BOXER42 USAF C-40C and SPAR17 USAF C-40C departed JBA ne >>107073 pb
This AC returned to JBA from San Francisco Int'l yesterday after an overnight
SAM712 USAF G5 KAF AC es from JBA-looks like Africa for this.
SAM603 USAF G5 on final at Miami Int'l from JBA depart earlier this morning
SAM683 USAF C-40B wn from JBA
ANON US Army CH-47 Chinook over Windsor Locks, CT
Same place as the 2 ANON C-130s on Saturday >>106867 pb
Randal K. Quarles submits resignation as a member of the Federal Reserve Board, effective at the end of December
Randal K. Quarles submitted his resignation Monday as a member of the Federal Reserve Board, effective at the end of December. He served as the Board's first Vice Chair for Supervision and has been a member of the Board since October 13, 2017.
As Vice Chair for Supervision, he oversaw the supervision and regulation of financial firms in the Board's jurisdiction. He served simultaneously as Chair of the Financial Stability Board, or FSB, an international body established by the G20 to ensure the resilience of the global financial system. His three-year term as FSB Chair ends on December 2.
In both positions, he played a central role in ensuring the safe operation of both the domestic and international financial systems during the stress of the COVID event.
Prior to his appointment to the Board, Quarles was founder and managing director of the Cynosure Group, a private investment firm. He also served in a variety of senior positions at the Treasury Department under both Bush administrations, including Under Secretary for Domestic Finance, was the U.S. Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund, and was a partner at both the Carlyle Group, and earlier, Davis Polk & Wardwell. He is married with three children and is from Utah.
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/other20211108a.htm
Biden Decision on Powell Expected Soon; Fed's George Casts Doubt on Inflation Outlook
Sources say President Biden met separately Friday at the White House with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Fed governor Lael Brainard, adding the president is expected to decide soon whether Mr. Powell will be reappointed to lead the central bank. A vocal minority of Democrats in Congress, led by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, want to show Mr. Powell, a Republican, the door. Ms. Brainard, a Democrat, has been seen as the most likely candidate for Fed chair if Mr. Powell isn't reappointed. Meanwhile, Kansas City Fed leader Esther George warned on Friday that Mr. Powell's outlook for inflation may be flawed, noting the argument for patience in the face of inflation pressures "apparent across a broad swath of the economy" has diminished.
https://www.morningstar.com/news/dow-jones/202111087706/biden-decision-on-powell-expected-soon-feds-george-casts-doubt-on-inflation-outlook
Capitol Police conduct morning training exercise Monday
The training exercise is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., Capitol Police announced. If you see elevated police activity around the U.S. Capitol building on Monday, don't panic.
The U.S. Capitol Police are conducting a training exercise on the Capitol grounds. The exercise includes a campus-wide evacuation drill at 10 a.m. Monday, November 8, Capitol Police announced in a tweet.
The routine drill is in coordination with the police department's branch partners, police said.
https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/dc/capitol-grounds-training-exercise-monday-nov-8/65-66505c0e-c4e1-450e-9b62-931f62933cc0
White House plans tour to tout Biden's $1 tln U.S. infrastructure bill
President Joe Biden and top officials in his Cabinet are hitting the road to promote the $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed in Congress last week, to explain when and where Americans can expect to see some of the funds in their own communities.
White House aides are planning a bipartisan signing ceremony for the infrastructure bill as soon as this week, after it gained final passage on Friday night when Democrats who control the House of Representatives ended months of bickering and approved it.
Biden heads to the Port of Baltimore, Maryland, on Wednesday to promote the bill. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was to take questions at the White House daily news briefing on Monday about the bill.
Buttigieg and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo are fanning out across the country as well.
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-biden-infrastructure/white-house-plans-tour-to-tout-bidens-1-tln-u-s-infrastructure-bill-idUSL1N2RZ1EA
KKR enters Japan infrastructure with Central Tank Terminal deal
$440m acquisition from Macquarie targets port storage operator.
U.S. investment fund KKR will buy its first infrastructure business in Japan, acquiring Central Tank Terminal for an estimated 50 billion yen ($440 million). Central Tank, established in 1966, operates chemical storage tanks at key ports such as Kawasaki, Yokohama and Kobe. The company is a leader in the field, counting major chemical producers among its more than 80 clients. Australia's Macquarie Group took over management in 2016.
The acquisition will be made through a $3.9 billion fund that KKR set up in January, its first specializing in Asia-Pacific infrastructure. While KKR's investment targets in Japan have included supermarket operator Seiyu and medical device maker PHC Holdings, the fund has never bought into a fixed-asset-heavy infrastructure business.
The acquisition will let Central Tank tap KKR's deep pockets to acquire rivals and build more tanks. It will consider offering tanks for hydrogen, anticipating growing demand for the fuel as the world shifts away from carbon. Private equity firms typically seek to recoup their investment after boosting the target's corporate value over several years.
In the U.S. and Europe, funds are investing in a broad range of infrastructure businesses from energy to telecommunications and transportation as they seek steady profits in a low-interest-rate environment. Though such businesses lack the high profit growth potential of other investment targets, the risk of earnings falling sharply is low.
Such investment has made only limited inroads into Japan, notably in solar power. Funds could play a role in revitalizing poorly funded infrastructure assets held by big corporations, just as these investors have with noncore operations.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-deals/KKR-enters-Japan-infrastructure-with-Central-Tank-Terminal-deal
U.S. Pins Possible Strategic Oil Release on Report Due This Week
The Biden Administration is waiting on a report Tuesday that details the government’s outlook on energy prices, consumption and supply before deciding whether to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to counter high gasoline prices.
The Short Term Energy Outlook, put out monthly by the Energy Information Administration, is watched closely by traders and policy makers. Last month the report predicted that gasoline and crude prices would start to decline next year as the oil market returns to a surplus. Since the report came out on October 13, U.S. benchmark crude oil has topped $85 a barrel as global demand has recovered far more swiftly from the pandemic in contrast to energy production.
Here’s a look at what the STEO said in October:
U.S. regular gasoline retail prices would average $3.21 per gallon in October before declining to $3.05 per gallon in December. Prices at the pump are currently averaging $3.42 per gallon, according to AAA.
The government forecast the average West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude prices in 2022 would fall to $68.24 a barrel and $71.91 a barrel, respectively.
The government predicts that output will rise to 11.7 million barrels a day in 2022, that’s still much lower than the nearly 13 million barrels the nation was producing in early 2020.
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/u-s-pins-possible-strategic-oil-release-on-report-due-this-week-1.1678798
C101 US Coast Guard G5 departed Groton-New London, CT after a 5 hour ground stop back to Reagan National
HOTRD88 USAF E-4B Nightwatch continues in support of the Capitol Police 'drill'
U.S. SEC names attorney Erica Williams to chair public accounting watchdog
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday named defense attorney Erica Williams as chair of the nation's public accounting watchdog.
The SEC said it appointed Williams head of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. She previously managed legal and operational functions of the agency, including workflow relating to recommendations from the SEC's compliance division. She also oversaw "significant personnel, labor and employment matters," it added. The agency said acting chair Duane Desparte will continue to serve as a board member. In June, the SEC voted to remove the head of the oversight board that sets standards for audits of public companies and said it planned to replace the rest of the board in due course. It said at the time that it would solicit additional members as it sought to replace the chair.
On Monday, the SEC also named former Democratic-appointed SEC commissioner Kara Stein and two others as members of the accounting watchdog. "With these additions to the Board, the PCAOB will have the leadership to meet the mission given to it by Congress -- ensuring that public company financial disclosures can be trusted by investors," said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. The PCAOB, created by the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act following major accounting scandals, has long been criticized by Democrats for being toothless.
Hawks want it to take a tougher stance on Chinese auditors of U.S.-listed Chinese companies which have generally evaded U.S. oversight. The announcement of what the SEC said is "the most diverse board in the PCAOB's history" a reference to the panel's first non-white membership and leadership is widely expected to help raise the quality of audits and assist the SEC by inspecting and fining auditors in breach of the rules, advocates say.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-sec-names-defense-attorney-erica-williams-chair-public-accounting-watchdog-2021-11-08/
CBP seizes shipment from Chinese company with ties to John Kerry: report
President Biden’s climate czar, John Kerry, holds a $1 million stake in an investment fund that backed a Chinese company under fire for using slave labor.
US Customs and Border Protection seized a shipment last week from LONGi Green Energy Technology, the world’s largest maker of solar panels, under a law prohibiting foreign imports manufactured using forced labor, the Washington Free Beacon reported Monday. LONGi buys polysilicon, a material used in the production of solar panels, from three companies that get their raw materials from Xinjiang-based Hoshine Silicon Industry. Hoshine was placed under restrictions by the Biden administration in June for using forced labor in a region of China where Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups are being held in massive detention centers and made to work against their will. The products were temporarily held by CBP from Oct. 28 to Nov. 3 under a “Withhold Release Order,” LONGi said in an announcement filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Nov. 4, the Free Beacon reported.
Such orders ban the importation of foreign goods that are mined, produced or manufactured using forced labor. Along with LONGi, JinkoSolar Holding Company Limited, Canadian Solar Inc. and Trina Solar Co. — which all have ties to Hoshine — have had shipments stopped in recent months, Bloomberg News reported.
Last December, Hillhouse China Value Fund acquired a 6 percent stake in LONGi, making it the company’s second-largest shareholder. Kerry, a former secretary of state in the Obama administration, holds a stake in Hillhouse through a trust that benefits his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry. Hillhouse Capital Group is operated by billionaire Chinese investor Zhang Lei, who has ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Republicans have long criticized Kerry for his connection to a company allegedly involved in labor abuses, with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) suggesting Kerry is “profiting from slave labor” in an op-ed published last month by Fox News. Rubio, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accused Kerry of working against a bill that would make it impossible to import products made by forced labor in Xinjiang. “President Biden now has a choice: stand by the man profiting from slave labor or fire him,” Rubio wrote. “It should be an easy choice, but the Biden administration and some Democrats are so desperate for a climate deal with the Chinese Communist Party that they are willing to ignore the regime’s use of slave labor.” The Free Beacon said LONGi, the White House and the CBP did not respond to requests for comment.
https://nypost.com/2021/11/08/cbp-seizes-shipment-from-longi-green-energy-technology/