SAM939 USAF G5 on approach for JBA from MacDill AFB overnight
KING11 USAF C-130 Hercules and RCH1017 1019 1021 USAF U-28 Spectre departed Lajes, Azores after a ground stop east-they departed St. John's Airport Halifax earlier today
These AC have a RCH call sign and usually not used for anything other than a C-17, C-5 or a C-130.
>>72450 pb
Joe goes to Columbus today-had two loads delivered from the C-17s with "T"-one Saturday and one Sunday
1:20pm est Fauxtus departs JBA for Columbus, OH-John Glenn Int'l Airport
2:23pm est Fauxtus arrives in Columbus, OH
U.S. current account deficit hits 12-year high in 2020
The U.S. current account deficit raced to a 12-year high in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted exports and could remain elevated this year as an economic recovery driven by massive fiscal stimulus draws in imports. The Commerce Department said on Tuesday the current account deficit, which measures the flow of goods, services and investments into and out of the country, surged 34.8% to $647.2 billion last year. That was the largest shortfall since 2008-imagine that just as the markets came apart in the later half of 2008.
The current account gap represented 3.1% of gross domestic product last year, also the largest share since 2008 and up from 2.2% in 2019. The high current account deficit is likely not an issue for the United States, in part because of the dollar’s status as the reserve currency.
Economic growth this year is expected to top 7%, driven by the White House’s $1.9 trillion pandemic rescue package. That would be the fastest growth since 1984 and would follow a 3.5% contraction last year, the worst performance in 74 years. Exports of goods and services to, and income received from foreign residents dropped $578.3 billion to $3.23 trillion in 2020. Imports of goods and services from, and income paid to, foreign residents fell $411.3 billion to $3.87 trillion.
The trade deficit jumped to $681.7 billion in 2020 from $576.9 billion in 2019. In the fourth quarter, the current account gap widened 4.2% to $188.5 billion, the highest since the second quarter of 2007. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the deficit widening to $189.9 billion last quarter.
It represented 3.5% of GDP in the October-December quarter, up from 3.4% in the third quarter and was the largest share since the fourth quarter of 2008. Still, the deficit remains below a peak of 6.3% of GDP in the fourth quarter of 2005 as the United States is now a net exporter of crude oil and fuel.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy/u-s-current-account-deficit-hits-12-year-high-in-2020-idUSKBN2BF1OV
Lira Plunge Squeezes Traders With Swap Rates Surging to 1,400%
International investors fleeing Turkish stocks and bonds have created a massive bottleneck in the market for liras.
As funds dump Turkish assets and receive liras in exchange, they’re also scrambling to unwind currency hedges – driving the cost of borrowing liras overnight on the offshore swap market to extreme levels. At one point on Tuesday, the rate reached as high as 1,400%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “As everyone tries to exit at the same time, it causes spikes in lira rates,” said Onur Ilgen, the head of treasury at MUFG Bank Turkey in Istanbul.
MUFG is Mitsubishi Financial Group and likely on the very wrong side of this.
Another reason behind the crunch: Turkey severely restricts how much banks can lend to foreign investors via swaps. The rules, which were imposed after the currency collapse of 2018, are designed to make it prohibitively expensive for anyone to short the lira during a time of crisis. They can also make trading difficult for investors with hedged lira positions.
Violent swings in Turkish markets have been unleashed this week after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unexpectedly fired his central bank chief, sowing uncertainty about the country’s future monetary policy. Among investors, there are concerns that the central bank has lost credibility, and with inflation accelerating to almost 16% in February, the economy faces severe challenges. Just a few weeks ago, the lira was among the best-performing emerging-market currencies and investors were returning to Turkey on the belief that former central bank Governor Naci Agbal’s policies could bring inflation under control. Now the big question is whether the country will once again embark on a path of cutting rates, how quickly it might happen.
As investors hunt for lira to close the swaps, some of the demand showed up in the local spot market. The currency was only 1% weaker at 7.8808 against the dollar on Tuesday – a sign of stability after yesterday’s 8% plunge.
Still, many analysts are unconvinced that the losses are over. Renaissance Capital predicts the currency could slide a further 12% by year-end, while Commerzbank AG expects it to reach 10 per dollar.
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/lira-plunge-squeezes-traders-with-swap-rates-surging-to-1-400-1.1581108
U.S. Post Office unveils 10-year financial plan, with aim to breakeven by fiscal 2023
The U.S. Postal Service unveiled Tuesday a 10-year plan, with a goal of returning to financial sustainability and achieve "service excellence," while maintaining its seven-day package delivery, and six-day mail delivery, service. As part of the plan, the Post Office aims to operate at breakeven by fiscal 2023, which would eliminate a projected $160 billion in losses over the next 10 years, while at least meeting, if not exceed, its goal of 95% on-time delivery. The plan includes the generation of $24 billion in revenue from enhanced package delivery services for business customers, such as same-day, one-day and two-day delivery options, aligning pricing to reflect market dynamics, and improving cash flow to allow for $40 billion worth of upgrades in workforce, new vehicles, improved post offices and technology improvements. "The need for the U.S. Postal Service to transform to meet the needs of our customers is long overdue," said Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-post-office-unveils-10-year-financial-plan-with-aim-to-breakeven-by-fiscal-2023-2021-03-23
Myanmar coup latest: Junta to retain internet curbs to ensure 'rule of law'
Tuesday, March 23
10:20 p.m. A 7-year-old girl has been shot and killed in Mandalay, Reuters reports, citing people working for a funeral service. According to the report, witnesses say the girl was shot in her home when security forces opened fire in the area.
9:20 p.m. A fire at a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh has killed at least 15 people and left more than 560 injured and an estimated 400 people missing, the United Nations Refugee Agency says. The fire broke out yesterday at the Kutupalong Balukali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, according to UNHCR. "At least 10,000 shelters are estimated to have been destroyed or damaged, but figures are expected to climb in the coming days as assessments continue," according to the agency. "Refugees who have been displaced are being temporarily accommodated within the camp community."
3:30 p.m. Myanmar's military rulers have no immediate plans to lift restrictions on the internet because violence in the country is being provoked online, a junta spokesman says. Most important to the country is the rule of law and stability, so the internet will be restricted for "a certain time period," spokesman Zaw Min Tun told a news conference. He said the military respected the media and although reporting of protests was allowed, leading them was a crime.
3:00 p.m. Myanmar activists in Japan call on the Japanese government and the international community to take stronger steps "to stop the killing" in their homeland. Kyaw Kyaw Soe, a member of the board of directors of the Union of Myanmar Citizens Association in Japan, urged Tokyo to use its clout to speak directly with the generals. "I think the Japanese government has some kind of power – diplomatic and economic and also political. I think the Japanese government should directly talk to the military leaders," he told a news conference in Tokyo.
10:00 a.m. Hundreds of people held a candlelight vigil in the Ahlone district of Yangon on Monday night, photos posted on social media showed. Three people were killed in Myanmar's second-largest city, Mandalay, in unrest that day, including a 15-year-old boy, witnesses and news reports said. Security forces staged more raids in parts of Yangon on Monday night with shots fired and some people wounded, the Mizzima news service reported. In Hsipaw, Shan State, the names of protesters who have been killed have been written on cards and placed next to lighted candles, DVB TV News reports. Elsewhere, helium-filled balloons were released on Monday bearing messages calling for international help. Street protesters were replaced by toy cars or dolls, some led by cardboard cutouts or manikins dressed in clothes. At least 261 people have been killed so far by security forces across the country, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) activist group.
2:30 a.m. Human rights group Global Witness calls the EU sanctions "a disappointingly weak and belated response to the February 1 coup." "The EU needs to target the economic interests of the military by imposing sanctions on all the companies that generate revenue for and provide support to the military," says Paul Donowitz, Myanmar campaign leader at Global Witness, in a statement. This includes the military-linked companies Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) and Myanmar Economic Holdings Public Co. Ltd. (MEHL), Donowitz said.
Monday, March 22
10:00 p.m. More Myanmar authorities and organizations have been added to the U.S. Treasury Department's Specially Designated Nationals lets, which lets Washington free their assets and block American people and companies from dealing with them. They include the chief of the Myanmar police force, Than Hlaing, who also services as deputy minister for home affairs. The 33rd and 77th light infantry divisions of the Myanmar army are also added to the list. The 33rd light infantry division was reportedly involved in attacks on protesters in Mandalay last month, according to Tom Andrews, the United Nations special rapporteur on Myanmar.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Myanmar-Coup/Myanmar-coup-latest-Junta-to-retain-internet-curbs-to-ensure-rule-of-law
you know you wanted 'dat meme….
CHP Gipps Aero GA8 and a TV helo overhead
Police investigate reports of armed person at Yountville Veterans Home
The Napa County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday asked people to avoid the area by the Yountville Veterans Home because authorities as they respond to reports of an armed person at the massive facility.
The California Highway Patrol said the agency received a report of what appeared to be a woman at the veteran's home with what the caller described as a shotgun.
That prompted the CHP and multiple other law enforcement departments to respond and conduct an "extensive search" on ground and in the air to try to find the possible suspect. The CHP said at this time there have been no reports of any shots fired or any additional reports of the person.
The veterans home was the site of a deadly shooting three years ago.
The sheriff's alert came just before 8:30 a.m.
Jestina Connors told KTVU that her mother, Suzanne Connors, who is a nearly 20-year veteran receptionist at the veterans home, called her this morning about 7:30 a.m. to say she was holed up in her office. She and her mother were both on campus three years ago, when a former Army infantryman shot and killed three staff members at a veterans center in Yountville before killing himself was upset about his treatment and talked about shooting employees "several times" before the killings.
Connors said she was delivering her mother lunch that day and this incident is bringing back terrible memories.
Her mother has since been evacuated to a nearby church on campus and has been told to shelter in place.
The two have been texting nonstop to keep each other updated on what's going on.
https://www.ktvu.com/news/authorities-say-there-have-been-no-reports-of-shots-fired-at-yountville-veterans-home
TITAN25 USAF E-4B Nightwatch departing JBA after arriving from it's Kabul, Afghaniland depart on Sungay
This AC was used by Sec. of Defense for trip to Hawaii, Japan-Tokyo Yokota AB, SoKo-Seoul Osan AB , New Delhi and that stop at Kabul.
See these for it being refueled over the Atlantic on Sunday and on the sidewalk inbound for JBA
TITAN25 USAF E-4B Nightwatch leads 82-8000 from JBA nw
09-0016 USAF C-32A departing from JBA nw-prolly go to Youngstown, OH
AF2 USAF G5 on a slight hold for these AC's departures and should be on ground soon from it's turn and burn at Huntsville, AL after a Peterson AFB depart earlier
Not AF1 Joe on descent for Columbus, OH
82-8000 USAF 747 on descent for Columbus, OH from JBA
09-0016 USAF C-32A peeling off and likely heading for Youngstown (several times in the past the escort AC has gone to Y'Town)
TITAN25 USAF E-4B Nightwatch on approach for Lincoln Muni. Airport from JBA depart
This is the second E-4B on ground here today.
Cannot recall an instance of two E-4B's on the ground at same place/time.
ENID23 landed earlier today
FEAR22 USAF B-52 Stratofortress to the west-from Minot AFB ND
Not yet
Fed sets up panels to examine risks that climate change poses to the financial system
The Federal Reserve has taken another step forward in efforts to ensure that the financial system is protected against climate risks.
As the central bank turns its attention increasingly toward the matter, the Fed has created a Financial Stability Climate Committee and a Supervision Climate Committee. The panels will focus on “the potential for complex interactions across the financial system,” Fed Governor Lael Brainard said in remarks Tuesday. “Climate change and the transition to a sustainable economy also pose risks to the stability of the broader financial system. So a second core pillar of our framework seeks to address the macrofinancial risks of climate change,” Brainard added.
The Supervision Climate Committee will focus on identifying risks and putting together a program to address them. The Financial Stability Climate Committee will address “macroprudential risks” for how climate could pose systemic risks to the institutions the Fed supervises. While taking on the climate issue represents a broadening of the Fed’s role in supervising banks and other financial institutions, officials have stressed the potentially damaging impact weather-related events can have on the system. The central bank had begun asking large institutions to assess the potential impact of climate and how they are prepared to weather significant events. Brainard was the first Fed official to start talking about the issue, saying in late 2019 that she wanted her colleagues to begin considering how climate events could impact monetary policy.
“Financial market participants that do not put in place frameworks to assess and address climate-related risks could face significant losses on climate-sensitive assets caused by environmental shifts, by a disorderly transition, or both,” Brainard said. At a hearing Tuesday before the House Financial Services Committee, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell faced questions about whether the central bank ought to be involved in the matter.
For his part, Powell has indicated that climate change is not central to the Fed’s mission but is nonetheless important. “It’s really very early days of trying to understand what this all means. It clearly can have longer-term implications for our economy, our financial system and the people who we all serve,” Powell said. “It’s early days, but we feel like we have the responsibility to start the process of understanding” the risk. Powell said the look into climate change’s impact is part of making sure institutions are “resilient” in the face of risks.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/23/fed-to-examine-risks-climate-change-poses-to-financial-system.html
ICE32 USAF C-17 Globemaster departed Chistchurch Int'l Airport for fuggen Antarctica
Probably one of the last supply runs-summer ending
Dimon, Fink And Other CEOs Beg New York Lawmakers Not To Raise Taxes
Wall Street executives and other New York employers have begged Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) and other state lawmakers not to raise taxes, warning that they could cause high-income earners who left the state during the COVID-19 pandemic to stay away permanently. At least 250 business leaders were joined by JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon, Citigroup's Jame Fraser, Morgan Stanley's James Gorman and BlackRock's Larry Fink in a letter to Cuomo and other lawmakers, which argues that a series of tax increases proposed by Democratic leaders in the state Assembly would "jeopardize New York’s recovery from the economic crisis inflicted by COVID-19," and were rendered moot by the $1.9 trillion federal relief bill passed earlier this month, according to the letter.
New York State is slated to receive $12.5 billion in unrestricted payments under the new stimulus package, as well as billions more for health and education programs, and a boost in revenue payments which would allow the state to avoid planned spending reductions of $3.7 billion. The proposed package would increase income taxes and levying a new surcharge on capital gains.
The highest-earning 5% of tax filers in the state account for more than 60% of the roughly $50 billion that New York raises each year in state income taxes. The executives said remote-working patterns during the pandemic meant many of the financial, real estate and legal professionals in this group may permanently leave the tax base if proposed taxes are approved. -WSJ "Many members of our workforce have resettled their families in other locations, generally with far lower taxes than New York, and the proposed tax increases will make it harder to get them to return," wrote the executives. "This is not about companies threatening to leave the state; this is simply about our people voting with their feet." According to Kathryn Wylde, president of Partnerrship for New York City and a signatory to the letter, said that Cuomo has been a force of 'fiscal moderation' during his time in office. "It’s obvious that there’s great concern among business leadership that the governor is in a weakened state because of the supermajorities that Democrats have in both houses of the Legislature," Wylde told the Journal.
The letter comes amid crisis for Cuomo, who is currently under an impeachment investigation into accusations that he sexually harassed a slew of women - which comes on top of a scandal over how his administration stuck COVID-positive patients in nursing homes, where the most vulnerable population lives. According to Freeman Klopott, spokesman for the state budget office, the Cuomo administration is focused on the economy and "putting out the welcome mat for the New Yorkers who left during the pandemic." On Monday, Cuomo and state Budget Director Robert Mujica said that budget negotiations were ongoing between executive and legislative aides, with Mujica notably vague on how the state's improving fiscal picture - and federal stimulus windfall - would affect taxation. In January, Cuomo proposed a $193 billion budget which raises $1.5 billion through a temporary tax-surcharge on those who make over $5 million in income. "As of right now we have the resources necessary so that there would be no cuts in the governor’s budget, so you wouldn’t require any significant level of tax increases to pay for the restorations," Mujica said Monday.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/dimon-fink-and-other-ceos-beg-new-york-lawmakers-not-raise-taxes