News of the World

[kyonides]

US Banking System Outlook Downgraded to ‘Negative’

Credit ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service downgraded its outlook for the U.S. banking system on Tuesday after the rapid declines and collapses of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Silvergate Bank in recent days.

The prominent ratings agency said it “changed to negative from stable our outlook on the U.S. banking system to reflect the rapid deterioration in the operating environment following deposit runs at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Silvergate Bank, and Signature Bank (SNY) and the failures of SVB and SNY,” Moody’s said in a Monday afternoon report. “Operating conditions have sharply deteriorated,” it also said in a note, according to multiple news outlets.
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Bank runs at Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate, and Signature led to a crisis of confidence, both from investors and depositors, the ratings agency said. Lenders that had “substantial” unrealized securities losses and uninsured deposits may be hurt more as customers look for safer alternatives to park their funds, it added.

Moody’s wrote it expects more banks will be pressured after SVB’s failure, namely those with large amounts of deposits that aren’t insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Reports indicated that upwards of 90 percent of deposits at SVB were uninsured as the bank was heavily used by tech companies and startups.

SVB Crash Will Slam California State and Local Budgets

But what’s different this time is what was advanced by Shark Tank judge Kevin O’Leary and in a New York Times column. O’Leary on March 13 said on CNN:

“But what effectively happened over the weekend is that [President Biden] nationalized the American banking system. It’s no longer a risk. It’s no longer private in any sense. It is now backstopped by the government and ultimately the taxpayer. So it doesn’t matter how bad you are as a bank manager. A good example is what happened to Silicon Valley Bank. That was a combination of a negligent board of directors and idiot management. That’s a very powerful cocktail when put together, and it completely wiped out that bank. And that’s what should have happened.

“And we knew before the weekend started that every account with $250,000 or less was insured. And anything beyond that, which is generally business accounts, or sophisticated investors, was not. But that’s all changed. Now you have no risk in any bank, any time, and you as the taxpayer bear that going forward …

“[Biden] is effectively saying, ‘Look, I can’t take this risk anymore. I’m just going to nationalize the whole thing.’ And that’s the way we should look at banking going forward. Nothing more than highly regulated utilities. And that has profound impacts for you as an investor. If you thought putting money into bank stocks was a good idea, you should change your mind this morning forever. And should you own bank bonds? Never. You were taught that lesson over the weekend.”

Biden Signs Executive Order to Ramp Up Gun Control

President Joe Biden signed an executive order on March 14 to advance gun-control measures, including a step toward universal background checks, as much as current law will allow without requiring new legislation.

Biden announced the order in a speech at the site of a Jan. 21, 2023 mass shooting that killed 11 and wounded nine.

The order increases the number of background checks before firearm sales to get as close to universal background checks as possible without additional legislation.

The executive order promotes the expanded use of “red flag” laws, scrutiny of the gun industry, and the ability to identify and apprehend shooters. Biden will also ask the Federal Trade Commission to issue a report on the marketing of firearms to children.

According to Biden, this would be accomplished by increased enforcement of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (Act). The Act will be especially instrumental in implementing at least two of Biden’s most controversial plans.

Russian Fighter Jet Hits American Drone Over Black Sea

A Russian fighter jet hit a U.S. drone over the Black Sea on March 14, U.S. officials said.

A Russian Su-27 aircraft “struck the propeller” of the drone, the U.S. European Command said in a statement.

The impact forced U.S. personnel to bring the drone, an unmanned MQ-9 model, down in international waters.

The drone was “conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9,” U.S. Air Force Gen. James B. Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa, said in a statement.

Before the collision, two Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the drone in a “reckless environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,” the statement said, adding that the incident “demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional.”

They suddenly forgot how many times Russia has said NATO started World War 3 already.
 Yes, they're already treating you like secondary targets, US Military, Air Force and .

FBI, State Department Miss Deadline to Produce
COVID Origin Information to House Panel

The information was requested on Feb. 27 by Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, and by Rep. Brad R. Wenstrup (R-Ohio), chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. The deadline for providing the documents was March 13.

“We have not received documents at this time, but we are in communication with the agencies about the chairman’s request, and we expect compliance,” a spokesperson for the subcommittee told The Epoch Times on March 13.

A spokesperson for the State Department told The Epoch Times: “President Biden has directed every element of our intelligence community to put the effort and resources behind getting to the bottom of the origins of COVID-19. We will continue to use every tool to figure out what happened here. And if we gain further insight, the President has directed the Administration to share that with Congress and the American people.”

The FBI declined to comment.
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Wenstrup pledged “to leave no stone unturned to try to find the truth” about the origins of the virus in his opening statement to the subcommittee.

Pentagon’s $842 Billion Budget Focuses on China Threat

President Joe Biden’s $886.3 billion Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) defense budget request includes $842 billion for the Pentagon, a $26 billion, or 3.2 percent, increase over this year’s military spending plan with the “growing multi-domain threat posed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC)” again named the nation’s most pressing “pacing challenge.”

Both Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III used the same phrase in describing the proposed military budget’s emphasis on China, each calling it “the most strategy aligned military budget” in the nation’s history.

“Nowhere is that alignment more pronounced than in the seriousness with which this budget treats strategic competition with the People’s Republic of China,” Hicks told reporters in Washington on March 13. “Our greatest measure of success—and the one we use around here most often—is to make sure the [Chinese] leadership wakes up every day, considers the risks of aggression and concludes, ‘Today is not the day.’”

“As our national defense strategy makes clear, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is our pacing challenge,” Austin said in a March 13 statement. “As the PRC races to modernize its military, this budget will sharpen our edge by making critical investments across all timeframes, theaters, and domains. Among numerous important actions that bolster our combat credibility in the short term, this budget makes the department’s largest-ever investments in readiness and procurement–and our largest investment in research and development.”