good morning
SAM267 USAF G5 (tail# 18-1942) inbound from Ramstein AFB ground stop.
KAF AC of interest and participates in high profile trips/activities.
This AC departed JBA on 1211 with a ground stop at Ramstein AFB prior it's arrival at Dubai Int'l Airport on 1212
It spent a day at Dubai then over to Doha, Qatar yesterday for a ground stop and then a return to Dubai for a 1215 depart to Ramstein
JBA SAM departs
SAM=Special Air Mission
SAM404 (who's ded?) USAF G5 sw
SAM387 USAF G5 also sw with SAM360 USAF C-32A (and also used as primary AF2) with similar departs sw
Swiss cenbank to press ahead with FX interventions despite U.S. manipulation tag
The Swiss National Bank rejected accusations of currency manipulation by the United States on Wednesday, saying the label would not deter it from acting aggressively on forex markets.
The U.S. Treasury had earlier said Switzerland and Vietnam were currency manipulators that had intervened in foreign exchange markets to devalue their currencies against the dollar and prevent effective balance of payments adjustments. “The SNB’s monetary policy approach remains unchanged by the report,” the Swiss central bank said in a statement. “In light of the economic situation and the fact that the Swiss franc is still highly valued, the SNB remains willing to intervene more strongly in the foreign exchange market.” It added that its interventions were not intended to gain unfair trading advantage for Swiss exporters or massage balance of payments figures. “Foreign exchange market interventions are necessary in Switzerland’s monetary policy to ensure appropriate monetary conditions and therefore price stability,” the SNB said. The SNB has stepped up interventions this year, spending 90 billion Swiss francs ($101.72 billion) in the first half to rein in the franc, but the central bank has argued this is to prevent the “highly valued” currency from triggering deflation.
Officials from the Swiss government and the SNB are in contact with U.S. counterparts to explain the situation, the SNB added. The central bank is due to give its latest monetary policy update on Thursday, where it is expected to reiterate its commitment to negative interest rates and currency market interventions. The Swiss government noted the report, adding that Switzerland did not manipulate the Swiss franc or seek to gain any unfair advantage for its economy. A spokeswoman for the State Secretariat for International Finance said the country was open to bilateral talks with Washington on the matter.
“Switzerland is confident that the U.S. Treasury will carefully analyse the country’s situation, taking due account of the specific characteristics of Switzerland and the Swiss economy,” she said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-currency-manipulation-swiss/update-2-swiss-cenbank-to-press-ahead-with-fx-interventions-despite-u-s-manipulation-tag-idUSL8N2IW41F
Aramco may have to sell assets, borrow more to maintain Saudi dividend
Oil giant Aramco, whose dividend remains vital to helping Saudi Arabia contain a huge deficit, may have to sell assets and borrow more to fulfil its fiscal role amid uncertainty in oil prices, market specialists said. While Saudi Arabia has increased non-oil revenues this year, Aramco still accounted for more than half its total income, and will be key to containing a budget shortfall this year forecast at 298 billion riyals ($79.4 billion), or 12% of GDP. Aramco, the world’s largest oil producer, listed in 2019 in a record $29.4 billion share sale, but the government still owns 98.2% of the group.
Though its profits plummeted this year as oil prices tumbled during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company is sticking to a promised $75 billion annual dividend that will go almost entirely to the government.
While it is not obliged to maintain such a high payout, economists expect the firm to continue to offer the same support to state coffers next year. “They can adjust the dividend to government lower, but they are more likely to maintain or increase the $75 billion and borrow if needs be,” said James Reeve, chief economist at banking firm Samba Financial Group.
Aramco declined to comment. The company is already weighing up a more than $10 billion sale of a stake in its pipeline assets to global investors, and could sell more assets to raise cash, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Aramco also issued international bonds for the second time this year, raising $8 billion. In its 2021 budget, published this week, the government has not disclosed the projected share of oil revenue for next year. Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said as Aramco has become a public company, discussing projections would be very sensitive.
Basing its estimates on a Brent price of $48 per barrel, Al Rajhi Capital said it expects government oil revenues to range from 400 to 500 billion riyals ($106.6 billion-$133.3 billion) next year, depending on Aramco’s dividends.
https://www.reuters.com/article/saudi-budget-saudi-aramco/aramco-may-have-to-sell-assets-borrow-more-to-maintain-saudi-dividend-idUSL4N2IW2A3
SAM360 USAF C-32A (used as primary AF2) on approach for Florida Keys Marathon Int'l Airport (coverage not great in south Florida so this is a guess based on where it has frozen) and SAM387 USAF G5 looks like it is following with a slightly western approach
SAM404 USAF G5 is on descent for MacDill AFB
SAM267 USAF G5 (tail# 18-1942) landed at JBA from Ramstein AFB inbound about 30 minutes ago
yep..until that worthless idiot resigns Senate Seat (that she did not win imo) it's still just Kabuki.
You'd think moar would notice this….
Citigroup urges return of mistaken Revlon payment as trial ends
Citigroup Inc made a final push on Wednesday to persuade a federal judge to force lenders of Revlon Inc to return half a billion dollars of its own money that it mistakenly sent them. At the conclusion of a six-day non-jury trial, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan said he would rule as quickly as he could, while admitting “it’s not the easiest case.”
The case stemmed from an Aug. 11 blunder where Citigroup, acting as Revlon’s loan agent, wired $893 million to Revlon lenders, which the struggling cosmetics company controlled by billionaire Ronald Perelman did not owe until 2023, rather than a $7.8 million interest payment. Ten asset managers including Brigade Capital Management, HPS Investment Partners and Symphony Asset Management have refused to return $501 million.
Furman said he plans to consider their thinking immediately after being paid, as he decides whether there was a “discharge for value.” Such a discharge allows creditors who are owed money to keep sums they are mistakenly wired if they are unaware of a mistake. “You might expect some sort of chat or email like, ‘Whoa, can you believe it, they must have totally messed up,’” Furman said. Citigroup, the administrative agent for the 2016 loan, blamed human error for the overpayment. It said the lenders should return its money because they knew it was sent in error and Revlon couldn’t afford it. “The question is, what would have a reasonable person done under the circumstances,” Citigroup’s lawyer Christopher Houpt said. Revlon’s lenders acted “as if there was no repayment,” he said.
In contrast, the defendants said they had no reason to believe Citigroup blundered. “The situation here is the exact payout of outstanding principal with accrued interest through that date,” their lawyer Adam Abensohn said. “That is quite different from hitting ‘send’ twice on the same interest payment.” Furman urged the financial services industry and regulators to adopt procedures to address similar situations. “The industry should figure out a better way of dealing with these things, even if this is a black swan event,” he said.
The case is In re: Citibank August 11, 2020 Wire Transfers, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 20-06539.
https://www.reuters.com/article/citigroup-revlon-lawsuit/citigroup-urges-return-of-mistaken-revlon-payment-as-trial-ends-idUSL1N2IU2GG
>>24703 pb
SANTA04 US Navy E-6B Mercury departed NAS Pax west
C202 Coast Guard G5 that departed Panama yesterday to JBA has departed Ft. Lauderdale and returning to JBA after a ground stop.
PEACH99 USAF E-8C Joint Stars done off GA. SC coast and back to Robins AFB
U.S. SEC relaxes rules on company 'resource extraction' disclosures
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday relaxed requirements on oil, gas and mining companies to disclose payments made to foreign governments, completing a rule created by Congress after the government bailout of Wall Street in 2008.
The SEC voted 3-2 to adopt industry-friendly changes to its “resources extraction” disclosure rule following a 10-year industry fight to water down the measure, mandated by the 2010 Dodd Frank law passed to battle corporate corruption.
It was the third version of the rule.
The first version, adopted by the SEC in 2012, was defeated in court by the American Petroleum Institute, a trade association which argued that the measure would put resource companies at a competitive disadvantage. Republicans in the U.S. Congress scrapped a second version after the party gained control of the Senate in 2017. They deployed the then rarely-used Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to overturn recently adopted regulations and bars the agency concerned from reissuing a similar rule. All three Republican commissioners voted in favor of the third version, which still requires a publicly held U.S. oil, gas or mineral company, or a foreign firm whose shares trade on a U.S. market, to disclose payments made directly or by a subsidiary to the U.S. federal government and relevant foreign government. Both Democrats on the commission voted against the rule, which requires only aggregated information at a national level in most cases, instead of on a contract-by-contract basis.
SEC chair Jay Clayton said crafting the rule had been tricky given the constraints imposed by the Congressional Review Act but that, overall, it achieved “the statutory objective of promoting the transparency of resource extraction issuers’ payments to governments.”Democratic SEC Commissioner Allison Lee said the rule does not demand the “detail” that would enable regulators to spot potential corruption. It also applies to fewer companies and raises the value threshold for disclosure, among other weaknesses, she said. Democratic commissioner Caroline Crenshaw also voted no.
Analysts said that despite the changes, the resource industry may still seek to challenge the rule in court. Investor advocates and human rights organizations said it will not do enough to fight corruption. A day before the vote, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren warned the SEC the measure would “severely undermine the anti-corruption measures included in Dodd-Frank” and urged the agency to “conduct a full and complete analysis of the potential harm caused by implementing this rule before rushing to finalize it.”
Stephen Comstock of the American Petroleum Institute said the rule provides clarity for issuers on this complex issue. “Our members, who have long supported transparency efforts, will be assessing how these final rules will work with their existing reporting systems.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-sec-disclosure-resource-extraction/update-2-u-s-sec-relaxes-rules-on-company-resource-extraction-disclosures-idUSL1N2IW1PM
SAM360 USAF C-32A on ground at JBA from Florida Keys Marathon Airport ground stop
SAM345 USAF G5 started it's descent from Miami Int'l to JBA-inbound yesterday
SAM387 USAF G5 north from NAS Key West ground stop and also back to JBA
Square, Inc sold by @jack and co-founder (James McKelvey): $65.14m- Dec 14
Square, Inc. (Square) is a commerce ecosystem. The Company enables its sellers start, run and grow their businesses. It combines software with hardware to enable sellers to turn mobile devices and computing devices into payments and point-of-sale solutions. Once a seller downloads the Square Point of Sale mobile application, they can take their first payment. With its offering, a seller can accept payments in person via magnetic stripe (a swipe), Europay, MasterCard, and Visa (EMV) (a dip), or Near Field Communication (NFC) (a tap); or online via Square Invoices, Square Virtual Terminal, or the seller's Website. Once on its system, sellers gain access to technology and features, such as reporting and analytics, next-day settlements, digital receipts, payment dispute management and chargeback protection, and Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance. On the consumer (buyer) side, Square Cash offers individuals access to a way to send and receive money. Number of employees : 3 835 people.
https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/SQUARE-INC-24935553/company/
@jackoff for 100k shares
https://www.finviz.com/insidertrading.ashx?oc=1590945&tc=7
co-founder James McKelvey for 200k shares
https://www.finviz.com/insidertrading.ashx?oc=1658460&tc=7