While the news is describing a “crypto meltdown” and pundits who are, shall we say less than friendly to ideas like private property use this as a way to get you to sell your coins off and call for government control of the markets the real news about FTX is being swept under the rug. It was a ponzi scheme allowed to go on because the CEO – Sam Bankman-Fried – was the second biggest donor to Democrats and now has admitted to laundering money into Ukraine. He also donated heavily to politicians in both parties that are on the committee that regulates crypto:
Sam Bankman-Fried, prolific Democratic donor and ex-CEO of now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, funded the campaigns of members of Congress overseeing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), one of the key bodies tasked with regulating the crypto industry and the subject of Bankman-Fried’s aggressive lobbying.
Bankman-Fried’s FTX is currently under investigation by the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after Bankman-Fried allegedly moved $10 billion in client assets from his crypto exchange to his trading firm Alameda Research, and a liquidity crisis at his exchange which prompted the company to file for bankruptcy. However, prior to the agency’s probe, Bankman-Fried aggressively courted the CFTC – and funded several key lawmakers charged with overseeing the agency, pouring cash into their campaign coffers.
The CFTC is charged with regulating certain elements of the crypto marketplace, including digital assets that are commodities as well as crypto exchanges and clearinghouses. The agency is overseen by the Senate and House Agriculture Committees, with the former tasked with approving CFTC commissioners nominated by the president.
One interesting thing about his lobbying is that he was actually lobbying to give the government more control over crypto – something odd behavior for a guy supposedly hiding malfeasance from the government:
Bankman-Fried personally lobbied for legislation in the Senate Agriculture Committee that would grant the CFTC greater regulatory oversight over the crypto industry, according to Coindesk, and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying the CFTC, SEC and members of Congress on the legislation.
The bill, known as the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act, which would grant the CFTC “jurisdiction to oversee the spot digital commodity market,” was introduced by Stabenow, Boozman, Booker and Republican North Dakota Sen. John Thune, three of whom are beneficiaries of Bankman-Fried’s donations.
For its lobbying team, FTX hired former Republican Rep. Mike Conaway, longtime chair of the House Agriculture Committee, and committee staffer Scott Graves to lobby lawmakers on crypto-related issues.
FTX also hired former CFTC commissioner Mark Wetjen to head its regulatory policy department Nov. 1, and former CFTC commissioner Jill Sommers to head up its derivatives division in September.
Like I said odd. All this while bankrolling people hostile to crypto:
The former FTX CEO personally donated to the Senate committee’s chairwoman, Democratic Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, contributing over $20,000 to the Stabenow Victory Fund and $5,800 to her campaign for Senate. Bankman-Fried donated roughly $6,000 to the committee’s ranking member, Republican Arkansas Sen. John Boozman, as well, and $5,800 to the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Commodities, Risk Management and Trade, Republican Montana Sen. John Hoeven.
The offices of Stabenow, Boozman and Hoeven did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
More significantly, American Dream Federal Action, a political action committee founded by FTX executive Ryan Salame, spent over $1 million on Boozman during the 2022 election cycle, according to campaign finance records, and over $1 million on House Agriculture Committee member and Republican Minnesota Rep. Brad Finstad.
Bankman-Fried is also a key funder of the Protect Our Future PAC, which primarily works to elect Democrats, bankrolling the group to the tune of $27 million this election cycle. The PAC spent over $1 million funding Democratic Ohio Rep. Shontel Brown, a member of the House Agriculture Committee.
Bankman-Fried donated roughly $6,000 to ousted Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Chair Sean Patrick Maloney, who sits on the House Agriculture Committee, and over $200,000 to Maloney’s DCCC.
Bankman-Fried also contributed almost $6,000 to Senate Agriculture Committee member and Democratic New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, and roughly $6,000 to committee member and Democratic New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s campaign, with another $10,000 to the Gillibrand Victory Fund.
As a prepper you’ll often hear people say the country is unsavable because we’re essentially running like a third world government and stories like this bolster that. If you’re a long term crypto holder you’ve been through crashes before. If this is new to you don’t panic. The quality coins (Bitcoin for example) will be around once the smoke clears but my few hundred bucks in Spell or Shib might be gone. This is why you never invest more than you can afford to lose.
Crypto is so enmeshed in the economy that it became part of the Ukrainian war effort.
FTX was an essential part of the Ukrainian war effort:
Amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman Fried has come forward to help a crypto donation project. He humbly announced that FTX will be supporting the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance and other communities in collecting crypto donations for the country. The Ukrainian government has received over $60 million in crypto donations from all over the world.
FTX’s CEO, Sam Bankman Fried highlighted that the war in Ukraine has been dragging on. The country is in full need of humanitarian help and access to global financial infrastructure. He also called attention to sanctions and crypto during this kind of situation. He indicated that crypto exchanges should enforce sanctions announced by the government seriously.
Again it’s odd that someone in the crypto sphere is not pro privacy and freedom.
FTX seemed to be not only a Ponzi scheme but a funding arm for the left and since people had accounts there are now out of that money it’s almost like a financial false flag attack on crypto to help governments crack down on your digital wealth. The word on the street is that investors are angry at media and government:
While all this was happening we’re seeing anecdotal evidence that supply chain disruptions are now basically permanent in America. On a personal note I bought some .45 Colt for my Big Iron and when they arrived they were … different. The were primed with small pistol primer instead of large pistol primer.
If you go to my feed by clicking the pic you’ll see a second pic comparing the old and new round.
If you’re a gun owner into reloading you know primer shortages have never gone away. If you’re not a gun owner this is all Greek to you but essentially the primer is a little cap in the bottom of the round with an explosive compound in it that ignites the primary charge when the hammer strikes it. People save the brass shells after firing them and reload those casings with powder, bullets and primers which were commonly available. They are not anymore. This is due to shortages in the raw materials as well as increased demand.
Someone told me Midway USA was selling 1000 round pallets of .32 S&W Long for over $1000 – more than a dollar a round. For context during the first ammo shortage I was picking up boxes of 50 for about $15.
Diesel and heating oil shortages are still ongoing and won’t be clearing up anytime soon:
Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, told Newsweek: “We’ve seen distillate supplies rise slightly to 26.0 days, and inventories last week rose about 400,000 barrels, while the areas with the lowest inventories saw a well-needed rise in supplies as well.”
Though the diesel shortage is affecting the entire country, inventory are particularly low on the East Coast, with the North East experiencing the highest diesel prices, according to Georgia-based major fuel supply and logistics company Mansfield Energy. The South East is reporting the worst supply outages.
“Supply outage” is a kind way of saying empty pumps and stranded trucks.
A combination of high demand and low inventory caused by the decreased capacity of U.S. refineries—many of which have closed since 2020 or have been repurposed—and bans on the imports of Russian petroleum products have caused the diesel shortage. It has left farmers and homeowners struggling on the verge of a challenging winter.
While rising inventories are certainly good news for the U.S. economy, diesel prices remain high. The national average is of $5.359 per gallon, lower than November 13’s average at $5.362 per gallon but higher than last week’s average of $5.338 per gallon and October’s average of $5.215 per gallon, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).
[…]
“Transportation costs continue to rise due to the tight supply, with average diesel prices holding around $5.36 a gallon nationally, but some areas are seeing diesel over $6 a gallon,” said De Haan.
“I’m hoping it might improve, but if it’s a cold winter, heating oil, which is very similar to diesel, could see higher consumption. We may make it through winter—but barely.”
The news gets worse:
Despite the past six weeks being warmer than on average, “residential heating-oil prices have increased in recent weeks,” writes the EIA, reaching “a record-high of $5.91 per gallon (gal) the week of November 7 (data going back to October 1, 1990), after adjusting for inflation.”
Heating-oil prices have been the highest in the Central Atlantic region, with low supply and strong demand driving prices up in the North East.
That is the region that uses the most heating oil across the entire country, with the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 “American Community Survey” (2021 estimates) finding that about 18 percent of households in the North East and 33 percent of households in New England alone use heating oil as a primary space heating fuel.
So here in the South we may be running out of fuel to keep the trucks running and people in the Northeast will be bankrupting themselves trying not to freeze to death.
FedEx is expecting much less demand for Christmas season:
FedEx Freight, the company’s less-than-truckload arm unit, says an unspecified number of its employees will be furloughed in early December to match lower-than-expected demand.
The furloughs will last around three months. During this time, workers will still receive health benefits and may file for unemployment benefits with the state.
FedEx Freight spokesperson Miranda Yarbro told FreightWaves said the furloughs – which are voluntary – will affect only a few drivers. Neither will all facilities be targeted.
This looks like a fuel saving effort as well as a recognition that inflation has now disrupted the economy to the point we won’t have the usual Christmas shopping season.
Bed Bath and Beyond are unable to work out deals with suppliers who want the corporation to guarantee money for delivery … which BBY can’t:
Take Dbest Products Inc., which has been selling its rolling carts to Bed Bath & Beyond for more than a decade. In early September, the company for the first time asked Bed Bath & Beyond to pay upfront for its products. “We requested to alter our payment terms to payment in advance and they said no — politely,” Dbest Products Chief Executive Officer Richard Elden said. He says he previously sold around “six figures” worth of wholesale products to Bed Bath & Beyond annually…
Similarly, Lauren Greenwood, president of kitchen storage and organization company YouCopia, said she recently stopped shipping her merchandise to Bed Bath & Beyond after more than 10 years. “There is considerable financial risk,” Greenwood said. “We’re wishing them well. We’ll see if that means getting back into stores — or waiting from the sidelines to see if they can pull it off.”
The head of a company that had supplied $15 million to $20 million of wholesale merchandise to Bed Bath & Beyond annually in recent years said he had stopped shipping his products to the retailer in August. He asked not to be named to avoid jeopardizing his relationship with the company. The supplier said Bed Bath & Beyond hasn’t agreed to provide him with an additional financial guarantee he requested, called a letter of credit.
This will be the death knell for that company. Look for closeouts with great deals as stores close. Full disclosure I very stupidly bought this stock on the news the new CEO was going to try to turn it around.
Walmart has been quietly closing stores, mostly their “neighborhood markets” according to reports, since Spring. I’m hearing multiple regional managers are asking for foot traffic numbers which is making store managers nervous. I expect more groceries to close from this company as they probably can’t keep the food prices low enough to compete with local stores anymore.
Sally Beauty is closing at least 350 stores country wide citing inflationary headwinds according to their quarterly report.
Walgreens is closing store in impoverished, high crime areas and are getting the raked over the coals for it. It’s partly their fault because they won’t just come out and say they can’t operate in high crime areas.
After 30 years in business a family owned coffee chain must close down because of inflation.
An Earth Fare supermarket in North Carolina has closed after just 18 months.
That’s just a sample of how this “growing economy” is treating people. Our entire civilization is built on cheap energy. That is now gone and soon civilization with it.
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Author Rob Taylor
