Walgreens Shares Spike Off 28-Year Lows On Private-Equity Interest; Report

Having plunged from over $105 billion market cap in 2015 to less than $8 billion currently (amid mounting pressures on both its pharmacy and retail businesses), it appears Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) has got cheap enough to spark private equity interest.

The Wall Street Journal reports that WBA is in talks to sell itself to a private-equity firm in a deal that would take the pharmacy chain off the public market after its shares have been on a downward slide for nearly a decade.

WBA and Sycamore Partners have been discussing a deal that could be completed early next year, assuming talks don’t fall apart, according to people familiar with the matter.

WBA shares are soaring on the news (after an initial halt for volatility). WBA is up 25%, just shy of October's highs...

And judging by the massive short-interest, it could go dramatically higher...

Any deal would be a big bite for Sycamore, a New York-based firm that specializes in retail and consumer investments and more recently is better known for smaller deals. The firm would likely sell off pieces of the business or work with partners, one of the people said.

WSJ reports that Walgreens has long been seen as a potential private-equity target, though for many years its size seemed to put it out of reach.

Private-equity firm KKR made a roughly $70 billion offer for the company in 2019, Bloomberg and the Financial Times reported at the time. Walgreens’s market value was then over $50 billion, which would have made it one of the largest take-private transactions ever had it come to fruition. 

Private-equity appetite for buying retailers has waned since high-profile flops including Toys “R” Us made financing such transactions much more difficult. In the past few years, only a handful of sizable retailers have been sold to private-equity firms, though many have attracted takeover interest. 

One of Sycamore’s last major deals was when it bought office-retailer Staples for almost $7 billion in 2017. It was among the suitors for Kohl’s in 2022. In September, Sycamore announced a small deal for the restaurant chain Playa Bowls. 

Sycamore’s current investments include several clothing brands including Ann Taylor Loft and Aéropostale as well as the department-store chain Belk. 

Tyler Durden Tue, 12/10/2024 - 12:44

Microsoft Shareholders Vote 'No' On Bitcoin Reserve

Authored by Tristan Greene via CoinTelegraph.com,

Microsoft shareholders voted against a resolution to add Bitcoin BTC$97,604 to the company’s balance sheets during the firm’s annual meeting on Dec. 10. 

The National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), a pro-free-market think-tank based in Washington, D.C., had proposed the resolution, framing it as a corporate duty to provide value to shareholders through profit diversification. 

Shareholders meeting

The NCPPR submitted a pre-recorded video outlining their proposal, which was played during the shareholder’s meeting. The video, which opened with the line “Microsoft can’t afford to miss the next technology wave, and Bitcoin is that wave,” was replete with charts and figures demonstrating the potential value of holding BTC. 

In making its case, the group promised that adopting Bitcoin would create trillions in value and “strip away risk” from shareholders. The video echoed sentiments previously made in the text of its resolution: 

“The institutional and corporate adoption of Bitcoin is becoming more commonplace. Microsoft’s second largest shareholder, BlackRock, offers its clients a Bitcoin ETF.”

The proposal did point out that Bitcoin was “more volatile” than corporate bonds, and thus advised against holding “too much of it,” but also advised against risking shareholder value by “ignoring Bitcoin altogether.”

As such, the NCPPR recommended using between 1% and 5% of the firm’s profits to purchase Bitcoin. The proposal formally requested that Microsoft “conduct an assessment to determine if diversifying the Company’s balance sheet by including Bitcoin is in the best long-term interests of shareholders.”

In a 14A filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Microsoft’s board formally recommended against the proposal. In its remarks, the board called the proposal “unnecessary” and said the company “already carefully considers this topic.”

“As the proposal itself notes, volatility is a factor to consider in evaluating cryptocurrency investments for corporate treasury applications that require stable and predictable investments to ensure liquidity and operational funding.”

Too reliant on FOMO?

Much of the proposal’s text appears to rely on the “fear of missing out” or “FOMO” mentality. The proposal cited both MicroStrategy and BlackRock’s Bitcoin adoption as motivational factors. The NCPPR has given Amazon similar guidance. 

However, Microsoft’s board was unswayed ahead of the vote.

“Microsoft has strong and appropriate processes in place to manage and diversify its corporate treasury for the long-term benefit of shareholders,” wrote the board in the aforementioned SEC filing, “and this requested public assessment is unwarranted.”

In the filing, the board recognized that MicroStrategy’s operations were similar to its own but declined to extend the comparison beyond the two firms’ differing approaches to the burgeoning cryptocurrency market. 

According to preliminary results, the shareholders voted against the resolution and kept with the board’s guidance against adopting Bitcoin.

Tyler Durden Tue, 12/10/2024 - 12:25

Trump's Tariffs Could Spark Supply Chain Disruptions, Experts Say

By Noi Mahoney of FreightWaves

President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to hit imports from China, Canada and Mexico with tariffs could deal a blow to companies across North America and trigger negative consequences for the global supply chain, according to experts.

Trump said that on his first day back in office on Jan. 20, he will impose 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada. The tariffs are aimed at pressuring those countries to stop drugs and illegal migrants from crossing into the U.S., Trump posted on Truth Social on Nov. 25. He has also said he’ll impose an additional 10% tariff on Chinese imports to fight drugs coming from that country.

Sri Laxmana, vice president of Americas at freight broker and 3PL giant C.H. Robinson, said the company began hearing from concerned customers as soon as Trump made the announcement.

“We’ve been pulled into countless customer meetings to run risk scenarios for if Canada and Mexico tariffs were implemented,” Laxmana told FreightWaves in an email. “Many of our customers — especially in the automotive space — treat North America as one integrated supply chain with some of their freight actually crossing both the Mexico and Canada borders.” 

Many of Trump’s foreign policy measures are part of his broader “America first” approach, which began during his first term in office.

In 2018, the Trump administration imposed tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese goods coming into the U.S., covering items such as microwaves and other home appliances, electronic components, and pumping and valve systems.

China retaliated with higher tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. goods coming into that country, with U.S. soybeans taking one of the biggest hits.

During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump said fentanyl from China is being smuggled into the U.S. and the additional 10% tariffs are aimed at spurring Chinese officials to stop the flow of drugs. 

The 10% duty on Chinese goods is less than the 60% tariffs on China-made imports that Trump promised during his presidential campaign.

Andy Sherman, the general manager for Fictiv’s U.S. operations, said the company has been hearing from customers concerned about the tariffs and its effect on the global supply chain.

Fictiv is a manufacturing technology company based in San Francisco. It has operations in the U.S., Mexico, China and India. Fictiv has manufactured more than 30 million commercial and prototype parts for both early stage companies and large enterprises.

“I think in 2023, 11% of the U.S. gross domestic product was imported. That’s about $3.1 trillion worth of imports in 2023,” Sherman told FreightWaves in an interview. “If we’re talking about tariffs around 10% to 20% on all countries, and somewhere in the order of magnitude of 60% tariffs on what’s going to be coming inbound from China … that’s a significant chunk of the U.S. GDP that all of a sudden is going to be subject to tariffs. I think for many of our customers, they are able to see the importance of having a highly agile supply chain and starting to be able to evaluate what makes sense to move to a China-plus-one strategy, or to be able to onshore. But tariffs across the board like this do not necessarily equate to, ‘Let’s move everything into the U.S.’ That’s not the way this works.”

Sherman said products that could be most affected by tariffs include clothing, toys and other consumer goods.

“When you’re talking about things like apparel, when you’re talking about things like toys, when you’re talking about many lower-cost or cost-sensitive goods that are very frequently manufactured out of China and where suppliers or some subset of manufacturers have not yet diversified that supply chain out of China, we know that those are the products that are going to be most heavily impacted,” Sherman said. “At the end of the day, if there’s a 60% tariff, that’s going to be passed along to the consumer, more than likely, in its entirety.” 

Sebastien Breteau, founder and CEO of QIMA, said Trump’s tariffs and immigration policies will raise prices for consumer goods.

Trump promised during his campaign that his immigration policy includes carrying out the largest mass deportation program in U.S. history. 

“A mass deportation of undocumented immigrants could severely impact sectors like agriculture, construction, and manufacturing that rely heavily on immigrant labor,” Breteau told FreightWaves in an email. “Reduced labor availability would lead to higher wages, raising production costs and, ultimately, the price of goods. This would exacerbate inflationary pressures already heightened by tariffs.”

Hong Kong-based QIMA is a quality and compliance solutions provider, working with 30,000 brands, retailers, manufacturers and food growers globally. The company employs over 5,000 people worldwide, operating in more than 100 countries.

Breteau said Trump’s tariffs could pressure companies to shift their supply chains, which could add more costs to their bottom line.  

“Increased tariffs will compel businesses to reassess their supply chains, a process that is both complex and costly,” Breteau said. “In the short term, this is likely to result in delays, increased logistics costs, and higher prices for consumers. While diversification efforts have been ramping up, no single country can absorb the scale of manufacturing currently managed by China.”

North American brands and retailers have been shifting their supply chains to China’s neighbors in Asia, Breteau said. 

“The greater Asia region’s share has grown from 35% in 2018 to 47%, with India and Vietnam emerging as clear winners, collectively increasing their share of U.S. sourcing from 14% to 22% during this period,” Breteau said.

Another part of the supply chain that could be affected by Trump’s proposed tariffs is the e-commerce logistics industry, said Sylvia Ng, CEO of ReturnBear.

Toronto-based ReturnBear is a cross-border reverse logistics platform with a mission to make e-commerce returns simpler for shippers and customers, while reducing fraud and landfill waste.

“Recent events have made it harder for merchants to be managing profitability, which makes the returns process to actually even play a bigger role in their operations than before,” Ng told FreightWaves in an interview. “The potential Trump tariffs is one of the things that merchants have to think about. But even before that, you have the dock workers strikes that have been kind of rolling through the U.S. and Canada. In Canada, we have a postal workers strike that’s been going on for a whole week now and it’s affecting a lot of merchants that are based in the U.S.”

Workers for the Canada Post, the country’s national mail carrier, have been on strike since Nov. 15, citing failed contract negotiations between the postal service and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.

Key negotiation points between the postal service and the union include wages, safety and automation in the workplace.

“Obviously, if you are selling from the U.S., you might not know that these things are happening in a different market,” Ng said. “Then you add on the potential tariffs and I just feel like there’s a lot going on in the macro economic space right now that the merchants are having to deal with alongside the holidays.”

The global reverse logistics market was valued at $769 billion worth of goods in 2023, according to Fortune Business Insights.

ReturnBear was founded in 2021. The platform gives shippers access to more than 1,000 package-free, label-free return drop-off locations across Canada. The company also has hubs in the U.S. in Portland and Buffalo, and recently launched operations in the United Kingdom.  

Ng said Trump’s proposed tariffs could hit small and medium-sized (SMBs) e-commerce retailers the hardest, companies that have already been impacted by lower sales due to inflation.

“Unfortunately, the tariffs’ impact is going to be higher on SMBs,” Ng said. “SMBs don’t have the bandwidth or the extra resourcing to be handling all this change. The National Retail Federation has also predicted that American consumers are going to lose $78 billion annually in spending power due to these new tariffs, things like apparel, toys, furniture, footwear, travel. My concern is actually making sure that we help the SMB and mid market merchants to roll with these punches as much as we can and help them alleviate the need for them to pass on more cost to the consumers.”

Tyler Durden Tue, 12/10/2024 - 12:05

Boeing Reportedly Restarts 737 Max Production Amid Turbulent Year

Boeing has reportedly resumed production of its 737 Max aircraft at its Renton factory in Seattle, Washington, a little more than a month after a seven-week strike by 33,000 unionized factory workers concluded with a new contract. This marks a critical step in the company's recovery efforts during a particularly turbulent year.

Reuters was the first to report on Boeing's restart of production of its best-selling commercial jet. According to three sources familiar with the situation, production at the Renton factory resumed last Friday.

Production resumed on Friday, said one of the sources, who all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with media. Boeing declined to comment. -RTRS

Analysts at Jefferies forecast that Boeing will likely average around 29 737 Max jets per month in 2025, falling far short of the company's pre-restriction goal of 56. Earlier this year, the FAA capped 737 Max production at 38 per month due to safety vulnerabilities within Boeing's production line at Renton. 

Two Max crashes, Covid travel downturn, supply chain snarls, financial challenges, and multiple Max jet incidents — including a door panel blowout on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 — have been mounting headwinds for the struggling planemaker. On top of this all, a seven-week strike sent the company to the brink of a devastating stall. 

The good news is that Boeing is under new leadership, with newly appointed CEO Kelly Ortberg dismantling disastrous DEI initiatives and shifting the focus to safety as the era of wokeism comes to an abrupt end.

As of mid-November, Goldman's Noah Poponak and Anthony Valentini still had a "Buy" rating on the planemaker with a 12-month price target of $200.

"Our 12-month price target of $200 is derived from targeting a 4.5% free cash flow yield on 2026E free cash, discounted back one year at 12%. Key risks: (1) the pace of air traffic growth, (2) supply chain ability to ramp-up production, and (3) contract operating performance within the defense segment," the analysts said. 

Shares of Boeing were up 1% to $158 handle in premarket trading. However, on the year, shares were down 40%. Shares have been locked in a multi-year lateral between $100 and $250 following the Max jet crashes 

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker recently told Reuters that he wouldn't be surprised if it took the company a couple of months to ramp production at Renton to the FAA's production limit.

Tyler Durden Tue, 12/10/2024 - 11:45

House To Vote On $3 Billion In Funding To Remove Chinese Telecom Equipment From US Networks

Authored by Catherine Yang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The House of Representatives is set to vote this week on an annual defense bill, which includes $3 billion to remove Chinese telecom equipment from American wireless networks.

A logo sits illuminated outside the Huawei booth at the SK telecom booth on day one of the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Feb. 28, 2022. David Ramos/Getty Images

The 1,800-page update to the National Defense Authorization Act was published on the evening of Dec. 7, increasing funding for networks’ reimbursement under the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act from $1.9 billion to $4.98 billion, matching an estimate provided by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Originally passed in 2019, the act prohibits equipment and services that pose a national security risk from entering U.S. networks—chiefly targeting technology by Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE. It included the reimbursement fund to “rip and replace” technology made by the prohibited companies.

On Nov. 26, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel urged Congress to provide the additional funding, writing that 126 carriers in the United States face a $3.08 billion shortfall to replace the insecure technology.

As of Nov. 20, the agency has received more than 35,000 reimbursement claims and 30 final certifications of applications stating all replacement work had been completed, Rosenworcel wrote.

The networks face a June 21, 2025, deadline to complete this work, but will be granted extensions based on delayed reimbursements. The agency has already granted 118 such extensions.

Rosenworcel wrote that 72 percent of status updates indicated that lack of funding is an obstacle to the “removal, replacement, and disposal” of the banned technology, and 50 percent of networks reported they cannot complete this work without additional funding.

The FCC chair said the funding shortfall impacts rural communities more significantly, and some have expressed concern they may have to shut down portions of their network and withdraw from the process without removing the banned technology.

“Any shut down of network facilities could remove the only provider available,” Rosenworcel wrote, adding that this would pose a continued national security concern.

Competitive Carriers Association CEO Tim Donovan on Dec. 7 praised the announcement, saying, “Funding is desperately needed to fulfill the mandate to remove and replace covered equipment and services while maintaining connectivity for tens of millions of Americans.”

American telecom networks made headlines recently as intelligence officials confirmed the ongoing presence of Chinese state-backed hackers on American networks.

Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technologies, recently revealed that Chinese state-sponsored hackers have compromised at least eight American telecommunications companies.

The telecoms that were breached have responded, but none “have fully removed the Chinese actors from these networks,” Neuberger said. “So there is a risk of ongoing compromises to communications, [and] until U.S. companies address the cybersecurity gaps, the Chinese are likely to maintain their access.”

Days later, she said at a press conference in Bahrain that officials believe the hackers were after senior politicians’ communications.

“The purpose of the operation was more focused,” Neuberger said. “We believe ... the actual number of calls that they took, recorded and took, was really more focused on very senior political individuals.”

A Chinese hacker group, “Salt Typhoon,” is being investigated by the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The agencies said in November that the hackers have conducted a “broad and significant cyber espionage campaign” aimed at stealing data from individuals working in government and politics.

Epoch Times reporter Frank Fang and Reuters contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Tue, 12/10/2024 - 10:45

China Stimulus Hope Springs Eternal

By Benjamin Picton, senior macro strategist at Rabobank

Hope Springs Eternal

China’s Politburo yesterday signaled its intent to provide further support to the Chinese economy by adopting a “moderately loose” monetary policy stance next year. That marks a shift from the current setting of “prudent” monetary policy that was adopted fourteen years ago. The shift comes in the face of continued economic weakness in China that has been led by the beleaguered real estate sector and compounded by rising trade restrictions led by the United States.

The Politburo also telegraphed a “more proactive” fiscal policy stance next year, raising hopes that China may be poised to widen its fiscal deficit from the 3% level that prevailed as of March. China has been drip feeding stimulus measures into the economy for months through cuts to key lending rates.

A stimulus ‘mini bazooka’ was fired in late September that included cuts to existing mortgage rates, cuts to bank reserve ratios and new financing facilities for stock purchases and buybacks, prompting a brief selloff in the USDCNH, a bidding up of the CSI300 and a bid for highly-liquid China proxies like the AUD. The price action yesterday followed a similar path, USDCNY fell 0.23% to 7.2675 and AUDUSD rallied 0.77% to 0.6440, but the CSI300 closed slightly lower while the Hang Seng soaked up the buying interest to rise 2.76%. Could the onshore market follow suit today? (spoiler alert: it tried, but no).

Brent crude also found a bit yesterday on renewed China stimulus hopes and perhaps a bit of extra risk premium owing to the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. The active contract closed 1.43% higher at $72.14/bbl. Gold prices also rose, while Bitcoin fell by more than 3% to finish the day just below $97k. The Treasury curve bear steepened as 10-year yields rose by 4.8bps and 2-year yields lifted by 2bps.

US stocks closed lower across the board and European stocks were mixed with gains posted for the FTSE100 and French CAC40, while the DAX fell. South Korea’s KOSPI index sold off another 2.8% as the market continued to digest the political turmoil that has followed President Yoon’s decision to (briefly) impose martial law last week. Yoon has since survived an impeachment vote, but his position is widely seen as untenable and he has now been banned from foreign travel and faces treason charges.

Later today the Reserve Bank of Australia will make its final policy rate announcement for 2024. The RBA has been one of the most hawkish G10 central banks in recent times, and is expected to hold the cash rate unchanged at 4.35% at this meeting. After the release of lacklustre Q3 national accounts last week showed growth of just 0.3% in the quarter (versus expectations of 0.5%) the futures market has been bidding up the probability of an earlier start to an anticipated rate cutting cycle from the RBA.

Previously, the OIS strip had May 2025 as the first meeting where a 25bp cut was fully priced. Implied probability for a cut at the April meeting reached 105% on Friday, but has since pulled back below the 100% level as of this morning. With the domestic final demand deflator in Q3 printing at a benign-looking 0.7% QoQ, and the household savings ratio rising to 3.2%, could the RBA be poised to deliver a dovish pivot today to give themselves some optionality over a potential cut in February? Hope springs eternal.

Tyler Durden Tue, 12/10/2024 - 10:20

IDF Tanks Reach Just 25km From Damascus As Netanyahu Declares Golan Is 'Ours Forever'

With Assad overthrown and Syria in shambles, Israel has declared the permanent annexation of the Golan Heights. "The Golan Heights," announced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, "will forever be an inseparable part of the State of Israel."

He said that control over this historical Syrian territory "guarantees" Israel's security and sovereignty and is of "great importance". The announcement came as Israel pounded with airstrikes numerous Syrian bases, abandoned army assets, parked warplanes and helicopters, and even naval ships off Latakia.

Israeli tanks on the day Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered the seizure of a buffer zone, via AFP.

The attacks kept going throughout the night, as Israeli and international sources describe:

Regional security sources and officers within the now-fallen Syrian army who spoke to Reuters described Tuesday morning’s airstrikes as the heaviest yet, hitting military installations and airbases across Syria, destroying dozens of helicopters and jets, as well as Republican Guard assets in and around Damascus.

"The rough tally of 200 raids overnight had left nothing of the Syrian army’s assets, said the sources," the report adds.

Netanyahu further hailed that this signals the start of a "new and dramatic chapter" in the history of the Middle East. He called Assad a "central element of Iran’s axis of evil" but that Iran over-invested and everything collapsed.

Israeli media has further confirmed that after Israeli forces crossed the Golan area deeper into southern Syria, establishing a so-called security and buffer zone, IDF tanks are closer to the Syrian capital than ever before in history.

The Times of Israel details:

An Israeli military incursion into southern Syria has reached about 25 kilometers (16 miles) southwest of the capital Damascus, two regional security sources and one Syrian security source says.

The Syrian security source says Israeli troops reached Qatana, which is 10 kilometers (6 miles) into Syrian territory, east of a demilitarized zone separating the Golan Heights from Syria.

Despite the claims, the IDF has indicated that it only plans to operate on the ground inside the buffer zone, and not beyond it.

Some critics of the now ruling Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) have pointed out that this supposed "revolution" has resulted in a situation where Turkey is carving up the north and Israel is carving up the south, while the whole country is defenseless, without anti-air protection, against Israeli strikes.

This morning, the Israeli army reached Qatana, about 20 kilometers from Damascus. Israel is advancing into Syrian territory to fulfill Netanyahu's vision of a “Greater Israel.” Last night, Israel claimed to have conducted its biggest air operation in history against Syria. pic.twitter.com/oaWOi7UuTh

— red. (@redstreamnet) December 10, 2024

Meanwhile Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also had a message in the wake of the dramatic changes in Syria. He warned HTS and the armed factions now in control, saying that if they threaten Israel they will be attacked relentlessly:

"The IDF has acted in the last few days to attack and destroy strategic capabilities that threaten the State of Israel," Katz says, warning the rebels that "whoever follows [ousted president Bashar] al-Assad’s footsteps will end up like Assad did. We won’t allow an extremist Islamic terror entity to act against Israel from beyond its borders… we will do anything to remove the threat."

On Sunday into Monday, Israeli warplanes had also targeted Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles, but it's unlikely that they were able to destroy everything. More sporadic attacks are expected, and the situation remains extremely fluid and unpredictable.

Tyler Durden Tue, 12/10/2024 - 10:00

Court Temporarily Blocks Obamacare Coverage To Dreamers In 19 States

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

A federal court on Dec. 9 temporarily blocked in 19 states the expansion of Obamacare coverage to immigrants who were illegally brought to the United States as children, also known as “Dreamers.”

The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed in August by the states seeking to prevent the federal government from implementing the rule to expand the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, to recipients of Deferred Action for Children Arrivals (DACA).

U.S. District Judge for the District of North Dakota Daniel M. Traynor granted the states a preliminary injunction and stay against enforcing the rule, stating that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) had “acted contrary to law” by providing federal health care benefits to DACA recipients, who are, by definition, not lawfully present in the United States.

The Department of Health and Human Services said on May 3 that the CMS had modified the definition of “lawfully present”—which is used to determine eligibility for coverage—to enable DACA recipients to legally enroll on the marketplace exchange.

However, Traynor stated that it is Congress that should determine who qualifies for lawful presence status in the United States, rather than agencies such as the CMS.

“The authority granted to CMS by the ACA is to ascertain whether an individual meets the requirements for lawful status,” the judge stated in an 18-page ruling on Dec. 9.

“It by no means allows the agency to circumvent congressional authority and redefine the term ‘lawfully present’,” he added.

Traynor determined that the states demonstrated irreparable harm, as they would be forced to either comply with the rule or risk losing federal support “to operate the costly exchanges” required under the ACA.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, who led the coalition of states in filing the lawsuit against the federal government, called the court’s decision a “big win for the rule of law.”

“Congress never intended that illegal aliens should receive Obamacare benefits. Indeed, two laws prohibit them from receiving such benefits. The Biden administration tried to break those laws,” Kobach stated on social media platform X.

The states joining Kansas in the lawsuit are Ohio, Idaho, Nebraska, South Carolina, Alabama, Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Texas, Florida, and Arkansas.

The Epoch Times has contacted the CMS for comment.

The CMS estimated that the rule “could lead to 100,000 previously uninsured DACA recipients enrolling in health care through Marketplaces or a BHP [Basic Health Program].”

But the states argued that expanding ACA coverage to DACA recipients will impose “additional administrative and resource burdens,” as it would allow them access to state-run ACA exchanges.

The DACA initiative was launched by then-President Barack Obama to protect from deportation those who were brought to the United States illegally by their parents as children. The program allowed them to work legally in the country.

However, the “Dreamers” were ineligible for government-subsidized health insurance programs because they did not meet the definition of having a “lawful presence” in the United States.

Tyler Durden Tue, 12/10/2024 - 09:40

Peter Schiff: Printing Money Is Not the Cure for Cononavirus



In his most recent podcast, Peter Schiff talked about coronavirus and the impact that it is having on the markets. Earlier this month, Peter said he thought the virus was just an excuse for stock market woes. At the time he believed the market was poised to fall anyway. But as it turns out, coronavirus has actually helped the US stock market because it has led central banks to pump even more liquidity into the world financial system. All this means more liquidity — central banks easing. In fact, that is exactly what has already happened, except the new easing is taking place, for now, outside the United States, particularly in China.” Although the new money is primarily being created in China, it is flowing into dollars — the dollar index is up — and into US stocks. Last week, US stock markets once again made all-time record highs. In fact, I think but for the coronavirus, the US stock market would still be selling off. But because of the central bank stimulus that has been the result of fears over the coronavirus, that actually benefitted not only the US dollar, but the US stock market.” In the midst of all this, Peter raises a really good question. The primary economic concern is that coronavirus will slow down output and ultimately stunt economic growth. Practically speaking, the world would produce less stuff. If the virus continues to spread, there would be fewer goods and services produced in a market that is hunkered down. Why would the Federal Reserve respond, or why would any central bank respond to that by printing money? How does printing more money solve that problem? It doesn’t. In fact, it actually exacerbates it. But you know, everybody looks at central bankers as if they’ve got the solution to every problem. They don’t. They don’t have the magic wand. They just have a printing press. And all that creates is inflation.” Sometimes the illusion inflation creates can look like a magic wand. Printing money can paper over problems. But none of this is going to fundamentally fix the economy. In fact, if central bankers were really going to do the right thing, the appropriate response would be to drain liquidity from the markets, not supply even more.” Peter explained how the Fed was originally intended to create an “elastic” money supply that would expand or contract along with economic output. Today, the money supply only goes in one direction — that’s up. The economy is strong, print money. The economy is weak, print even more money.” Of course, the asset that’s doing the best right now is gold. The yellow metal pushed above $1,600 yesterday. Gold is up 5.5% on the year in dollar terms and has set record highs in other currencies. Because gold is rising even in an environment where the dollar is strengthening against other fiat currencies, that shows you that there is an underlying weakness in the dollar that is right now not being reflected in the Forex markets, but is being reflected in the gold markets. Because after all, why are people buying gold more aggressively than they’re buying dollars or more aggressively than they’re buying US Treasuries? Because they know that things are not as good for the dollar or the US economy as everybody likes to believe. So, more people are seeking out refuge in a better safe-haven and that is gold.” Peter also talked about the debate between Trump and Obama over who gets credit for the booming economy – which of course, is not booming.

We are living in crazy times. I have a hard time believing that most of the general public is not awake, but in reality, they are. We've never seen anything like this; I mean not even under Obama during the worst part of the Great Recession." Now the Fed is desperately trying to keep interest rates from rising. The problem is that it's a much bigger debt bubble this time around , and the Fed is going to have to blow a lot more air into it to keep it inflated. The difference is this time it's not going to work." It looks like the Fed did another $104.15 billion of Not Q.E. in a single day. The Fed claims it's only temporary. But that is precisely what Bernanke claimed when the Fed started QE1. Milton Freedman once said, "Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program." The same applies to Q.E., or whatever the Fed wants to pretend it's doing. Except this is not QE4, according to Powell. Right. Pumping so much money out, and they are accusing China of currency manipulation ? Wow! Seriously! Amazing! Dump the U.S. dollar while you still have a chance. Welcome to The Atlantis Report. And it is even worse than that, In addition to the $104.15 billion of "Not Q.E." this past Thursday; the FED added another $56.65 billion in liquidity to financial markets the next day on Friday. That's $160.8 billion in two days!!!! in just 48 hours. That is more than 2 TIMES the highest amount the FED has ever injected on a monthly basis under a Q.E. program (which was $80 billion per month) Since this isn't QE....it will be really scary on what they are going to call Q.E. Will it twice, three times, four times, five times what this injection per month ! It is going to be explosive since it takes about 60 to 90 days for prices to react to this, January should see significant inflation as prices soak up the excess liquidity. The question is, where will the inflation occur first . The spike in the repo rate might have a technical explanation: a misjudgment was made in the Fed's money market operations. Even so, two conclusions can be drawn: managing the money markets is becoming harder, and from now on, banks will be studying each other's creditworthiness to a greater degree than before. Those people, who struggle with the minutiae of money markets, and that includes most professionals, should focus on the causes and not the symptoms. Financial markets have recovered from each downturn since 1980 because interest rates have been cut to new lows. Post-2008, they were cut to near zero or below zero in all major economies. In response to a new financial crisis, they cannot go any lower. Central banks will look for new ways to replicate or broaden Q.E. (At some point, governments will simply see repression as an easier option). Then there is the problem of 'risk-free' assets becoming risky assets. Financial markets assume that the probability of major governments such as the U.S. or U.K. defaulting is zero. These governments are entering the next downturn with debt roughly twice the levels proportionate to GDP that was seen in 2008. The belief that the policy worked was completely predicated on the fact that it was temporary and that it was reversible, that the Fed was going to be able to normalize interest rates and shrink its balance sheet back down to pre-crisis levels. Well, when the balance sheet is five-trillion, six-trillion, seven-trillion when we're back at zero, when we're back in a recession, nobody is going to believe it is temporary. Nobody is going to believe that the Fed has this under control, that they can reverse this policy. And the dollar is going to crash. And when the dollar crashes, it's going to take the bond market with it, and we're going to have stagflation. We're going to have a deep recession with rising interest rates, and this whole thing is going to come imploding down. everything is temporary with the fed including remaining off the gold standard temporary in the Fed's eyes could mean at least 50 years This liquidity problem is a signal that trading desks are loaded up on inventory and can't get rid of it. Repo is done out of a need for cash. If you own all of your securities (i.e., a long-only, no leverage mutual fund) you have no need to "repo" your securities - you're earning interest every night so why would you want to 'repo' your securities where you are paying interest for that overnight loan (securities lending is another animal). So, it is those that 'lever-up' and need the cash for settlement purposes on securities they've bought with borrowed money that needs to utilize the repo desk. With this in mind, as we continue to see this need to obtain cash (again, needed to settle other securities purchases), it shows these firms don't have the capital to add more inventory to, what appears to be, a bloated inventory. Now comes the fun part: the Treasury is about to auction 3's, 10's, and 30-year bonds. If I am correct (again, I could be wrong), the Fed realizes securities firms don't have the shelf space to take down a good portion of these auctions. If there isn't enough retail/institutional demand, it will lead to not only a crappy sale but major concerns to the street that there is now no backstop, at all, to any sell-off. At which point, everyone will want to be the first one through the door and sell immediately, but to whom? If there isn't enough liquidity in the repo market to finance their positions, the firms would be unable to increase their inventory. We all saw repo shut down on the 2008 crisis. Wall St runs on money. . OVERNIGHT money. They lever up to inventory securities for trading. If they can't get overnight money, they can't purchase securities. And if they can't unload what they have, it means the buy-side isn't taking on more either. Accounts settle overnight. This includes things like payrolls and bill pay settlements. If a bank doesn't have enough cash to payout what its customers need to pay out, it borrows. At least one and probably more than one banks are insolvent. That's what's going on. First, it can't be one or two banks that are short. They'd simply call around until they found someone to lend. But they did that, and even at markedly elevated rates, still, NO ONE would lend them the money. That tells me that it's not a problem of a couple of borrowers, it's a problem of no lenders. And that means that there's no bank in the world left with any real liquidity. They are ALL maxed out. But as bad as that is, and that alone could be catastrophic, what it really signals is even worse. The lending rates are just the flip side of the coin of the value of the assets lent against. If the rates go up, the value goes down. And with rates spiking to 10%, how far does the value fall? Enormously! And if banks had to actually mark down the value of the assets to reflect 10% interest rates, then my god, every bank in the world is insolvent overnight. Everyone's capital ratios are in the toilet, and they'd have to liquidate. We're talking about the simultaneous insolvency of every bank on the planet. Bank runs. No money in ATMs, Branches closed. Safe deposit boxes confiscated. The whole nine yards, It's actually here. The scenario has tended to guide toward for years and years is actually happening RIGHT NOW! And people are still trying to say it's under control. Every bank in the world is currently insolvent. The only thing keeping it going is printing billions of dollars every day. Financial Armageddon isn't some far off future risk. It's here. Prepare accordingly. This fiat system has reached the end of the line, and it's not correct that fiat currencies fail by design. The problem is corruption and manipulation. It is corruption and cheating that erodes trust and faith until the entire system becomes a gigantic fraud. Banks and governments everywhere ARE the problem and simply have to be removed. They have lost all trust and respect, and all they have left is war and mayhem. As long as we continue to have a majority of braindead asleep imbeciles following orders from these psychopaths, nothing will change. Fiat currency is not just thievery. Fiat currency is SLAVERY. Ultimately the most harmful effect of using debt of undefined value as money (i.e., fiat currencies) is the de facto legalization of a caste system based on voluntary slavery. The bankers have a charter, or the legal *right*, to create money out of nothing. You, you don't. Therefore you and the bankers do not have the same standing before the law. The law of the land says that you will go to jail if you do the same thing (creating money out of thin air) that the banker does in full legality. You and the banker are not equal before the law. ALL the countries of the world; Islamic or secular, Jewish or Arab, democracy or dictatorship; all of them place the bankers ABOVE you. And all of you accept that only whining about fiat money going down in exchange value over time (price inflation which is not the same as monetary inflation). Actually, price inflation itself is mainly due to the greed and stupidity of the bankers who could keep fiat money's exchange value reasonably stable, only if they wanted to. Witness the crash of silver and gold prices which the bankers of the world; Russian, American, Chinese, Jewish, Indian, Arab, all of them collaborated to engineer through the suppression and stagnation of precious metals' prices to levels around the metals' production costs, or what it costs to dig gold and silver out of the ground. The bankers of the world could also collaborate to keep nominal prices steady (as they do in the case of the suppression of precious metals prices). After all, the ability to create fiat money and force its usage is a far more excellent source of power and wealth than that which is afforded simply by stealing it through inflation. The bankers' greed and stupidity blind them to this fact. They want it all, and they want it now. In conclusion, The bankers can create money out of nothing and buy your goods and services with this worthless fiat money, effectively for free. You, you can't. You, you have to lead miserable existences for the most of you and WORK in order to obtain that effectively nonexistent, worthless credit money (whose purchasing/exchange value is not even DEFINED thus rendering all contracts based on the null and void!) that the banker effortlessly creates out of thin air with a few strokes of the computer keyboard, and which he doesn't even bother to print on paper anymore, electing to keep it in its pure quantum uncertain form instead, as electrons whizzing about inside computer chips which will become mute and turn silent refusing to tell you how many fiat dollars or euros there are in which account, in the absence of electricity. No electricity, no fiat, nor crypto money. It would appear that trust is deteriorating as it did when Lehman blew up . Something really big happened that set off this chain reaction in the repo markets. Whatever that something is, we aren't be informed. They're trying to cover it up, paper it over with conjured cash injections, play it cool in front of the cameras while sweating profusely under the 5 thousands dollar suits. I'm guessing that the final high-speed plunge into global economic collapse has begun. All we see here is the ripples and whitewater churning the surface, but beneath the surface, there is an enormous beast thrashing desperately in its death throws. Now is probably the time to start tying up loose ends with the long-running prep projects, just saying. In other words, prepare accordingly, and Get your money out of the banks. I don't care if you don't believe me about Bitcoin. Get your money out of the banks. Don't keep any more money in a bank than you need to pay your bills and can afford to lose.











The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks trends and forecasts , futurists , visionaries , free investigative journalists , researchers , Whistelblowers , truthers and many more













The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks trends and forecasts , futurists , visionaries , free investigative journalists , researchers , Whistelblowers , truthers and many more

The FBI released a summary of its file from the Hillary Clinton email investigation on Friday, showing details of Clinton's explanation of her use of a private email server to handle classified communications. The release comes nearly two months after FBI Director James Comey announced that although Clinton's handling of classified information was "extremely careless," it did not rise to the level of a prosecutable offense. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced the next day that she would not pursue charges in the matter. "We are making these materials available to the public in the interest of transparency and in response to numerous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests," the FBI noted in a statement sent to reporters with links to the documents. The documents include notes from Clinton's July 2 interview with agents, as well as a "factual summary of the FBI's investigation into this matter," according to the FBI release. Throughout her interview with agents, Clinton repeatedly said she relied on the career professionals she worked with to handle classified information correctly. The agents asked about a series of specific emails, and in each case Clinton said she wasn't worried about the particular material being discussed on a nonclassified channel.