tyb
check yer ears when you get a chance
SWQ6750 737 departed Laughlin, NV and had a ground stop at San Antonio Int'l then on to Shreveport Int'l, LA where it is now
High level Frenchie AC
French AF CTM0011 Falcon 7X nw from Riyadh ground stop
>>124069 lb
SPAR15 USAF C-40C west from JBA after arriving from Munich earlier today
The New York Fed Has Quietly Staffed Up a Second Trading Floor Near the S&P 500 Futures Market in Chicago
On January 11, Simon & Schuster released a new book on the Fed. It’s written by bestselling author and business reporter, Christopher Leonard. The title leaves little doubt about what the author has set out to prove: The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy.
For those of us who have been scrutinizing the trading operations of the New York Fed for decades, with the appropriate amount of skepticism that is inexplicably missing among the mainstream press, Leonard delivers a bombshell on page 242. Leonard writes:
“The conference room in the New York Fed was located just off the main trading floor, and its doors were open during meetings so people could quietly go in and out. The room was anchored by a large table, with a couch along the wall for staffers to sit with their laptops open and take notes. There was a set of large digital monitors hanging on one wall, one of which provided a live video feed from an eerily identical room in Chicago, in a Fed satellite office near the important Chicago Mercantile Exchange.”
What Leonard is describing is the Markets Group at the New York Fed, the only one of 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks to have its own trading floor; its own traders with Bloomberg terminals; its own speed dials to the major investment banks on Wall Street; and its own analysts that ferret out market-moving information from around the globe on a continuous basis. (Leonard was given an official tour of this area at the New York Fed on February 27, 2020, according to the “Notes” section of his book.)
What Leonard is suggesting on page 242 is that the New York Fed’s trading floor is no longer just content to sit close to the New York Stock Exchange in lower Manhattan. The New York Fed’s Markets Group has decided to clone itself with another trading floor that sits close to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange where S&P 500 futures are traded, as well as other futures contracts.
Why is that a bombshell? Because it suggests to Wall Street savvy readers that the New York Fed may be planning to use the futures markets to try to engineer a soft landing in an attempt to get itself out of the very serious mess it’s made that Leonard explains very convincingly throughout his book.
We checked out the New York Fed’s website and found no mention of this satellite trading floor and satellite Markets Group in Chicago. The Chicago Fed is not so secretive, however, and confirms on its website that the New York Fed’s satellite office is located inside its building. The Chicago Fed actually lists profiles of six staffers at the New York Fed’s facility, but it uses only first names, as if these folks are in some kind of witness protection program.
There are currently nine help-wanted ads listed online for the New York Fed’s satellite office in Chicago. The most interesting is for a “Contact Engagement Policy Advisor.” That job includes this description: “Proactively identify, build, and maintain relationships with a diverse set of senior external market participants, including to develop contacts in new areas or markets where additional relationships are needed; support stakeholders and other senior management develop and maintain their contact networks.”
On pages 113-114 of his book, Leonard describes what the trading floor at the New York Fed looks like. (For photos of what the New York Fed’s trading floor has looked like through the years, see our article from 2013. For the names of the Wall Street megabanks that, literally, own the New York Fed and its money button that endlessly bails them out with trillions of dollars produced at the flick of an electronic switch, see our article from 2019.)
Leonard sums up his description of the traders and their trading floor at the New York Fed with this: “They are the only traders in the world who can buy things by creating new dollars. This is the basis of the Fed’s ability to influence the economy and the banking system.”
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Well, now these New York Fed traders have clones of themselves — magically creating money at the push of a button in Chicago.
Creating this cloned facility in Chicago has apparently been going on for a number of years. One individual reports at Glassdoor that he interviewed for the job of Policy and Markets Analysis Associate at the New York Fed’s office in Chicago in December 2017. He said the process took five weeks and he didn’t get a job offer. He writes this: “Was flown in for interviews: 3 interviews (30 mins each) with two people at a time. First one was behavioral, second was econ heavy, third was more questions directly about the fed. In the afternoon, took a policy writing test (90 minutes).” One of the interview questions he was asked was: “What did the Fed do during the 2008 crisis.” If he correctly answered that it bailed out the Wall Street banks and their foreign derivative counterparties to the tune of $29 trillion – the very banks that created the crisis — that might be why he didn’t get the job. If he had adopted former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s position – that he and the Fed had the “courage to act,” he would have likely landed the job.
If the New York Fed was not interested in accessing the futures market, why clone itself in Chicago? That’s very far away from the New York Fed and not particularly attractive to the best and the brightest. CBS News ranked Chicago the 31th most dangerous city out of 50 it ranked in 2020.
If it’s another Sandy hurricane flooding lower Manhattan or a terrorist or cyber attack that the New York Fed is worried about, why not create a backup facility in New Jersey, like the major investment banks on Wall Street have done? Why choose to clone yourself 796 miles away in another major city that could just as easily be the target of a terrorist or cyber attack?
The answer may lie in the following fact: just 35 miles away from the New York Fed’s office in Chicago, in Aurora, Illinois, is what is known as a co-location data center where customers can place their own high-speed computers and get faster access to trading data coming from the futures markets as well as faster ability to execute trades to take advantage of that information. For a mere $12,000 a month, the New York Fed could gain the same advantages that hedge funds have currently.
Now that the Federal Reserve has made it clear that it’s begun the process of removing its liquidity punchbowl, powerful hedge funds as well as Wall Street trading houses have launched their own process of shorting the market through S&P 500 futures. The intraday whipsawing, with 1,000-point intraday swings in the Dow Jones Industrial Average last week, strongly suggests that some well-heeled player is attempting to scare out the shorts and create a short squeeze (which sends the stock market back up) when the market is plunging.
There is actually a legal way that the New York Fed could be conducting such futures operations. It’s the U.S. Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF). The New York Fed explains its relationship with the ESF as follows: “ESF operations are conducted through the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in its capacity as fiscal agent for the Treasury.” According to the most recent monthly financial statement from the ESF, dated November 30, 2021, it had $229.67 billion in assets. Its assets are those it holds on the last day of the month. What it’s doing in markets on all the other days of that month are not included.
Under current law (31 U.S.C. §5302) the decisions on how to spend the billions in this slush fund belong to the Treasury Secretary and “are final and may not be reviewed by another officer or employee of the Government.” The law also provides that the Treasury Secretary “with the approval of the President, may deal in gold, foreign exchange, and other instruments of credit and securities the Secretary considers necessary.” That language would appear to give the U.S. Treasury Secretary the power to intervene in propping up the stock market without the ability of “another officer or employee of Government,” say, like, the Securities and Exchange Commission or Commodity Futures Trading Commission, having the ability to review what’s going on in that regard.
According to past comments from members of Congress, what goes on in the ESF has been as clear as mud to Congress. The vast majority of Americans have never heard of the Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund but it’s been around since 1934. It was created during the Great Depression to stabilize the dollar by engaging in foreign exchange interventions. That mandate morphed significantly from that point forward.
moar
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2022/01/the-new-york-fed-has-quietly-staffed-up-a-second-trading-floor-near-the-sp-500-futures-market-in-chicago/
morning
JAKE11 USAF Rivet Joint back to RAF Mildenhall alfter Poland/Belarus border run and then southern Ukraine-usually do this in the reverse order and get over Poland on way back.
NATO02 USAF E-3 AWACS back to Geilenkirchen after some werk over Denmark
SWQ6857 ended up at Reno-Carson City Airport last night from Shreveport LA depart
82-8000 USAF 747 west from JBA (it ain't Joe cause he only just got up and rec'd daily briefing an hour ago)-moar cert/maintenance flights
VELCRO04 E-11A GLEX west from Bradley Int'l Airport, CT
This could be another test flight or on a reposition flight.
From wut I can tell it is the oldest of the E-11As and those protrusions have been integrated into the airframe in the newer versions-see cap #2-current and 3 newer
Bombardier E-11A is the military variant of the civil Bombardier BD-700 Global Express for use as overhead communications-relay platform in southwest Asia. The BD-700 was selected due to its high service ceiling, up to 51,000 ft and up to 12 hours flight duration. Initially aircraft was designated as RC-700 under the reconnaissance classification but later was re-designated as the E-11A under the special electronics installations category. The E-11A is a U.S. Air Force aircraft that provides unparalleled communications capabilities to forces on the ground and aircraft in the air. Commonly known as Battlefield Airborne Communications Node, or BACN, this aircraft extends the range of communications channels and enables better communication among units. This element is essential where the terrain may disrupt communications channels and it enables ground forces to know what is around them when something is not in their line of sight.
https://worldofaviation.net/bombardier-e-11a-bacn/
TERRA97 USAFSOC back to JBA after arriving from McGuire earlier
FORGE78 US Army G5 sw from JBA
White House cyber expert to travel to Europe over Russian threat
Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, is set to travel to Europe to meet with her European Union counterparts and NATO representatives in Brussels this week to talk about cyber challenges presented by Russia.
The White House said Neuberger will travel to Warsaw to meet with Polish and Baltic officials and members of the Bucharest Nine, including Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
Neuberger will first travel to Belgium to meet with NATO and the European Union cyber leaders, a senior administration official said. She will discuss cybersecurity with German and French officials virtually.
"[Neuberger will] discuss how we will coordinate and support Ukraine, and each other, in the event that cyberattacks occur," the senior official said.
Last month, Ukraine blamed Russia for a cyberattack targeting the computers of government agencies, accusing the Kremlin of waging "a hybrid war" amid heightened tensions between the two countries.
Kiev said all evidence points to Russia being behind the attack, stating its motivation is to reduce the public's trust in the Ukrainian government by exposing vulnerabilities in critical information infrastructure and through draining Ukrainian data.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/02/01/cyber-Anne-Neuberger-Europe-NATO-Russia/8761643722422/?u3L=1
US Delivers 500-Ton Weapon Shipment To Ukraine As Blinken & Lavrov Talk
Another day in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine standoff and another US weapons shipment has arrived in Kiev, despite all sides ostensibly continuing to push for a diplomatic solution and the avoidance of military conflict.
On Tuesday Ukraine Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov announced his country has received a new shipment of "500 tons of defense equipment" from the United States. "The day hasn’t passed yet and we’re unloading the 6th bird from our friends from the U.S.! 84 tons of ammunition arrived in Kyiv!" he wrote on Twitter.
We vastly prefer the path of dialogue and diplomacy, but we will continue to provide Ukraine the defensive assistance needed to defend against Russia's massive military force assembled on its borders. We #StandWithUkraine https://t.co/XRDq2gB7N0
— U.S. Embassy Kyiv (@USEmbassyKyiv) February 1, 2022
The US Embassy in Kyiv in a vaguely threatening carrot-and-stick style message responded with the following aimed at Moscow: "we vastly prefer the path of dialogue and diplomacy, but we will continue to provide Ukraine the defensive assistance needed to defend against Russia's massive military force assembled on its borders."
In a later statement, the embassy posted the following: "We know Russian efforts to destabilize Ukraine are part of their playbook. We've all seen it before, and we should expect to see more. We applaud the vigilance of Ukraine's law enforcement and security services at this critical time."
The accusatory statement linked to a report wherein a Ukrainian government official alleged a Russian plot to foment a riot in the center of Kiev using up to 5,000 agent provocateurs on the ground. Officials suggested the 'false flag' scenario would be geared destabilizing the government in favor of installing pro-Kremlin leadership.
Also on Tuesday US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is holding a key phone call with his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. "We expect the Secretary will have an opportunity to speak by phone with Foreign Minister Lavrov tomorrow morning," the State Department had said Monday.
So far it appears Russia has yet to respond to last week's hand delivered official Washington response to Moscow's security demands of NATO. According to Russian media, "Claims from US officials that Moscow has responded to America’s proposals on de-escalation in Ukraine are inaccurate, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced. It confirmed that the two sides are in talks about security in Europe but denied that a formal answer had been given."
"The Americans are using Ukraine against Russia so openly and cynically that the Kiev regime itself is now scared." pic.twitter.com/mBYj5eMvPU
— Clint Ehrlich (@ClintEhrlich) January 31, 2022
Meanwhile, the White House says it's put together a "specific sanctions packages" that would target Putin's inner circle as well as key oligarchs in the event Russia invaded Ukraine.
"The individuals we’ve identified are near the inner circle of the Kremlin and play a role in government decision-making or, at a minimum, are complicit in the Kremlin’s destabilizing behavior," White House press secretary Psaki said Monday, noting that "many of these invidious are particularly vulnerable targets because of their deep and financial ties with the West."
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-delivers-500-ton-weapon-shipment-ukraine-blinken-lavrov-talk
Here is that AC after leaving Kyiv with it's last trace from 3 hours ago over Caspian Sea
Mexicans Abroad Sent a Record $52 Billion Back Home Last Year
Mexico received a record $51.6 billion in remittances last year, helping to soften the impact on consumers from a stalled economy.
The money sent by Mexican workers abroad jumped 27% compared to 2020, according to central bank figures published Tuesday. That increase was driven by a variety of factors including U.S. stimulus checks to residents, a desire by Mexican workers to assist their struggling families back at home, and money for foreign migrants stuck in Mexico. “This historic quantity of remittances is not an achievement of the Mexican economy because it is due to the U.S. recovery. In Mexico, the recovery is going slowly,” said Gabriela Siller, director of economic analysis at Banco BASE. “But remittances do help growth because they drive consumption.”
all about the stimmy money lady and you know that
The recovery of Mexican workers’ employment in the U.S. was better than that of the overall U.S. population, with over 7 million Mexicans employed there by December, according to an analysis by the Mexico City-based Center for Latin American Monetary Studies. Other countries in Latin America, including Colombia and Guatemala, saw similar leaps in contributions from abroad, it said. “The better-than-expected growth rate for remittances has been seen in almost all parts of the world,” said Dilip Ratha, the head of The Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development, a project of the World Bank, who expects remittances to continue to rise.
“In the next five or ten years, there is no scenario involving a fall in the stock of international migrants. That is going to grow because of income differences and demographic change.”
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/mexicans-abroad-sent-a-record-52-billion-back-home-last-year-1.1716667
Turkish AF TURAF11 KC-135 Stratotanker inbound to McGuire -prolly picking up some additional printing presses from the FRB
TERRA97 USAFSOC C-32B back to McGuire from quick JBA stop
SAM106 USAF G5 KAF AC of interdast sw from JBA @40k ft
168764 US Navy P-8 off Space Coast on da track
back later muh frens
all dis shit takes so much longer ta do nao