Tag Archives: US treasury bonds

January 23, 2026 · 10:21

Counterpart of the equation

I saw something this morning that made me giggle. The Sydney Morning Herald (at https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/trump-sues-america-s-biggest-bank-and-its-billionaire-ceo-20260123-p5nwep.html) gives us ‘‘Blacklist’: Trump sues America’s biggest bank and its billionaire CEO’ where we see “President Donald Trump sued JPMorgan Chase & Co. and its billionaire chief executive officer, Jamie Dimon, for at least $US5 billion ($7.3 billion) over allegations that the lender stopped offering him and his businesses banking services for political reasons.” Like a toddler crying that mommy isn’t giving him a popsicle. I personally believe that there is another reason, but that is not how President Trump flies. No, his ego isn’t ready for that yet. Although should the EU collectively dump the US treasury bonds they have he will cry different tune. I was aware of the danger for over 12 years, but David Kelly at JP Morgan gave us (around January 9th) that the USA is going slowly broke and the tantrums that President Trump has been handing out all over the place doesn’t help. Tourism down, Commerce down, services basically gone and that list goes on. So as I see it, what was ‘defined’ as “going broke slowly” might not be so slow anymore. And now we suddenly see that “the lender stopped offering him and his businesses banking services”, I have my doubts. You see, when a customer comes in one bank and that bank states you aren’t welcome anymore that person should state “I’ll take my business across the street”, the fact that President Trump isn’t doing that shows a much larger play that he is preparing for. You see, when the American economy implodes he needs to have all his fish on land. First there was the BBC, then The New York Times and Penguin Random House and that list goes on, as such there is more than a ‘theme’ going on President Trump sees what is coming and he wants to sleep in utter luxury but as I see it, whatever he has in America would become cannon fodder overnight. And for me it is optionally great. When certain players see what Microsoft, Amazon, Google and a few others left lying on the floor. The optional come in (I personally hope Tencent will be among them) as such (as I personally see it) the station of utter BS given to us all by the American administration where I particularly like the quote given to us by Scott Bessent “the U.S. is unconcerned by Treasury sell-off over Greenland and calls Denmark ‘irrelevant’” and the was for $100 million, but the EU has over $2.8 Trillion and that will require a very different response, but as I see it, no one is ‘handling’ President Trump, to the chance of Europe dumping whatever bonds they have is becoming considerable. Then there is the offshoot that Japan will dump the $1.2 trillion bonds they have and vice versa. Should Japan dump whatever bonds they have as the setting for Japan is seemingly more dire than they ever faced, Europe is sure to follow. So as I see it, the American Administration is roughly in a tough spot. As I see it, President Trump pushed for the visibility that JP Morgan Chase is gaining partially due to the underlying setting of David Kelly. What a tangled web we weave ourselves, innit?

So the first question I have for myself is “Could I be wrong?” The answer is yes, definitely. But ask yourself, why does President Trump go for the suing procedure when he could have taken his business across the street of Wall Street towards Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Barclays, UBS, Deutsche Bank, Evercore, Lazard, Jefferies Group, Wells Fargo, BNP Paribas. With that many banks with service in the offering, why take the ‘suing’ route? Political ‘discord’ has existed in financial institutions for decades. As such my path makes a lot of sense (is it enough?). And as it was JP Morgan who alerted us to the ‘broke’ setting the path of suing makes also sense. It comes across as “I warned you not to illuminate our desperate standing” even though I already saw this setting come to the United States in 2013 and the path of Venezuela and Greenland merely sugarcoated the desperate setting the United States is under. For that matter, when this is brought to light be decent journalists the rest of the financial media is pretty much done for. I saw as a non-economist what these overpaid people did not? It will be less then a month when others start screaming the names of the involved stake holders. As such it will be quite the parade and the United States? I reckon that as their infrastructure will implode, it will face a full scale civil war like the Netherlands faced it in the hundred year war (it was part about poverty, hunger and the plague, it went from 1337 until 1453) it wasn’t a complete staged war, but several battles in a short term and it was the daily setting for close to 5 generations. That is what the United States is looking towards and with the weapons we have now, it will be a lot shorter, but the deaths will be on an increasing scale. And as I see it, President Trump sees what is coming, and with the friends he has, he needs to be certain he gets the amount of money so that he can outlast three generations and there is not much place for him outside of America, so he needs to be certain that he gets what he believes he is worth, the best he could hope for in Russia (pretty much his one ally) is a two bedroom flat somewhere in the MKAD (Moscow Ring Road) is pretty much all he can get and as such he needs another option. Perhaps he will go the way of Escape from New York, where the entire island of Manhattan becomes his personal prison, population 3. It isn’t realistic, but any person can dream can’t they?

So whatever the real reason that gave JP Morgan and Jamie Dimon got them their ‘blacklisting’, I have questions and I have doubts. Suing is just so over the top. What would happen if I sue Telstra in Australia as they didn’t want me as a business customer? No matter how valid their reasons were, Australia has Optus, Vodafone, NBN, Aussie Broadband, Superloop, Dodo, Exetel, Swoop, AGL, Origin and that list goes on for a while. The entire America settings feels wrong. And that is merely my view on the matter.

Have a great day today, it’s Friday (yay).

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January 17, 2026 · 05:35

A call to arms

That is at the foundation of my thinking. When I saw the news ‘Trump threatens new tariffs on countries opposed to Greenland takeover’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9qpy952xvno), Al Jazeera gave nearly the same news, something cracked in me. I became agitated and as such something has to be done. We can threaten with arms, but my skill (beside a marksman) has always been my insight in data. And as Such I am calling the following persons to active duty of a sort.

United Kingdom, PM Keir Starmer, $888.5 Billion
Belgium, PM Bart De Wever, $481.0 Billion
Canada, PM Mark Carney, $472.2 Billion
Luxembourg, PM Luc Frieden, $425.6 Billion
France, PM Sébastien Lecornu, $376.1 Billion
Ireland, PM Micheál Martin, $340.3 Billion
Norway, PM Jonas Gahr Støre, $218.9 Billion
Germany, PM Friedrich Merz, $109.8 billion

There might be more, but they would fall under the ‘all other’ mention that the US Treasury has, it would be nice if China and Japan would stand with the EU and Nato, but they have their own ponds to worry about. But these people control $2.8868 Trillion in US Treasury bonds and with America now threatening those who stand with Denmark and Greenland with tariff sanctions, there comes a need to show that man who has the power and it is not him. As such I am kindly asking these people to sell (or dump) all the treasury bonds they have and give President Trump a decent headache of nearly 3 trillion dollars. 

I reckon that he will sing a very different tune soon enough. The entire setting of ‘national security’ is just an excuse for something else and I have voiced my concern more than once, but in this case it is a simple setting of “President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to place tariffs on nations that do not go along with his ambitions to annex Greenland.” And I feel for Denmark and as such it is time to turn the play around, because with additional trillions, America will get a new severe headache. One that they cannot run from because they never controlled their spending habit. I agree it is a bit much, but seeing that most of us are being made redundant whilst we see this happening and the media is going along with whatever story they are handed from the power players I a little bit too much for me, and as such I propose this solution. 

Perhaps this will wake up the American Administration into playing nice, there is only so much we are willing to accept. So have a great day, it is 05:30 here now and I am currently done with sleeping. It sucks to be me.

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January 16, 2026 · 18:40

Consideration or realisation?

That is at times the question, because I was ‘informed’ of something I didn’t know (mostly because I don’t care) but it does set a different tone to other matters. We already knew that China is ‘market’ leader here, Some might have seen quotes no unlike this one “By the early 2020s, China accounted for roughly 70 percent of global rare-earth mining and more than 90 percent of processing and finished metal” some have seen this before and I am not vying for accuracy on this. I’ll accept it as is. So as America is so on the ball towards Greenland, the news I saw today has me stumped. We get from Discovery Alert (at https://discoveryalert.com.au/rare-earth-processing-saudi-arabia-2026-strategic-partnerships/) less than 12 hours ago ‘Saudi Arabia’s $1.5 Billion Rare Earth Processing Joint Venture’ with the added “The global rare earth elements sector stands at a critical juncture where supply chain concentration has created strategic vulnerabilities for advanced manufacturing industries worldwide. As dependencies on single-source processing capabilities intensify across defense, aerospace, and renewable energy sectors, alternative processing hubs have emerged as essential infrastructure for maintaining technological sovereignty. This analysis examines how new joint venture in Saudi Arabia for rare earth processing initiatives are reshaping market dynamics through strategic partnerships that leverage regional industrial advantages while addressing critical minerals energy transition needs.” Why would President Trump want to wage a losing war on the EU over Greenland? It is not national security, it seemingly is not about the rare earths, depending on what Greenland has and it does have diamonds there, but how much of that 3D carbon structure is there, I don’t know. And when the article comes to ‘Key Partnership Structures in Saudi Rare Earth Development’ we might get a clue. The agreement gives us: 

  • Equal stake joint venture arrangements with established industrial conglomerates
  • Long-term off-take agreements securing 25% of concentrate production from Greenland’s Tanbreez Project
  • Strategic alignment with U.S. defense procurement requirements
  • Integration with Saudi Vision 2030 economic diversification objectives

So is that it? You can see the roundup at https://www.criticalmetalscorp.com/projects/project-tanbreez/ and it gives us “The Tanbreez Rare Earth Project is an advanced, permitted asset poised to become a cornerstone in the global supply of rare earth elements (REEs) for North America and Europe. Positioned to deliver a sustainable, reliable, and long-term supply, this world-class project is set to meet the surging demand for critical minerals essential to national security, advanced technologies, defense systems, and the green energy transition.” Would it be THAT simple? The United States doesn’t want to share and doesn’t want Europe involved, so it does this? It gives my “America is broke” setting additional value, but does any nation want to go to war over this? It is an unspoken setting towards governmental greed and as far as I can tell the media is seemingly completely stumped on this. Now if these two sources are bogus, so is the mindset on this, but the second source has a whole range of ‘likable’ people completely with LinkedIn settings. As such how could the media have failed us all to this degree?

The second setting is Discovery Alert, if they are on the up and up or not. And it would be a fair question to ask this, but I have no idea and something this juicy I set in my blog. There is always the setting that they are the bamboozlers as such they can deal with the fallout that the Saudi government gives them as well as the Department of Justice. I am pretty sure that the White House is detesting to be used as a punching bag for any kind of media. 

But what if it is all true, how defining are these two documents on how broke The USA really is? Well first there was the debacle about the 51st state (Canada) and how great America’s healthcare really is (I still haven’t stop howling on that one as Canada’s healthcare is vastly superior), we then get all kinds of other reasons and Canada merely looks around and makes larger deals with Mexico, Seemingly the UAE, Europe and now China. So as I see it, Canada is coming out on top and the USA has a dwindling revenue setting. Then we get the Venezuela oil setting where the oil tycoon’s in the Unknown Settings of Avarice are bailing out as they don’t have the stomach to do this over there. I was of the mind to set up the refineries in Texas and ship all the crude to Texas for processing. It gives Texas the jobs, it gives America the revenue and you merely waste 2-3 tankers which will require intense scrubbing, but that is my oversimplified setting here. And after that we get the Greenland setting where ABC reported 10 hours ago ‘European troops won’t change Trump’s ambition for Greenland, says White House’, as such the question becomes is America that broke or is there something else going on? The two settings clash as I see it and as I see it, there is an unknown factor in the works, because no one is so mentally so unstable to take on Europe, especially as Europe is holding significant amounts of U.S. Treasury bonds (over $3 trillion in total debt, including the UK), viewing them initially as safe investments, but recent geopolitical tensions, especially regarding potential U.S. trade or foreign policy shifts and when Europe dumps those treasury bonds, the US debt rises to well over 40 trillion, because they cannot survive that setting. It will result in Japan and China dumping their bonds as well and the economy that the White House thought they had evaporates like snowflakes in a volcano. You can see that in action in Iceland, and they have a few other examples where snow evaporates really quickly. So I have to wonder as a non-economist, what am I not seeing? What more is there and what is the media keeping hidden (through embargo or other means). I wonder because I just saw a part being raised that I never considered before. I always keep in mind that I am missing something, but this is something the media should have reported on and I am not seeing anything on this. And come to think of this, why would someone mess with what is called “to deliver a sustainable, reliable, and long-term supply” I am grasping at straws here at present, because no-one wants a war with America, they won’t win but I have friends I Europe and It might be nice if they outlived me. And for that matter, my financial setting will not improve if the US dollar collapses because that is now also in the works.

Have a great day, it is almost Saturday brekkie time (in about 13 hours), so see you all for my next blog.

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November 21, 2025 · 01:16

Big in Japan

It is not a song by Alphaville, they did that in 1983 I believe. But a few months ago (May 4th, at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/05/04/the-nature-of-things/) I raised a setting that gave us “Japanese finance minister says selling U.S. bonds a “card on the table”’ with the yowza response “Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato said Friday that the country’s $1.13 trillion in Treasury holdings were a “card on the table” in trade talks, The Associated Press reported.” Talking about the tiger that feeds himself with your hand, and the added text becomes “Japan is one of the five largest U.S. trading partners, as well as a rock-solid ally in the region, so there was some surprise when the U.S. hit the country with a 24% reciprocal tariff in early April.”” I had Axios and a few other sources. And that was all there was to it, the news simmered down and the news was forgotten, except that is why I have my blog. I don’t tend to forget things. So when I got the news a few days ago I saw a YouTube video that Japan was dumps its US bonds. A fear that many have. And I started to seek that news from more reputable sources. Most had nothing, but (at https://medium.com/@nationalgoldgroup/japan-is-dumping-us-debt-and-americans-will-feel-it-31ec6a1f3870) But Medium gave us ‘Japan Is Dumping US Debt — And Americans Will Feel It’ but that is all there is. Now, I would be hesitant to give this out, especially as the Financial Times and the WSJ have nothing on this, even the Japanese Times (an English version) has nothing. So what gives? Are these doom speakers? Because that news would be grim for America. They give us “That’s basically what Japan has been doing with US Treasuries since the 1990s. They’d print Yen at 0% interest rates (basically free money), convert it to dollars, and buy up American debt in the form of US Treasuries. Then they’d sit back and collect the interest payments. This strategy pumped trillions of dollars into global markets over the years.

And more importantly, this arrangement made everything in America artificially cheap.” But as we see the next bit “suddenly, the cheat code stopped working. The math that made the carry trade profitable for 30 years just flipped upside down. Japanese pension funds looked at their spreadsheets and realized they were losing money on US Treasuries. So they started selling. Billions of dollars worth. Every single day. Imagine you’ve been lending money to a friend for years, making a nice return. Then one day, you realize you could make better returns just keeping the money in your own savings account. What would you do? You’d ask for your money back.” So, is this true? America could ask Mark Carney as he is an excellent economist, but there is a chance he is not taking their calls. What surprises me is that all the media is silent on it. But 2 days after my article, on May 6th we got “If Japan sold massive amounts of US debt, it would very likely spark a massive Treasury selloff. Treasury rates would in turn sharply increase, making it more expensive for Washington to borrow and freaking out investors along the way” (source: CNN) but at present, these YouTube and their allotment of ‘financial show’ jokers are seemingly doom speaking, because as I see it, this is all it is. The problem is that doom speakers tend to make others jittery and China has over $700 billon of those puppies. The Medium ‘knowledge’ comes from the National Gold Group and I am not setting any value on that, but the fact that the ‘set’ financial newspapers (Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times) have nothing on this, they do not even debunk that news. So I am looking at the playing field with a dim look (as I have an absent economic degree). And I am not joining any doomsayer on their doom binge. But YouTube has a few more sources and they are all dancing around the setting, like they ant to refer to news they had given, but they are not giving it. As I see it, if it isn’t in the newspaper (online or not) it doesn’t exist, but the news is a little unsettling, because if Japan goes, so does China soon thereafter and America has 2 trillion in US treasury bonds that no one wants. So, what do you think that does to the American economy? I reckon that China likes the idea, but it doesn’t want to start it and that is where Japan comes in. Is it real? I honestly do not know, but I do know that after the shenanigans America did to others, there is a hidden glimmer of fun to several people should this happen. So I have concerns on this, but I am adamant in saying that there is no verifiable setting that this is actually happening at present. And I feel strongly about giving this additional message.

I will report on happening, not create fictive settings that start something.

Have a great day, it’s fish day here now. I might go for some today. So, make sure you find a reputable source if you are going to be panic stricken because anything else might cost you a lot more than you think and in case of doubt, Ask the former Marky Mark of the British Bank (at +1-613-957-5555) he knows a lot more about this than I do.

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May 31, 2025 · 12:46

All dressed up

Yup, that is an old expression, I heard it somewhere in the 80’s and if you know, you know. If not, you might figure it out during this article. The setting has been revised before, but now (at https://www.travelandtourworld.com/news/article/north-carolina-and-oregon-unite-with-florida-new-york-nevada-arizona-california-alaska-as-canadian-travel-to-the-us-plunges-this-april-amid-political-backlash-and-tourism-boycott/) we get a more direct setting. We are told ‘North Carolina and Oregon Unite with Florida, New York, Nevada, Arizona, California, Alaska as Canadian Travel to the US Plunges This April Amid Political Backlash and Tourism Boycott’ it seems trivial and that site is, but it is merely one side of this. We are given “Canadian travel to the United States has plunged this April as North Carolina and Oregon unite with Florida, New York, Nevada, Arizona, California, and Alaska in reporting steep declines in visitor numbers from their northern neighbor—an alarming shift fueled by mounting political backlash, a growing tourism boycott movement, and rising disillusionment among Canadian travelers over the current state of U.S. affairs”, as well as “Canadians are now increasingly choosing alternative destinations, citing concerns over the political climate, cultural discomfort, safety perceptions, and dissatisfaction with immigration experiences.” And this is merely the start. Travel Tour World gives assisting data. We are given “According to official data, land travel from Canada to the U.S. dropped by 35.2% in April 2025 compared to the same time last year, while air travel declined 19.9%, marking one of the most significant cross-border travel retreats in recent memory” And it gets to be worse, for that we look towards the story (at https://www.cubaenmiami.com/en/expertos-temen-por-las-perdidas-economicas-que-pueden-traer-la-reciente-disminucion-del-numero-de-turistas-internacionales-en-estados-unidos/) there we get “According to a report by Oxford Economics, unfavorable perceptions regarding trade and immigration policies are causing international tourists to choose other destinations, which could result in an $8.5 billion drop in foreign visitor spending in the United States this year. The decline in travel, which represents a roughly 5% drop compared to the previous year, is due to a decrease in foot traffic. According to Aran Ryan, head of industry research at Tourism Economics, an affiliate of Oxford Economics, international visits to the United States are expected to decline by nearly 9% this year, according to a report released last week.” This is not all, in addition we see “The United States could experience a loss of $21 billion in tourism-related revenue this year if current trends continue, according to estimates by the U.S. Travel Association. According to the trade group, every 1% reduction in international tourist spending represents an annual loss of $1.8 billion for the U.S. economy. Furthermore, experts indicated that a strong U.S. dollar could be driving away international visitors.” Even though only Canada is ‘sifted’ out, the European losses could be close to equally large. I saw this yesterday in a YouTube video on the Epic Universe. The literal quote was “There is no-one here” and this is in the opening month of one of the most desirable theme parks I have ever seen. The damage could be a little bigger than the news we are getting. I saw two restaurants where little to no people are seen and in one case they were the only customer. This is a sight I have never have seen before in any theme parks and this one looks a lot better then most I ever saw with my own eyes. I don’t wish this on anyone and where are the people going? Well, my bet is that Abu Dhabi in the UAE on Yas Island will be raking in the cash. The people decided on another place and as Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand decide to seek greener grounds the sands of the United Arab Emirates might be the greenest grass of all. Even as we get one source giving us that “Walt Disney secures future of Euro Disney with €1bn refinancing”, I am drawn to the setting that this is not the destination of many who abandoned the idea of getting theme park rushes in America. I guessed that these people might be going towards Tokyo and its Universal, but the drop of 4% gives me pause to dig deeper there and I am considering that most went to the UAE and the numbers from Gulf Business (kinda) prove me correctly with “International visits to the theme parks also saw significant growth, with a 40 per cent, rise, led by a substantial increase from key markets, including India, China, the UK and Russia” and there I wonder if they investigated the stream of Canadian and European visitors. Yet 40% increase is not nothing, it is huge, especially as America is looking to a drop of well over $21,000,000,000 in business and that is not including all the bed and breakfast and fast food locations that usually see a much larger interest during these days. The tariff and 51st state mentions will be taking its toll on America a lot sooner than they think. I reckon that European (Australians too) will decide that Canada is a much better place to be than America, as such this coming winter Aspen will dealing with a zero minutes queue time at the slopes. This means that America is looking towards a two dreadful seasons, summer and winter. We can speculate how large this becomes, but there is no real data on this and the bulk of the people will not see these results until springtime 2026. Anything earlier is loaded with inaccuracies as the data they have been training on was never captured to the degree it needed and some form of forecasting analysis (the process of using historical data, trends, and statistical methods to predict future outcomes) as it is based on achieved data and this has never happened before in America going back to the before the 80’s, as such there is no forecasting settings and it needs to be done on actual data captured now, and these results are not looking good. Even if it is a ‘mere’ 21 billion, over 8-9 states the impact is nothing short of disastrous and America was never in that great a shape anyway. This is propagated by the real time risk of two nations dumping their bonds before they have the value of toilet paper (yes, China and Japan) and even whilst Japan has the largest amount and they are hanging on, they do know that if China is pushed to dumping their bonds, Japan will be racing to get there as son as possible, merely to safe some of their value. Considering the escalations that the BBC reported on a mere 10 hours ago, there is a chance (a small one) that China will respond by dumping the US Treasury bonds they have and that is pretty much a sequential set in ending the American economy. This America Administration will not be able to recover from that and whilst the Chinese portfolio is set to US$765.4 billion, which is 20 billion than a month ago. They might be gambling that Japan tries to drop their $1.13 trillion ($1,300,000,000,000) bond, especially as their own debt is now a debt-to-GDP at 260% and the Bank of Japan already owning more than half of outstanding Japanese government bonds, as it seems (according to people with the economic knowledge and foresight) that Japan is boxed in. Should China dump their bonds they could gain America and Japan at the same time. A sight never seen before in our history. So what does this have to do with tourism? Everything. You see if America cannot pay its debts, America becomes the third world country no one wants to visit and that makes it a nasty place within months. America has around 22 million millionaires. I recon that at least 15 million will get out in time, the rest is not ‘rich’ enough and those with a jet (around 15,000 of them) will go to any country that will take them and they will move fast. The rest? That is anyones guess. It reminds me of that B-movie where the wealthy and refuge in a theme park as it is the only one with enough food and security to make it last. But that is an overly dark (and unrealistic) setting. What is a given that these people will seek a safer haven, because America won’t be one for decades to come. 

Still, the first setting is tourism and that setting is under increasing pressures. And as I personally see it, it wasn’t President Trump who set this of, it was the short sighted views (my personal take on this) of Governor Ronald Dion DeSantis who chased away $1,000,000,000 in investment settings in Florida, that was the start. We saw a whole lot of anti woke and anti LGTBQ settings making Europeans (and likely Canadians) weary of safety issues in Florida, which would have impacted both Disney, Universal and Warner Brothers. That was as I saw it the start and the tariffs merely escalated that setting. The damage would have been horrific if Warner Brothers Abu Dhabi had started their Harry Potter park expansion a year earlier, yet as it stands it is now kinda set for a late 2026 opening. And as Disney is coming there too the bad news for Florida keeps on adding to the larger picture. That and as the UAE is one of the safest places in the world, the appeal of the UAE is easily spotted. That is besides the fact that Abu Dhabi has 4 theme parts and one of the largest luxurious malls in the world (right behind the Dubai Mall). The additional setting that you can travel from Abu Dhabi to Dubai in a mere 30 minutes by train, the appeal is close to complete. The zero tax setting that the UAE offers is a mere cherry on their yummy pie.

That is what American tourism was facing all along and now with the tariff wars the escalations are debilitating whatever was left of American tourism future, because if you are willing to fly to Florida, the idea that flying to the UAE for close to the same amount would be a desiring call for any tourist that wants something new.  So if you want to dress up, you might as well try an Emirati Kandura, looking good and looking different, having that real vacation feeling that you might never have had before.

Have a great day and consider where you might want to go and where you could go, especially for those who are sick of Americans referring to Canada as the 51st state and the Europeans who are not too happy on America annexing 2.166 million km².

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October 22, 2023 · 19:08

The thin ice

We all know the expression, no skating on thin ice. Yet when you think of it, when was the last time you saw thin ice? We all hear it, but when did you yourself, with your own eyes see a case of thin ice? We tend to think it is a danger avoided, but when no one sees that danger, is it a danger? Don’t get me wrong, I am not doubting that thin ice exists, before ice is thick enough to carry our weights it will be thin ice. A lot of thin ice seeing is assumption. We see ice and we see no one else skating on it, as such we take it for granted that THAT part is thin ice. Hold on to that thought because I am about to give light to two very different articles.

Arab News
The first was Arab News (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2395561/business-economy) where we see ‘Saudi banks’ residential loans surge in August as apartments gain prominence’. This article seems nice, but when you read it we are given two parts. The first one is “Mortgage lending to houses, apartments and lands rose to SR7.14 billion in August from SR5.43 billion in July” This is a 30% rise in a month and that is huge. Now there are other factors on play like trends. How was that last year versus this year and a few other things, but 30% matters. In addition we are given “The increase in apartment financing by Saudi banks compared to house financing is due to the increase in prices of houses and private villas compared to the prices of apartments, which has made villas and houses unaffordable to average-income individuals,” and this comes from Talat Zaki Hafiz, an economist and financial analyst. There is the added “Notably, financing of houses still dominates Saudi banks’ new residential mortgage landscape, constituting a 70 percent share in August. While apartments comprised 25 percent of the pie, land financing held the remaining 5 percent.” It seems that the Saudi banks have things well in hand. We can also infer that people are in a better state, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is in a better state and the people are setting their lives accordingly. Now, this is speculative, but if the economy was really bad real estate would not skyrocket by 30%, so something is going right there. 

The Guardian
The guardian gives us a very different story in the UK (at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/oct/21/mortgage-debts-and-bust-firms-put-uk-banks-profits-under-pressure) there we are given ‘Mortgage debts and bust firms put UK banks’ profits under pressure’. Now we can argue that the UK has twice the amount of people and that is true, yet as I personally see it, banking is banking. If a bank has a certain margin, having twice that margin implies that bank is twice as rich. Now, I get it, it is not that simple, but read me out.

We are given “Bosses watched in horror as a mini-banking crash led to the collapse of a string of US lenders including Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), and later Switzerland’s largest lender, Credit Suisse.” Here we have a problem, what I speculated all along and I saw one part revealed in April was “SVB had few traditional banking uses for the cash that piled up, it instead invested $91 billion in Treasury bonds and U.S. government agency mortgage-backed securities between 2020 and 2021. This brought SVB’s investments to roughly half its total assets.” You see, this was stupid greed and I warned in advance of it, more than once actually and the Guardian does not mention treasury bonds once, there is a whole engine spinning news and misdirecting news all over the media. The speculative setting is that owners of US treasury bonds will auto renew or lose a lot of money, so what would you do if you were the idiot relying on a 2% payday of $91,000,000,000? That amounts to a $1.87 billion payday. I would do the same thing, but these banks used their clients money to hedge that bet and the US government was eager to cater to that level of greed. I reckon that this is why Janet Yellen kept a close eye on this. In addition, I wonder how deep Credit Suisse was involved. 

Yet the setting is housing and “By July, the former Ukip leader Nigel Farage went to war with NatWest over plans to close his accounts at its private bank, Coutts.” Really? One account has that much impact? You see ‘Coutts bank boss quits in row over Nigel Farage’s canceled account’ some might see this as a joke, but for Peter Flavel the boss in question it is not a joke. There is something wrong with banking and banks all over the west. Don’t ask me what, but all these events are part of a larger problem, a problem that involves stake holders blending the message for banks and as I personally see it, the Guardian has been catering to these stake holders. It is highly speculative but even as this truth is given “Speaking to broadcasters Thursday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it “wasn’t right for people to be deprived of basic services like banking because of their views.” I think it wasn’t the views (alone). I reckon that some views opposing the current need is a larger setting and people like Farage could be able to spot that in the documentation handed to them, moreover certain banks have been skating on the thin ice for too long and at some point someone will sink through the ice. That is the danger of the thin ice. For the longest time the thin ice was an urban myth at best, because we never aw cases. But the British banks are in a spot of bother and people like Nigel Farage would shine a big light on that problem, better to get rid of these people and when banks do that, when banks do that to politically A-listers, how much trouble are they really in. You see in March 12th (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/03/12/i-honestly-dont-get-it/) I raised a few questions regarding bonds and the eager beavers in the media never looked at that part, not the Times, not the Guardian, not any respectable newspaper as I personally see it. So why not? What trouble is America trying to pass over thin ice? What are we not told and isn’t that the duty of banks to inform their customers? I reckon that Saudi Banks are doing a lot better because they do not cater to anything else but their goals and the goals of THEIR customers. I could be wrong, but considering that we are left in the dark for over 6 months, all whilst Saudi banks are doing 30% better in a month implies something. It implies that they are doing something right.

 Enjoy the last day of the weekend, Monday is soon here, here it will arrive in less than 300 minutes.

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