PAT007 US Army C-560 east from Greenbrier Valley Regional Airport
Greenbrier Congressional Relocation Bunker
In 1955, Dwight D. Eisenhower instructed the Department of Defense to draft emergency plans for Congress in case of a nuclear strike. Even if Washington, DC was destroyed, American officials needed a procedure to maintain the continuity of government. As part of these efforts, the Army Corps of Engineers was charged with scouting the location of a nuclear bunker for the members of Congress. They ultimately selected the Greenbrier, a luxury resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Greenbrier was chosen because of its location—relatively close and accessible to Washington, but far enough away to be safe from an atomic bomb—and because of its prior relationship with the United States government. During World War II, Greenbrier had served as an internment facility for Japanese, Italian, and German diplomats and then as a military hospital, where Eisenhower himself was at one time a patient. Although it returned to its original function as a hotel after the war, government officials occasionally held conferences at Greenbrier.
rest at link
https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/greenbrier-bunker
SAM603 C-40B west from JBA
XXXXXX V-22 Osprey hugging the coast of eastern England at low altitude
it's the end of the month so many flights to keep hours current. There has been a few moar of the 'copters up recently. The Texan II's are pretty common and increase on training tuesdays.
China Unexpectedly Cuts Reverse Repo Rate To The Lowest On Record
China’s central bank joined the global easing bandwagon early on Monday when it unexpectedly cut the rate on reverse repurchase agreements by 20 basis points, the largest in nearly five years, as authorities stepped up measures to relieve pressure on an economy ravaged by coronavirus pandemic.
Without giving a reason for the move, the People’s Bank of China said on its website that it was lowering the 7-day reverse repo rate to 2.20% from 2.40%, the lowest on record. This was the first rate cut since a 10bps cut in December 2019, and the third cut in the 7-day rate since November. Also on Monday, the PBOC injected 50 billion yuan ($7 billion) into money markets through seven-day reverse repos, breaking a hiatus of 29 trading days with no fresh fund injections via the liquidity tool.
At Friday’s meeting, the Communist Party’s Politburo said the government will step up policy measures and tighten enforcement in a bid to achieve full-year economic and social development targets. The government pledged to appropriately increase budget deficit ratio, guide market interest rates lower, and keep liquidity level reasonably ample.
Speaking to the media after the rate cut announcement, central bank adviser Ma Jun said China still has ample room for monetary policy adjustment and the rate decision took into consideration the return of Chinese companies to work, the global virus situation and a deterioration in the external economic environment. The rate cut took place one day after we reported that "China's Consumer Default Tsunami Has Started."
In a note to clients, Capital Economics said “a lot more easing will be needed, especially on the fiscal front, to help the economy return to its pre-virus trend.”
While the Politburo statement and the PBOC move signal the response is moving up a gear, it still falls short of a no-holds-barred stimulus.
Chinese 10-year government bond futures initially responded positively to the cut, with the most-traded contract for June delivery rising as much as 0.23%, before pulling back to last trade down 0.07%; at the same time China’s money market rates ticked up on tighter quarter-end liquidity despite the PBOC injection. The overnight repo rate climbed 25 basis points to 1.36% while the 7-day rate climbed 43 basis points to 2.10%. As Reuters notes, analysts expect China’s economy to contract sharply in the first quarter due to widespread disruptions to business and consumer activity caused by the virus as authorities put in place tough public measures to contain the pandemic. Nomura has lowered its annual GDP growth forecast to 1.0% this year, and adjusted quarterly GDP forecasts to a 9.0% annual contraction.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/china-unexpectedly-cuts-reverse-repo-rate-lowest-record
NATO06 E-3A Sentry AWACS up over northern Germany ne of Hannover and same pattern as already reported NATO07 in pb
>>8621858 pb NATO07
PAT007 US Army C-560 from Greenbrier, WV circled over Newport News Int'l then north and on final to JBA
CFTC Quietly Bails Out Capital One
Last Friday, around the time of the quad-witching collapse which sent the S&P to levels not seen since Trump’s inauguration, amid the flurry of headlines bombarding shell-shocked traders, was one that was particularly ominous if bizarrely incomplete. Shortly after the close, Bloomberg blasted the following headline:
CFTC PROVIDING RELIEF TO LARGE U.S. BANK ACTIVE IN OIL, GAS
There was little additional information to go with the report, aside from the CFTC saying it would temporarily exempt a U.S. bank from a requirement to register as a “Major Swap Participant” even though its growing energy swaps exposure would technically require it to do so by the end of the next quarter, and since the bank was not named, traders’ attention quickly shifted to whatever the next crisis du jour, or rather du minute was.
However, late last week, Reuters reported citing two sources, that the bank in question was Virginia-based Capital One, best known for questionable retail lending and cheesy credit card commercials with Samuel L Jackson.
So what exactly happened? According to a spokesman for the CFTC, the commodities regulator issued a waiver to protect the bank and its energy clients from “undue disruption,” given the unprecedented market conditions over the past month amid the coronavirus outbreak.
“We have actively encouraged all market participants to identify regulatory relief or other assistance that may be needed to help support robust, orderly and liquid markets in the face of this pandemic,” the spokesman said, implicitly admitting that the CFTC intervention amounted to what was an effective bailout of the bank.
At the core of the issue were plunging oil prices, which ended up having a margin call effect on the bank’s swaps exposure; and since Capital One’s waiver lasts until Sept. 30, if energy prices remain low or the bank’s exposure remains above the threshold, it will register as a swap participant or make business adjustments, the CFTC said on Friday.
And here is why anyone who currently has a deposit account at CapitalOne may consider quietly moving the money elsewhere: according to Reuters, the CFTC designation entails a number of complex and costly reporting and compliance obligations, which the CFTC spokesman said could hurt the institution’s ability to keep lending.
In short, CapitalOne made a terrible trade, betting via derivatives that oil would not plunge to where it is now – at 17 year lows – and only CFTC intervention prevented a margin call of unknown magnitude from being sent to Capital One’s corner office. Which is surprising considering that the bank is a relatively small player in the energy lending and financing business, with energy loans accounting for just 1.4% of its total loan book, according to its filings.
As part of that business, Capital One enters into commodity swaps with its commercial oil and gas clients to help them mitigate the risk of energy price swings and the related borrowing risks. Typically, those trades do not bring Capital One’s swaps exposure anywhere close to the CFTC’s registration threshold, according to the CFTC’s Friday notice.
But the 50% plunge in crude oil prices caused by the coronavirus and a flood of supply by top producers has seen its exposure on those swaps balloon, putting it on course to hit the threshold by the end of this month, the CFTC said.Following the 2007-2009 financial crisis during which several major institutions were toppled by their derivatives exposure, Congress created a slew of swap trading laws to reduce systemic risk and increase the visibility of the market. However, the ad hoc decision to grant a waiver in this case has sparked worries that regulators are going too easy on banks in a bid to prop up lending, exposing them to more risk down the road if energy prices do not rebound.
In effect, the CFTC allowed CapitalOne to incur even greater ongoing losses, while buying it a quarter’s worth of time, in hopes that oil rebounds. But what happens if instead of rebounding, oil keeps grinding lower and, as we warned earlier today, actually goes negative!? The cumulative exposure facing CapitalOne would be many billions, and could potentially render the bank insolvent.
That said, COF is not the only one: across the board, regulators have scrambled to grant regulatory relief, worried banks will pull back from lending and exacerbate corporate liquidity stress.
https://internationalfreepress.com/2020/03/30/cftc-quietly-bails-out-capital-one/
German AF GAFK31 ne from Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Detroit
tyb