The Little-Known World of Caterpillars New Yorker (furzy)
Great apes reach momentary altered mental states by spinning Primates (Anthony L)
Australia toddler chasing snake finds nest of 110 venomous serpent eggs South China Morning Post
Nasa reveals new spacesuit for anticipated moon landing BBC (furzy)
Caffeine May Reduce Body Fat and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes, Study Suggests Guardian
Climate/Environment
Argentina’s record-breaking heatwave has ‘no similarities in history’ CNN (Paul R)
A biologist on the sorrows of documenting the Great Salt Lake’s collapse aeon
To Reduce Methane In Cow Burps, Bill Gates Launching Startup To Feed Cows Seaweed Supplement Cowboy State Daily (furzy)
Climate change is supercharging floods and droughts, new research shows Grist
Battered by flooding, California braces for more rain Los Angeles Times (furzy)
Canada proposes its own foreign agent registry to deafening silence from the West RT. Kevin W: “The EU is also preparing its own foreign agent registry laws.”
China?
Rebuilding US chip industry won’t be cheap Asia Times (Kevin W)
EXCLUSIVE: China’s securities regulator is holding up approvals for new applications to sell global depository receipts, sources say, potentially choking off a lucrative stream of listings in Europe https://t.co/CcIAp8bE6b pic.twitter.com/VYyjEyZj01
— Bloomberg (@business) March 16, 2023
1,100 Scientists and Students Barred From UK Amid China Crackdown Guardian
Chinese Billionaire Guo Wengui Charged With Billion-Dollar Fraud in US Bloomberg (furzy)
New Not-So-Cold War
German Spy Ship Reportedly Sent on Secret Mission to Nord Stream 1 Site Days Before Blast Sputnik (Kevin W)
Canadian FM Says Regime Change in Moscow Is ‘Definitely’ the Goal Antiwar.com (Kevin W)
New Bakhmut Report: High Casualties – Low Morale – Russian Tactics Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)
SCOTT RITTER ON GEORGIA, BAHMUT, XI JINPING -ZELENSKY TALKS, AND WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN THE WAR ENDS…YouTube. Important for Georgia discussion. Ritter’s wife is Georgian. Ritter is also hopeful about China acting as an interlocutor but no way, no how will the US and NATO allow that to go anywhere. If it looks like it is, given NordStream, I would anticipate a US-sponsored attack dressed up as a Ukraine attack to poison the talks. Or alternatively, assassinating Zelensky and blaming Russia.
Nasdaq tells Yandex, other Russian firms of plan to delist stocks Reuters
As Russia looms, US seeks influence in West Africa’s fight against Islamists Reuters (resilc)
🇷🇺🔥In Rostov-on-Don, the FSB Border Service Department is on fire.
Local residents heard an explosion, and then black smoke poured out of the building, according to media reports
No official statement as of yet… pic.twitter.com/jUCRytomCW
— AZ 🛰🌏🌍🌎 (@AZgeopolitics) March 16, 2023
The United States and ICC have an awkward history Washington Post (furzy)
Imperial Collapse Watch
U.S. Maternal Mortality Hits Highest Level Since 1965 Wall Street Journal (Dr. Kevin)
Uncle Sucker Cato (resilc). When Cato makes sense…..
Surge in arms imports to Europe, while US dominance of the global arms trade increases SIPRI (resilc)
As SVB fails, Icahn says there’s ‘no leadership on the corporate level’ MarketWatch (resilc). As we’ve been saying, but even more important, in executive positions in government too.
Trump
Federal investigators examined Trump Media for possible money laundering, sources say Guardian (resilc)
Biden
GOP blasts ‘inadequate’ Biden defense budget as it vows spending cuts Defense News (resilc)
Abortion
Texas abortion pill case: Lawyers requesting mifepristone’s removal from market concede there’s no precedent Business Insider (Kevin W)
Police State Watch
FBI Bookstore Spying in Chicago Eyes Abortion Rights, Cop City, Anti-Development Activists Unicorn Riot (Tim S)
SVB
The SVB Failure: Why It Happened and What It Means Richard Vague, Democracy Journal. A detailed, readable treatment.
‘Unfortunate and wrong’: Angry taxpayers respond to the latest bank bailouts The Hill
BREAKING: California Governor Gavin Newsom lobbied the White House and Treasury on the bailout of Silicon Valley Bank, without disclosing that his private wineries had reportedly been the bank’s clients & he may have even had a personal account at the bank, per the Intercept
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) March 15, 2023
Ohio State Teachers Retirement System Had Massive Investment in Silicon Valley Bank CleveScene (Carla R)
‘Many More Problems’ To Follow SVB Collapse, Dalio Says Heisenberg Report (resilc)
Silicon Valley, once the underdog, is now too big to fail MSN (resilc)
The role of Goldman Sachs in final days of Silicon Valley Bank Yahoo (resilc)
Goldman Sachs Eyes a Big Payout from Silicon Valley Bank Deal New York Times (resilc)
Rotten Banks
Credit Suisse to borrow up to $54bn from Swiss central bank BBC (Kevin W)
U.S. Treasury reviewing U.S. financial sector exposure to Credit Suisse – Bloomberg Reuters (resilc)
What’s Going on with First Republic Bank? Adam Levitin. Very good compact description of differences among SVB, Signature, and now Republic.
1/ Mixed signals in the markets right now. Implied Treasury volatility is screaming ‘crisis’. But the TED spread – the rate at which US banks lend to each other – is pretty muted. Why? Let’s walk through some possibilities. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/jZARHTCOgh
— Philip Pilkington (@philippilk) March 16, 2023
FDIC insured deposit taking bank failures Since 2001 FDIC (resilc)
Wells Fargo’s Carrie Tolstedt Pleads Guilty and Faces Prison New York Times (resilc)
The Bezzle
Sam Bankman-Fried said to have taken $2.2bn from FTX entities Financial Times. Your humble blog focused on to this early via the initial disclosures from new CEO John Ray. Our November 18 headline: FTX: New Ex-Enron CEO Finds “Complete Absence of Trustworthy Financial Information,” $3.3 Billion Loans to SBF, Customer Deposits Not Recorded on Balance Sheets; Confirms Software Backdoors, Auto-Deleted Communications
FTX has published its ‘Schedules and Statements of Financial Affairs’ — detailed documents about payments made before the bankruptcy.
The headline is SBF took out billions. But other $ transfers are hidden because of the secrecy in the case
A brief 🧵 https://t.co/BucUFqJ5Gk
— kadhim (＾ｰ^)ノ (@kadhim) March 16, 2023
Tough luck, Brits: Binance suspends UK deposits and withdrawals The Register (Kevin W)
Class Warfare
‘Net worth of median household is basically nothing,’ says Carl Icahn. MarketWatch (resilc)
February marks 23rd straight month of real wages decline for US workers WSWS
In nursing homes, impoverished live final days on pennies Associated Press (resilc)
Antidote du jour:
And a bonus:
It’s cute#animal #animals #AnimalsLover #funny #dog #cat pic.twitter.com/0fJKZGOPR9
— animalmemesbasic (@wildbeetle66) March 7, 2023
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
