tyb
Puerto Rico Bond Default Called Over Fiscal Plan’s Debt Cuts
Puerto Rico’s entry into court protection is exacerbating tensions between Wall Street firms holding sales-tax bonds that the territory’s federal overseers want impaired. Bank of New York Mellon alleges default on $17 billion in sales tax bonds
Bank of New York Mellon Corp. , the trustee for $17 billion in sales-tax bonds known as Cofina s, notified Puerto Rico in a Thursday letter that it believes events of default have occurred, according to a copy reviewed by WSJ Pro Bankruptcy. The alleged defaults stem from the controversial fiscal plan that Puerto Rico’s oversight board adopted as its framework for restructuring a $73 billion mountain of public debt. Last week Governor Ricardo Rossello signed a local law to comply with the fiscal plan that allows him under certain circumstances to break the lockbox securing the sales tax revenues and move them into Puerto Rico’s grasp. “As a result of these limitations and restrictions on Cofina’s rights and ability to meet its obligations to bondholders, the commonwealth’s enactment of the fiscal plan compliance law constitutes a default,” BNY Mellon said in the letter. A spokeswoman declined to comment further.
A spokesman for the federal oversight board didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Creditors holding Cofina bonds, which Puerto Rico began issuing a decade ago as an alternative way to borrow, have continued to be paid even after Puerto Rico stopped servicing other debts. Even so, Bank of New York’s position has become increasingly untenable. All signs indicate that Cofina’s special status is likely to end, leaving the bank caught between senior creditors arguing that the oversight board’s stated plans to confiscate the pledged sales tax revenues are a default, and junior creditors who want to avoid an acceleration of the senior bonds.
This week the oversight board placed Puerto Rico under a restructuring proceeding akin to bankruptcy that empowers a federal court to write down bonds by force. The fiscal plan allocates roughly $800 million a year in payments for creditors, compared with the $35 billion they are owed over the next decade. Sales taxes that had previously serviced only Cofina bonds would be commingled with other revenue streams and used for general purposes.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Friday appointed U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the Manhattan, New York federal court to preside over the unprecedented proceeding. Federal officials didn’t invoke the same bankruptcy option for Cofina, the public entity that issued the sales tax bonds, though they could do so at any time without public notice. Judge Swain is a Brooklyn native who practiced employment law at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP before assuming a bankruptcy judgeship in 1996. Former President Bill Clinton appointed her to the federal bench in 2000. Whitebox Advisors LLC, a holder of senior bonds, and Ambac Assurance Corp., which guarantees senior bonds, recently sued Bank of New York complaining that the trustee had failed to protect their interests and prioritize their holdings over those of junior creditors. Accelerating the maturity of senior bonds after a default would put their claims ahead of subordinated holders that include some of Puerto Rico’s largest mutual-fund creditors.
Negotiations between Puerto Rico and major creditor groups collapsed last week when the territory indicated it wanted deeper debt concessions from Cofina creditors than from competing general obligation bondholders. The territory released offers to pay sales tax bondholders a maximum of 58 cents on the dollar, compared with 77 cents for so-called G.O. creditors.
Puerto Rico later revised its offer to 90 cents on the dollar for the G.O.s, after which the oversight board stopped negotiations and placed the territory under bankruptcy protection, as reported by WSJ Pro Bankruptcy.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/puerto-rico-bond-default-called-over-fiscal-plans-debt-cuts-1494014938
from 2017
Puerto Rico credit sues BNY over sales tax bonds
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/puerto-rico-credit-sues-bny-over-sales-tax-bonds-2017-04-12
RCH728T USAF C-17 Globemaster departing MCB Quantico after a ground stop-inbound from Charleston, SC
RCH573T USAF C-17 Globemaster departed Dover AFB nw
SCORE71 US Navy E-6B Mercury over C-Bay from Pax River
09-0017 USAF C-32A doign fly bys at Richmond, VA Int'l Airport
SCORE46 drone out off DL/MD
Ahead of March COMEX Silver Deliveries
As is often the case, there is a lot of hype regarding the impact the #SilverSqueeze movement might have on the delivery process at COMEX in March. The purpose of this post is not to discourage you, but instead brace you for how the month is likely to play out. If you're new to this heavily-manipulated market, there are a few key dates that you'll need to understand. First, there are five months of the year that are considered "delivery months", and the futures contracts for these months serve as the "front month" for trading purposes. These months are: March, May, July, September, and December. The current front month is the March21. Trading has been focused on this contract since the Dec20 went off the board and into delivery at the end of November last year. Before that, the Sep20 was the front month until it went off the board and into delivery back in late August, and so on.
There is a process and a schedule for moving the front month contract off the board and into delivery. That schedule can always be found at the CME Group website. Here's a link: http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/metals/precious/gold_quotes_settlements…
'that is if the CFTC /COMEX does not come in and bribe you (in cash-also against it's own rules) to stand down.
The first event is the expiration and pricing of options on the front month contract. This typically occurs 2-3 days before the contract goes off the board. For the Mar21, the options expired at the COMEX close on Tuesday, the 23rd. This is almost always an event where The Banks manipulate and manage price to their advantage. At TF Metals Report, we had been expecting a Tuesday closing price near $27.50 and definitely below $28. And that's precisely what we got. For #SilverSqueezers, the next key event comes on Thursday, the 25th, when the Mar21 contract goes off the board and into delivery. What does that mean?
After the COMEX close on Thursday, anyone still holding a Mar21 contract will be on notice that they may have a contract delivered to them. To show that you are financially capable of taking or making that delivery, the contract holder must show 100% margin in their account. If you are an active trader on margin, you'll likely want nothing to do with this, so you will liquidate your Mar21 position and roll it to the next front month of May before Thursday's close.
Yep
If you are seeking delivery, then you will fully fund that purchase (100% margin) by late Thursday, and then you will wait to get your warehouse receipt…which you hope you'll be able to convert into actual physical metal in as short a period of time as possible. The Mar21 contract will continue to trade through the month of March but only to entities with full 100% margin funding in their account. As the month progresses, "deliveries" of warehouse receipts will be made against the remaining open interest, with shorts delivering (issuing) to longs (stopping). Then, as March comes to a close, all remaining contracts will be settled out and the focus and process begins again in late April for the May contract.
So when you read the hysteria from the usual hype merchants about the possibility of "imminent COMEX collapse", understand that this "delivery process" has been taking place since precious metals futures trading was first introduced in January of 1975. There hasn't been a failure yet…and there's unlikely to be a failure in March, because the rules are such that a delivery failure is nearly impossible.
While it's possible that someday 40,000 contracts will remain open (200,000,000 ounces) and standing at First Notice Day when the delivery month contract goes off the board, the numbers for March don't make it appear that it will happen next month.
And frustration, despair, disappointment, and capitulation are the last things we need right now. Instead, if we are ever to defeat The Banks and force a change to their fraudulent pricing scheme, we need persistence. As we wrote three weeks ago, the only way to effect change is through a forced deleverage of the system…and only the removal of metal from the dirty hands of the Bankers can make this happen. Therefore, we must not get discouraged when the COMEX doesn't fail in March, and we must instead redouble our efforts in acquiring physical metal.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2021-02-23/ahead-march-comex-silver-deliveries
Global airline industry body to launch Covid ‘travel pass’ by March
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced that it will launch a Covid-19 travel pass by March, which it says will give travelers a way to display test results and confirmation they’ve received a vaccine.
The measure, dubbed the IATA Travel Pass, is aimed at providing government, airlines and travelers with a streamlined process to ensure there is “accurate information, secure identification and verified data” available to meet all relevant Covid-19 restrictions.
The IATA has outlined a timeline for the full rollout of its travel pass, with initial efforts underway at Singapore Airlines while a further 20 airlines are testing the app. More companies are set to start using it in the next few months, the organization said, and it aims to have the full pass ready to go live at the end of March.
At the same meeting, the IATA expressed concerns that the ongoing global restrictions around Covid are still hitting airlines, with its chief economist warning it will likely take longer than planned for companies to be able to stop burning cash and begin rebounding financially. Some companies have expressed concern that the summer booking period, a popular time for the airline industry, still “remains weak,” with reservations currently only at seven percent of pre-pandemic levels. The IATA, which represents some 290 members, has urged governments to provide further financial support to prevent the crisis in the travel industry from getting worse.
The statement from the IATA comes after Europol issued a warning about criminals selling falsified Covid-19 test results to travelers, allowing them to get around the restrictions in place because of the pandemic. In January, the UK’s Immigration Service Union told Britain’s Sky News that there is no way for border officers to validate Covid-19 tests to ensure they are legitimate.
https://www.rt.com/news/516475-global-airline-industry-covid-travel/
SAM526 USAF C-40B departed MacDill AFB north after an overnight-arrived from Shannon, Ireland ground stop and Abu Dhabi depart yesterday
State Dept AC
SAM744 USAF C-32A departed Homestead ARB, Fl after a ground stop-origin of JBA
SAM767 USAF G5 (KAF AC of interdast) departed JBA ssw
99th Airlift Squadron
The 99th Airlift Squadron (99 AS) is part of the 89th Airlift Wing at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. It operates C-9 Skytrain II and C-20 aircraft providing executive airlift. The mission of the 99th Airlift Squadron is to "Provide unsurpassed safe, comfortable, and reliable DV airlift for our nation's leaders and foreign dignitaries; anytime, anywhere".
The squadron operates specially configured aircraft on Special Air Missions (SAM) directed by HQ USAF supporting the President, Vice President, and other US and foreign senior diplomats. Selectively manned aircrews are responsible for the detailed planning and execution of sensitive missions of national and international consequence. The crew establishes direct coordination with numerous agencies to include Headquarters United States Air Force, embassies, and Congressional offices. Crews conduct these global missions isolated from normal supply and command and control structures. The aircrews accomplish Special Air Missions (SAM) into unfamiliar airfields, in all weather conditions, with 99.5% reliability and often while the world is literally watching. The crews obtain diplomatic clearances and coordinate all en route support requirements essential to mission accomplishment.
Typical missions include supporting Congressional delegations sent to monitor election results in Haiti, shuttle diplomacy missions in the Balkans, missions flown in support of the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations, and the V-E and V-J Day celebrations. The 99th Airlift Squadron routinely conducts First Lady and Air Force Two missions and provides aircrew members to augment Air Force One missions.
https://military.wikia.org/wiki/99th_Airlift_Squadron
All of the Federal Reserve's wire and ACH systems are down
"A Federal Reserve operational error resulted in disruption of service in several business lines," said Jim Strader from the Richmond Fed.
All of the services available through the Federal Reserve's online portal have been down for more than an hour.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank Services' website, the bank is experiencing a disruption in its account services, central bank, Check 21, check adjustments, FedACH, FedCash, FedLine Advantage, FedLine Command, FedLine Direct, FedLine Web, Fedwire Funds, Fedwire Securities, and National Settlement — all services typically available — which started at 6:18 PM UTC today. In addition, all the access solutions that the Fed offers, with the exception of FedMail, are also offline. "A Federal Reserve operational error resulted in disruption of service in several business lines," said Jim Strader from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. "We are restoring services and are communicating with all Federal Reserve Financial Services customers about the status of operations."
https://cointelegraph.com/news/all-of-the-federal-reserve-s-wire-and-ach-systems-are-down
Fedwire resumes operations after hours long disruption
The Federal Reserve says its Fedwire Funds, Fedcash and some check clearing services have resumed normal operations after a more than three-hour disruption to more than a dozen critical central bank payment services forming the backbone of the U.S. banking system.
The National Settlement Service and the Fedwire Securities Service, which provides issuance, settlement and transfer services for Treasuries and other government securities, have also been restored, the Fed said.
“Our technical teams have determined that the cause is a Federal Reserve operational error,” the Fed said on Wednesday on its website. “The Federal Reserve Banks have taken steps to help ensure the resilience of the Fedwire and NSS applications, including recovery to the point of failure.”
Staff first became aware of a disruption to services at 11:15 a.m. ET (1615 GMT), it said.
As of 2:58 p.m. its website was still reporting an “alert” status for several of its service areas.
The affected services facilitate check clearing and allowing billions of dollars of payments to flow daily through the financial system.
Fedwire Funds is “the premier electronic funds-transfer service that banks, businesses and government agencies rely on for mission-critical, same-day transactions,” the Fed says.
Fedwire Funds in December handled more than 835,000 transactions a day on average, with a daily average dollar volume of $3.4 trillion.
CHIPS, a private-sector alternative to Fedwire run by The Clearing House, continued to operate normally, spokesman Greg MacSweeney said shortly after 2 p.m. ET. CHIPS handles about $1.5 trillion a day, according to its website.
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-fed-fedwire/update-3-fedwire-resumes-operations-after-hourslong-disruption-idUSL1N2KU2JU
I played with it in it's early form-when there was just one exchange: Mt. Gox
Too long to process transactions and basically out-of-pocket for almost a week was not muh idea of speed.
Mt. Gox went tits up and that was enough for me with any of it.
https://blockonomi.com/mt-gox-hack/
"hack" muh ass
SAM775 USAF G5 departed Peterson AFB east back to JBA after a ground stop
SAM744 USAF C-32A continues nw from it's ground stop at Homestead ARB, Fl
SHADO5:5 US Navy E-6B mercury ne from Tinker AFB
COBRA63 USAF Rivet Joint se from Lincoln, NE (moar flights originating from Lincoln as the ops, are transferred to that location for the impending closure at Offutt)
Dollar hits fresh three-year lows against commodity-linked currencies
Dovish testimony from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday bolstered bets on reflation and fears of inflation, driving the U.S. dollar to fresh three-year lows against commodity-linked currencies including the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand dollars.
Powell reiterated on Wednesday that U.S. interest rates will remain low and the Fed will keep buying bonds to support the U.S. economy. Powell’s remarks to the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services mirrored his testimony before the Senate on Tuesday. Easy financial conditions, the promise of fiscal stimulus and the COVID-19 vaccine rollout have driven money into the reflation trade - which refers to bets on an upswing in economic activity as well as in inflation.
Currencies expected to benefit from a pick-up in global trade, like those linked to commodities, have benefited as have those in countries like Britain, that are making progress recovering from the coronavirus pandemic. he dollar’s weakness in recent days has been more remarkable as it comes against the backdrop of a broader rise in U.S. yields. Benchmark 10-year borrowing costs are holding near their highest in a year. [US/] But the Fed’s commitment to low rates and the passage of fiscal stimulus has some investors worried that inflation could outpace growth. Those fears may be further supporting commodity-linked currencies, because commodities rise with inflation. The Canadian, Australian and New Zealand dollars on Wednesday each hit their highest against the U.S. dollar since early 2018. Against the Canadian dollar, the greenback was last 0.61% lower on the day at 1.251 CAD per dollar. The Australian dollar was last up 0.67% to 0.796 per U.S. dollar. The Kiwi was last up 1.38% on the day to 0.744.
Overnight, the British pound climbed past $1.42 for the first time since April 2018.
The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies was at 90.058, down 0.07% on the day.
https://www.reuters.com/article/global-forex/forex-dollar-hits-fresh-three-year-lows-against-commodity-linked-currencies-idUSL1N2KU2U2
https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/dxy
Saudi sovereign fund invests over $3 billion in major game publishers
The Saudi Public Investment Fund, or PIF, has invested a significant amount of money in several major video game publishers.
In SEC filings reported on by Al Jazeera, the fund chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman acquired more than $3 billion of stock in Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, and Take-Two Interactive Software during the fourth quarter of last year. The filing also details other investments, including stakes in events company Live Nation Entertainment and Uber Technologies. Prince Mohammed has also invested in other games companies through his charitable foundation, including a 33.3% stake in Japanese company SNK that is planned to increase to 51% ownership in the future. These investments have sparked controversy in the past due to Saudi Arabia's notoriously poor human rights record, including the criminalization of homoseuxality and Prince Mohammed's alleged involvement in the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
Last year, League of Legends developer Riot Games cancelled a planned sponsorship from Saudi megacity-building project Neom due to criticism of the partnership.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-02-18-saudi-sovereign-fund-invests-over-usd3-billion-in-major-game-publishers
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1767640/000156761921003847/xslForm13F_X01/form13fInfoTable.xml
not a gamer but can appreciate this for what it is.
MbS goin' LARGE
no notes since #16606 next door
just started 09
too busy shilling xrp
Discovery, Inc sold by Newhouse Family Holdings: $463.65m-Feb 23
Discovery, Inc., formerly Discovery Communications, Inc., is a global media company. The Company provides content across multiple distribution platforms, including pay-television (pay-TV), free-to-air (FTA) and broadcast television, Websites, digital distribution arrangements and content licensing agreements. Its segments include U.S. Networks, which consists principally of domestic television networks and digital content services; International Networks, consisting primarily of international television networks and digital content services, and Education and Other, which consists principally of curriculum-based product and service offerings, and production studios. The Company's portfolio of networks includes television brands, such as Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, ID, Velocity and Eurosport. It is also engaged in extending content distribution across various platforms, including brand-aligned Websites, Web-native networks and online streaming. Number of employees : 9 200 people.
https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/DISCOVERY-INC-9015/company/
Donald Newhouse and his late brother, Samuel "Si" inherited the publishing and broadcasting empire Advance Publications decades ago. Donald long oversaw the newspaper business that his father Sam built up from the daily Staten Island Advance. His brother, Si, who ran magazine publisher Conde Nast for years, died in October 2017. Advance Publications also has substantial stakes in Discovery Communications and social news site Reddit. Amid a tumultuous media environment, Conde Nast sold W Magazine, Brides and Golf Digest in 2019; it laid off 100 employees in May 2020. In January 2020 his foundation gave $75 million to Syracuse's communications school, the college's largest gift ever.
https://www.forbes.com/profile/donald-newhouse/?sh=6d520dfe1581
https://www.finviz.com/insidertrading.ashx?oc=1455381&tc=7&b=2
Turkish pilots, official get 4-year jail over Ex-Nissan boss Ghosn's escape
A Turkish court convicted an official from a private airline and two pilots Wednesday for involvement in former Nissan Motor Co. chairman Carlos Ghosn's dramatic escape out of Japan in 2019, and sentenced them each to four years and two months in prison.
The court in Istanbul acquitted two other pilots of the charge of "illegally smuggling a migrant." A flight attendant was acquitted of the charge of failing to report a crime, while the case against a second flight attendant was dismissed. Ghosn, who was arrested in Tokyo on financial misconduct allegations in 2018, skipped bail while awaiting trial. He was flown from Osaka to Istanbul on a private plane and then transferred onto another plane to Beirut, where he arrived Dec. 30, 2019. He is believed to have hid inside a large box. The convicted pilots, Noyan Pasin and Bahri Kutlu Somek, who flew Ghosn from Osaka to Istanbul, had maintained their innocence throughout the trial. They, the other two pilots and the flight attendants all denied involvement in plans to help Ghosn flee and insisted they did not know that he was aboard their flights.
The airline official, Okan Kosemen, claimed he was made aware that Ghosn was on the plane to Istanbul only after it landed. He admitted helping smuggle Ghosn onto the second, Lebanon-bound plane, but claimed he was threatened and feared for his family's safety, according to testimony reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency. Turkish airline company MNG Jet has admitted that two of its planes were used illegally in Ghosn's escape, flying him to Istanbul, and then to Beirut. The company said its employee falsified flight records so Ghosn's name didn't appear. All three defendants were expected to appeal their convictions.
Lawyer Erem Yucel said the two pilots who took Ghosn from Istanbul to Beirut were acquitted on a technicality, because the former Nissan chief's Lebanese nationality meant that he could not be considered a "migrant" being smuggled to Lebanon.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210225/p2g/00m/0na/017000c
assholes