Citi launches blockchain-based token services for cash management and trade finance

Lena Petrova, CPA – Finance, Economics & Tax

Citigroup, the American multinational investment bank and financial services corporation, has become the latest firm to wade into the blockchain waters as Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) has announced the creation and pilot testing of the Citi Token Services for cash management and trade finance.

Citi launches blockchain-based token services for cash management and trade finance

Academic Study Finds that One of the Four Largest U.S. Banks Could Be at Risk of a Bank Run

The systemic threats to the U.S. financial system were not remedied when Congress passed the watered-down Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation in 2010. While that has been evident with each Federal Reserve bailout of the mega banks and their derivative counterparties, the threat has now gained increased urgency for Congress to confront as a result of a new academic study. A team of four highly-credentialed academics at four separate universities present compelling evidence that one of the four largest U.S. banks, with “assets above $1 trillion,” could be at risk of a bank run.

Academic Study Finds that One of the Four Largest U.S. Banks Could Be at Risk of a Bank Run

Epstein’s Private Calendar Reveals Prominent Names, Including CIA Chief, Goldman’s Top Lawyer

Epstein’s Private Calendar Reveals Prominent Names, Including CIA Chief, Goldman’s Top Lawyer

Most of those people told the Journal they visited Epstein for reasons related to his wealth and connections. Several said they thought he had served his time and had rehabilitated himself. Mr. Botstein said he was trying to get Epstein to donate to his school. Mr. Chomsky said he and Epstein discussed political and academic topics.

Mr. [Ehud] Barak also met Epstein in 2015 with Mr. Chomsky, now 94, a linguistics professor and political activist who has been critical of capitalism and U.S. foreign policy.

Mr. Chomsky said Epstein arranged the meeting with Mr. Barak for them to discuss “Israel’s policies with regard to Palestinian issues and the international arena.”

Mr. Barak said he often met with Epstein on trips to New York and was introduced to people such as Mr. Ramo and Mr. Chomsky to discuss geopolitics or other topics. “He often brought other interesting persons, from art or culture, law or science, finance, diplomacy or philanthropy,” Mr. Barak said.

Epstein arranged several meetings in 2015 and 2016 with Mr. Chomsky, while he was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

When asked about his relationship with Epstein, Mr. Chomsky replied in an email: “First response is that it is none of your business. Or anyone’s. Second is that I knew him and we met occasionally.”

In March 2015, Epstein scheduled a gathering with Mr. Chomsky and Harvard University professor Martin Nowak and other academics, according to the documents. Mr. Chomsky said they had several meetings at Mr. Nowak’s research institute to discuss neuroscience and other topics.

Two months later, Epstein planned to fly with Mr. Chomsky and his wife to have dinner with them and movie director Woody Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, the documents show.

“If there was a flight, which I doubt, it would have been from Boston to New York, 30 minutes,” Mr. Chomsky said. “I’m unaware of the principle that requires that I inform you about an evening spent with a great artist.”

Epstein donated at least $850,000 to MIT between 2002 and 2017, and more than $9.1 million to Harvard from 1998 to 2008, the schools have said. In 2021, Harvard said it was sanctioning Mr. Nowak for violating university policies in his dealings with Epstein, and was shutting a research center he ran that Epstein had funded. MIT said it was inappropriate to accept Epstein’s gifts, and that it later donated $850,000 to nonprofits supporting survivors of sexual abuse.

In a 2020 interview with the “dunc tank” podcast, Mr. Chomsky said that people he considered worse than Epstein had donated to MIT. He didn’t mention any of his meetings with Epstein.

Mr. Chomsky told the Journal that at the time of his meetings “what was known about Jeffrey Epstein was that he had been convicted of a crime and had served his sentence. According to U.S. laws and norms, that yields a clean slate.”

MIT said lawyers investigating its ties to Epstein didn’t find that Mr. Chomsky met with Epstein on its campus or received funding from him. Harvard declined to comment beyond the report it published on its Epstein ties in 2020. Mr. Nowak has said he regretted his role in fostering a connection between Epstein and Harvard. He didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Related:

MIT and Jeffrey Epstein

US government bailout of Silicon Valley and banks is $300B gift to rich oligarchs

The US Federal Reserve printed $300 billion in a week to save collapsing banks and bail out Silicon Valley oligarchs. 93% of Silicon Valley Bank’s deposits were uninsured, over the FDIC limit of $250,000, but the government still paid them. 56% of SVB’s loans went to venture capitalist and private equity firms.

US government bailout of Silicon Valley and banks is $300B gift to rich oligarchs

Two Fed-Supervised Banks Blew Up Last Week; Two More Dropped Over 40 Percent Yesterday; and the Fed Wants to Investigate Itself — Again

Two Fed-Supervised Banks Blew Up Last Week; Two More Dropped Over 40 Percent Yesterday; and the Fed Wants to Investigate Itself — Again

Last Friday, California state regulators closed Silicon Valley Bank and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) became the receiver. Its stock price had lost over 80 percent of its market value over the prior year; $150 billion of its $175 billion in deposits were uninsured, either because they exceeded the $250,000 FDIC cap and/or they were foreign deposits. The bank was effectively operating as a Wall Street IPO pipeline in drag as a federally-insured bank. The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco had quietly been bailing it out – to the tune of $15 billion. Oh – and by the way – its primary regulator was the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. And while all of this hubris was occurring, the CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, Gregory Becker, was sitting on the Board of Directors of his regulator, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Oh, and by the way, the Fed member banks in each of the 12 Federal Reserve Districts that can choose to be regulated by the Fed, literally own their regulator. That’s right, they own the stock in their regional Fed bank, which is a private institution, unlike the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C. which is an “independent” federal agency. (See, for example, These Are the Banks that Own the New York Fed and Its Money Button.)

Adding to the ongoing arrogance of the Fed, its Chairman, Jerome Powell, released a statement two minutes after the market closed yesterday, stating that “The events surrounding Silicon Valley Bank demand a thorough, transparent, and swift review…” So, once again, it’s decided to investigate itself. The Fed’s Vice Chairman for Supervision, Michael Barr, will oversee the investigation.

Elections & Lithium Mining: Why is the US Suddenly Running ‘Get Out the Vote Ads’ in Nigeria?

Elections & Lithium Mining: Why is the US Suddenly Running ‘Get Out the Vote Ads’ in Nigeria?

Last year, US-based electric vehicle company Tesla put in a bid for a contract to mine some of that Lithium, but the Nigerian government denied them. Nigeria, like most African countries, has a history of foreign powers exploiting them for their national resources while offering little value to the people of Nigeria.

Video via Activist News Network

Related:

What Would It Mean for Nigeria to Elect an Igbo President?

Steve Bannon And China’s Deep State

Steve Bannon And China’s Deep State

Although a century has passed since Coudenhove-Kalergi’s pan Europa was founded, the same principles are shaping the contours of our current age. Just as vast systemic crises threatening the lives of the majority of souls living on our planet press ominously against our future as they had a century ago, similar techniques of controlled opposition and games within games are used by the same oligarchical class who have orchestrated the current state of affairs. Many good people whose hearts are too large and understanding too shallow have already gotten absorbed into false narratives that frame those mortal enemies of the West as either Russia or China, while ignoring the causal hand of those same oligarchical agencies seeking to reduce all sovereign nations and cultures to rubble under a new Crusade. 

Don’t fall for it.

Related:

How a Tycoon Linked to Chinese Intelligence Became a Darling of Trump Republicans

The inscrutable aims of Steve Bannon’s enigmatic Chinese benefactor

Exclusive: The Fugitive Who Tried to Spark a US-China War

More About Guo Wengui

Forget cannabis. Here are 2 banking provisions that did make the NDAA.

Forget cannabis. Here are 2 banking provisions that did make the NDAA.

Some banks have instituted policies making it easier for second-chance workers to get hired. JPMorgan Chase years ago removed all questions about criminal backgrounds from job applications and established a policy center to help former criminals find jobs.

It expanded its effort to help ex-offenders return to the workforce last year, partnering with nonprofits to connect people with arrest or conviction histories to in-demand jobs. CEO Jamie Dimon also agreed to co-chair the Second Chance Business Coalition encompassing 29 member companies.

The bank hired 4,300 people with criminal records last year, Nan Gibson, executive director for public policy and corporate responsibility at the JPMorgan Chase Policy Center, told American Banker. That’s more than double the bank’s 2,100 second-chance hires from 2020.

H/ T: Judge Napolitano

Related:

JPMorgan Chase, the Largest Federally-Insured Bank in the U.S. with Five Felony Counts, Says 10 Percent of its New Hires Last Year Had Criminal Histories