Loading ...Ororeef … May Day
Probably going to be the usual violent demonstrations in downtown Seattle tonight. Lots of lefties and anarchists in Seattle.
Happy MAY DAY to you Communists out there !
May you rest in peace !
@ Buygold – Deutsche Bank post
yesterday i got a letter from my bank (USAA) saying that they were changing how they held cash in my acct.
it was changing to a Mutual Fund (not insured or guaranteed) by FDIC.
I smell a rat. (not USAA itself – I like them)
I hope the Tent keeps it’s collective ears open to related news on this subject. I believe it will give us clues – they change the rules before the deeds, so they can be nice and “legal”.
screw the Cash Mutual Fund – I will hold cash in Sprott PHYS & PSLV
US Supreme Court approves expanded hacking powers
The US Supreme Court has approved a rule change that could allow law enforcement to remotely search computers around the world.
Previously, magistrate judges could order searches only within the jurisdiction of their court, often limited to a few counties.
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) said the change was necessary to modernise the law for the digital age.
But digital rights groups say the move expands the FBI’s hacking authority.
The DoJ wants judges to be able to issue remote search warrants for computers located anywhere that the United States claims jurisdiction, which could include other countries.
A remote search typically involves trying to access a suspect’s computer over the internet to explore the data contained on it.
It has pushed for a change in the rules since 2013, arguing that criminals can mask their location and identity online making it difficult to determine which jurisdiction a computer is located in.
‘Only mechanism available’
“Criminals now have ready access to sophisticated anonymising technologies to conceal their identity while they engage in crime over the internet,” said DoJ spokesman Peter Carr.
“The use of remote searches is often the only mechanism available to law enforcement to identify and apprehend them.
“The amendment makes explicit that it does not change the traditional rules governing probable cause and notice.”
It said the change would not give law enforcement any new authority not already permitted by law.
However, groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have warned that the change could expand the FBI’s ability to conduct mass hacks on computer networks.
‘Thousands of millions of computers’
“Such a monumental change in the law should not be snuck by Congress under the guise of a procedural rule,” said Neema Singh Guliani of the ACLU.
In 2015, search giant Google also opposed the change, which, it said, “threatens to undermine the privacy rights and computer security of internet users”.
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden said the change had “significant consequences for Americans’ privacy”, and said he would seek to reverse the decision.
“Under the proposed rules, the government would now be able to obtain a single warrant to access and search thousands or millions of computers at once; and the vast majority of the affected computers would belong to the victims, not the perpetrators, of a cybercrime,” he said in a statement.
Congress can still opt to reject or modify the changes to the federal rules of criminal procedure – but if it does not act by 1 December the change will take effect.
If they do this gold and silver will explode
Helicopter money may be on the horizon, but if Deutsche Bank has its way, there is at least one intermediate step.
According to DB’s Dominic Konstam, now that the benefits QE “have run their course”, it is time for the next, and far more drastic step: “the ECB and BoJ should move more strongly toward penalizing savings via negative retail deposit rates or perhaps wealth taxes. With this stick would also come a carrot – for example, negative mortgage rates.”
Here is the big picture unveiling of what is coming next from Deutsche Bank’s Dominic Konstam, who is also buying the Treasury long end hand over fist:
- The G3 central banks all stood pat, continuing the move away from the beggar-thy-neighbor paradigm. However, the adverse market reaction to the BoJ’s inaction suggests that the benefits of QE (or QQE) in its present form might have run their course.
- It is becoming increasingly clear to us that the level of yields at which credit expansion in Europe and Japan will pick up in earnest is probably negative, and substantially so. Therefore, the ECB and BoJ should move more strongly toward penalizing savings via negative retail deposit rates or perhaps wealth taxes. With this stick would also come a carrot – for example, negative mortgage rates.
- Until then, bank NIM compression will continue to drive elevated demand for dollar-denominated assets, which manifests itself in suppressed UST term premia and wide cross-currency bases.
- What this means for the US is that policy rates and longer bond yields are unlikely to go up until global growth accelerates materially. Until such time, it is critical for the Fed to continue to relent, allowing real yields to keep falling while breakevens rise and nominal yields remain roughly static.
- If the Fed were to turn hawkish, there is perhaps even less scope for long-end yields to rise as breakevens would likely collapse on policy error fears.