Details of new US bank capital rules still uncertain with election looming – Reuters Source Link Excerpt:
WASHINGTON, Sept 11 (Reuters) – U.S. bank investors, analysts and executives were trying to figure out on Wednesday how lenders would fare under revised hikes in capital requirements, with considerable uncertainty over what specifics will emerge from the Federal Reserve and other regulators, and the presidential election a looming wild card.
The Fed’s regulatory chief Michael Barr on Tuesday outlined a plan to raise big bank capital by 9%, easing an earlier proposal to hike capital 19%. It was a major concession to Wall Street banks that had lobbied to water down the “Basel” draft.
Muslim, European FMs to meet in Madrid on Israel-Palestine two-state solution today – Tribune UK Source Link Excerpt:
The foreign ministers of several Muslim and European countries will meet in Madrid on Friday to discuss how to implement a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Spanish and Norwegian governments said.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares will host the meeting, which will be attended by his European counterparts, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, and members of the Arab-Islamic Contact Group for Gaza.
The two-state solution set out in the 1991 Madrid Conference and the 1993-95 Oslo Accords has long been seen by the international community as the best way to settle the decades-long conflict, but the peace process has been moribund for years.
However, the search for a peaceful solution has been given new urgency by the 11-month-long war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas – the bloodiest episode yet in the overall conflict – as well as escalating violence in the occupied West Bank.
On May 28, Spain, Norway and Ireland formally recognised a unified Palestinian state ruled by the Palestinian Authority comprising the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital. With them, 146 of the 193 member states of the United Nations now recognise Palestinian statehood.
Election Deniers Want AI Cameras to Stream Footage of Ballot Dropboxes – wired.com Source Link Excerpt:
Engelbrecht has also said the group is looking to roll out dropbox monitoring in multiple states, and mentioned Michigan as a possible location, though most of her focus appears to be on Wisconsin.
In her interview with Wallnau, Engelbrecht added that she was working with “three influential sheriffs” in Wisconsin, though didn’t name them.
WIRED contacted two dozen sheriffs from Wisconsin’s largest counties, but did not find a single one who was going to be part of the monitoring effort. Engelbrecht and Truth the Vote did not respond to multiple requests for comment from WIRED to name the sheriffs who have agreed to be part of the program.
“True the Vote has reached out to the Sheriff’s Office regarding ideas as they relate to election integrity and possible law violations,” Deputy Inspector Patrick R. Esser, from the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department, tells WIRED. “True the Vote proposed the idea of donating cameras to the sheriff’s office to monitor election sites, however, the obstacles associated with that idea made it impractical.”
While most sheriff offices WIRED contacted did not respond to requests for comment, a number, including offices in Buffalo County and Polk County, said they had not even heard about the dropbox initiative. “I was unaware of the plan and will not be participating,” Sheriff Mike Osmond from Buffalo County tells WIRED. “I am not sure if they are legal or not but do not have interest in implementing such a program.”
Fears mount that election deniers could disrupt vote count in US swing states – The Guardian Source Link Excerpt:
Fears are rising that the vote count in November’s presidential election could be disrupted as a result of the proliferation of Donald Trump’s lies about stolen elections and rampant voter fraud in the key swing states where the race for the White House will be decided.
A new survey of eight vital swing states reveals that at least 239 election deniers who have signed up to Trump’s “election integrity” conspiracy theories – including the false claim that the 2020 election was rigged against him – are actively engaged in electoral battles this year. The deniers are standing for congressional or state seats, holding Republican leadership positions, and overseeing elections on state and county election boards.
The report by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), a watchdog group focusing on special interests distorting US democracy, reveals the extent of denial in the eight critical states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It shows that corrosive efforts to damage public confidence in elections have proliferated there despite the drubbing the election denial movement received in the 2022 midterms….
“What was striking to us about our research is how much election denialism and the voter fraud lie have infiltrated and taken over the Republican apparatus in each of these critical states,” said CMD’s executive director Arn Pearson.
US inflation rate slows as Federal Reserve prepares to lower interest rates – MSN Source Link Excerpt:
The consumer price index, the top measure for inflation in the U.S., slowed in August to 2.5% in the 12-month period ending in August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics who released the updated consumer price index on Wednesday.
The new data shows that inflation is now below recent norms. In the last decade, prices generally increase at a rate of 3.2% per year. In the last 20 years, consumer inflation has generally increased 3% annually.
The consumer price index weighs the costs of goods based on their importance. Items like food, shelter and energy tend to be weighted more heavily.
After annual inflation reached 9% in the middle of 2022, the Federal Reserve implemented a series of interest rate hikes in 2022 and 2023 to combat high inflation. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has stated the Federal Reserve’s goal is to reduce inflation to an annualized rate of 2%.
CEO of World’s Largest Bank Hints at Historic Crash– www.breitbart.com Source Link Excerpt:
The world’s most powerful CEO just issued a grave warning to Americans: “This may be the most dangerous time the world has seen in decades.”
His comment is especially disturbing because as the CEO of JPMorgan, the world’s largest bank, Jamie Dimon has access to more financial information than anyone. And he didn’t rise to power as a hot-head or doom-and-gloomer. He is calm, calculating, and knows the gravity of his words.
So, if he believes political instability is reaching a boiling point, one that could even hurt the world’s largest bank, smart investors know to take evasive action.
Dimon later got more specific when he said, “The danger is government debt and inflation.”
US appeals court voids $564 million verdict against Bank of Montreal in Ponzi case – MSN Source Link Excerpt:
Bank of Montreal persuaded a U.S. appeals court on Thursday to throw out a $564 million jury verdict against a subsidiary over its role in an approximately $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme run by convicted Minnesota businessman Tom Petters.
Citing a similar case involving Bernard Madoff, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a court-appointed trustee for the now-bankrupt Petters Co could not recover on behalf of its creditors because that firm had helped orchestrate the fraud.
The 3-0 decision by the St. Paul, Minnesota-based court overturned a November 2022 jury verdict, and directed that trustee Douglas Kelley’s case against BMO be dismissed.
Klaus Schwab says world is on ‘the cusp of a profound systemic transformation’– www.lifesitenews.com Source Link Excerpt:
(The Sociable) — World Economic Forum (WEF) founder Klaus Schwab says that the world is undergoing a profound systemic transformation driven by five interconnected shifts.
In the introduction to the WEF Annual Report 2023-2024, the WEF founder said that we were living in transformative times and that there were a handful of factors driving this systemic transformation:
We are on the cusp of a profound systemic transformation driven by interconnected shifts in a rapidly changing world
The five “interconnected shifts” include:
Transition from the industrial to the intelligent age,
Conflictual transition from a unipolar to a multipolar world,
Need to transition to a green economy,
Demographic shifts from a young to an ageing world,
Biden-Harris Admin Slated To Launch New Tax On American Businesses– americanactionnews.com Source Link Excerpt:
The Biden-Harris administration released new draft rules Thursday that could hike taxes on roughly 100 companies in the White House’s latest push to increase government tax revenues, according to the Washington Post.
The new guideline would establish a 15% minimum tax on profitable companies with more than $1 billion in income in an effort to thwart corporations’ attempts to use accounting techniques to reduce their tax bills, the outlet reported. The policy, referred to as the corporate alternative minimum tax (CAMT), ties taxation to “book income” — the income companies report to their investors on financial statements — rather than taxable income, and is expected to increase taxes by $20 billion in 2025.
