is Not Being Rewarded“

How low could the stock market go?

There is no way of knowing now. There are too many unknowns about how investors (individual and institutional) have their portfolios structured. We do know that options, margin accounts and other uses of leverage have been popular. Those investors will feel the pain most, because it doesn’t take a 100% price drop to wipe them out.

Additionally, enormous investing power exists in the hedge fund industry. Those funds’ ability and willingness to take large positions, long and short, raises the risk. Remember the saying, “It’s easier to scare an investor than to reassure one.” In other words, a selloff hyped by short-selling can have a significant effect on investors’ desire to sell and get out.

The bottom line – Investor emotions are about to take over

When understanding is undermined, reasonable thinking goes out the window, and emotions move in.

Therefore, expect investors (and the media) to shift soon into no-man’s-land where puzzlement reigns. Then, as the stock market falls further, the realization that – for some reason – something is wrong and things could get worse. Finally comes the washout, when many investors decide to get out, either because they can’t take it anymore or because they expect a terrible event is close at hand – a climactic stock market drop and/or an economic depression.

Taking into account all the geopolitical instability as well- This could be a recipe for disaster

Reuters

Banks working to develop global standards on accounting for carbon emissions in bond or stock sale underwriting have voted to exclude most of these emissions from their own carbon footprint, three people familiar with the matter said.

The majority of banks comprising an industry working group backed a plan earlier this month to exclude two-thirds of the emissions linked to their capital markets businesses from being attributed to them in carbon accounting, the sources said,

Banks' accounting of these emissions will impact their targets for becoming carbon-neutral. Major lenders have pledged to bring their emissions down to zero on a net basis by 2050, and have set interim targets for this decade.

And banks will hit their net zero target by simply not accounting for their emissions. See how simple that is when your holding the cards and have the power?

But Canada has a massive housing bubble. And it will burst. And….. I don’t need any stinkin”expert to tell me what is obvious and in everyone’s face! Or as Bob Dylan sang “You don’t a weatherman to know which way the wind blows”

The level of debt that Canadians have taken on in comparison to their incomes has put many in a precarious position should mortgage rates continue to rise — which is likely, Phillip Colmar, partner at Global Strategist at MRB Partners, told BNN Bloomberg in an interview on Tuesday.

Colmar argued that the inflated home prices in Canada are a result of two decades’ worth of easy money supplied by the Bank of Canada’s monetary policy for numerous reasons. At present the moment, he sees risk in mortgage rates climbing as Canadian bond yields are dragged up, particularly at a time when debt-to-income ratios are sky high.

While the Canadian banks are doing their part to stop the housing market from toppling over, Colmar said he believes it inevitably will.

TIME

Unlike in World War II, which ended with the allies capturing Berlin, no one imagines the Ukrainian flag one day flying over the Kremlin. If a comprehensive Russian defeat is ruled out, there will eventually have to be a political solution. The likeliest outcome is some sort of bastard compromise—an armistice or an informal line of separation—under which Russia will hold enough occupied Ukrainian territory for Putin to claim a modicum of success, while the U.S. will be able to argue that its support was decisive in enabling Ukraine to resist Russia’s attempts at subjugation.

This is not a happy prospect. But most wars end badly. There is no reason to think that this one will be any different.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, who is on a visit to Ukraine.

The Head of State thanked the head of the IMF and her team for the visit and support for Ukraine since the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

“We are extremely pleased that we are in the focus of your attention. Your support creates an opportunity for Ukraine to remain strong. It is also a weapon – an economic weapon that allows us, our society, and our business to develop. We really want business to develop, we want investments to come, and we know that the IMF always gives the right signals through its activities, so we are very grateful for this signal,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Kristalina Georgieva, for her part, noted that she follows the events in Ukraine quite closely. She praised the activities of the Ukrainian state and all institutions that continue to work despite the full-scale Russian invasion.

“I was extremely impressed by the fact that the country and the government are functioning very well in these extraordinary conditions of invasion. I wanted to see this. When I speak to the IMF board tomorrow, I will say that this is indeed a country that is functioning extremely well and efficiently despite the terrible attack on its people and its territory,” the IMF Managing Director said.

She said that this morning she visited Irpin, which she wanted to see with her own eyes. The IMF head was impressed by the fact that the city’s social infrastructure and networks were restored in a short period of time and are functioning again.

Kristalina Georgieva also praised the work of the local authorities, which, in addition to direct support from the government, actively attract external funding.