Free Republic

President Donald Trump's tariff plans have prompted some of the largest banks in the U.S. and Britain to fly gold bars from London to New York City on commercial flights. Trump's plans to impose tariffs on U.S. trading partners – including a reciprocal tariff regime that's expected to be formalized by early April and tariffs on the European Union he hasn't yet detailed – have spurred banks to relocate their gold reserves. That move has been driven by a price differential between gold sold in London and New York – The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the prices...

Why is Elon Musk supporting Ron Paul leading an audit of The Federal Reserve such a big deal? Because The Fed has NEVER had a full audit, or full disclosure of monetary policy decisions Example: The Fed got caught doing HALF A TRILLION in swaps overseas with no oversight Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was even questioned about giving this half a trillion in swaps to the central banks overseas: No one gave the approval and he says he doesn’t need approval, “We have a longstanding legal authority to do swaps with other central banks — It's not an emergency...

By debanking conservatives, JPMorgan and Bank of America may be “debanking” themselves, On The Money has learned. It all stems from a raft of bad publicity that began with President Trump’s statements in Davos a couple of weeks ago, accusing the nation’s No. 1 and No. 2 banks of canceling accounts of conservatives. It continued with Wednesday’s Senate Banking Committee hearing on the matter. The result: Some customers began to flee the big guys, and at least one beneficiary has been to a small online bank that is beginning to make a name for itself in conservative circles by claiming...

Government consumer watchdog claims Capital One misled consumers.. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is suing Capital One, alleging the bank illegally misled customers by not notifying them of account options that paid higher interest rates. The federal government's consumer watchdog claims Capital One's practices meant millions of customers missed out on a collective $2 billion they could have made in interest payments. ... CFPB accused Capital One of promising depositors that their 360 Savings account provided one of the nation's "top," "best" and "highest" interest rates but froze their rate at just 0.30% even as deposit rates rose nationwide....

Big bank profits surged in the fourth quarter and Wall Street roared back to life, with net income rising 50% at JPMorgan Chase and more than doubling at Goldman Sachs. The banks benefited as big corporate clients grew optimistic about the economy and the incoming Trump administration, spurring a return to dealmaking, fundraising and trading. Via Double Pedestal Executive Bowfront L Shaped Desk - 72"W Matte Cherry Laminate/Soft Black Office Desk For Ergonomic Working And PC Use National Business Furniture

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation gave a fresh deadline of Feb. 10 to BlackRock to resolve an issue regarding oversight into the asset manager’s investments in FDIC-regulated banking organizations, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing three people with knowledge of the matter. The FDIC may open an investigation into BlackRock and demand more information from the company if it fails to make sufficient progress toward resolving the issues, the report said. The move by the FDIC follows a Jan. 10 deadline that BlackRock failed to meet, according to the report. snip BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street now collectively control some...

CNN’s Kyung Lah talks to members of an extended family who all live in Altadena, California, and who say they feel helpless about what to do next after losing their homes in the wildfires.

The lame duck Biden administration’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a rule in December to curb overdraft penalties in what experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation is an example of government overreach that will ravage low-income Americans. The CFPB — an agency that is considered the brainchild of Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren — finalized the rule just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, with the aim of forcing banks to either cap overdraft fees at $5, far less than the $35 average, or to provide the overdraft as a form of credit rather than a penalty....

In a government full of nasty, obnoxious and extra-legal regulatory initiatives to harass the people, the effort to regulate “money laundering” out of existence has to rank at the top. The basic idea is for the government to require all banks to become involuntary deputies of law enforcement to spy on their customers behind their backs, so that the bureaucrats can gain access to detailed information on what every single person is doing all the time. And thus will all criminality be stomped out! In the real world, what anti-money laundering (AML) regulation means is that the government gains vast...

“…as a condition of participating in the modern economy, Americans are forced to disclose details of their private lives to a financial industry that has been too eager to pass this information along to federal law enforcement.”A report from the House Judiciary Committee and Government Weaponization Subcommittee exposed the FBI for abusing the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) to spy on Americans’ bank accounts without a warrant. “Documents show that federal law enforcement increasingly works hand-in-glove with financial institutions, obtaining virtually unchecked access to private financial data and testing out new methods and new technology to continue the financial surveillance of...

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said Tuesday that the federal government has been weaponized to spy on Americans' bank accounts and financial transactions. "We know in 2023 [that] 14,000 different individuals in the government [about] three million times in one year......14,000 individuals did over three million searches of this database of information on Americans banking habits," Jordan said on the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show. Last week the House Judiciary Committee issued a report that detailed how the federal government had unchecked access to private financial data of everyday Americans. "The FBI has manipulated the Suspicious Activity...

In a move that’s left self-employed workers scratching their heads, the Spanish tax office, Hacienda, has dropped a bombshell: banks will have to report every single payment made to self-employed clients, even those under the previous €3,000 threshold. The unexpected measure slipped quietly into a royal decree that also tweaks corporate tax rates for multinationals, which means the taxman will have eyes on transactions of any amount, whether through traditional methods or modern mobile systems like the popular Bizum. The €3,000 rule is no more For years, banks only raised the alarm for transactions over €3,000. As José María Peláez,...

Incoming First Lady Melania Trump opened up about the persecution she’s endured since leaving the White House in 2021. Trump shared her experience with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo in an Oct. 7 interview. Trump said the persecution began as soon as President-elect Donald Trump announced his decision to run for president in 2015 but that it continued after leaving the White House. ... She recounted a time that a bank — not a branch but an entire company — dropped her as a customer. “The bank suddenly informed me they will not be able to do business with me anymore,”...

Agroup of illegal immigrants from South America was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly using construction crew disguises, blowtorches and cellphone jammers, among other "sophisticated tactics," to rob banks across multiple states of more than $4 million in cash, according to federal prosecutors. The crew, made up mostly of Chilean nationals, targeted more than 29 banks and credit unions throughout California, Oregon and Washington between May and October, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced. According to court documents, the group mapped out ATMs in "vulnerable locations," then rented short-term vacation properties nearby and used cars they rented on...

China is currently facing a staggering $800 billion in defaults in its non-standard debt market. Much of this debt is tied to Local Government Financing Vehicles (LGFVs), which issue fixed-income investments that aren’t publicly traded and are primarily used to fund infrastructure projects. Analysts estimate the size of this non-standard debt market to be massive, and recent data shows an alarming increase in defaults. In just the first nine months of 2024, 60 non-standard debt products tied to LGFVs have either defaulted or flagged repayment risks—up 20% compared to the same period last year. This surge has set a record...

Silver prices soared by over 6% yesterday, breaking through the crucial $33.6 per ounce mark and sending shockwaves through global markets. The surge has put five major U.S. banks at risk of massive losses, potentially in the billions, due to their heavy short positions in the precious metal. According to data from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the open interest in silver futures contracts has reached a staggering 141,580 contracts, each representing 5,000 ounces of silver. This translates to a total of 707,900,000 ounces – nearly equivalent to a year's worth of global silver production.

The Military spokesperson says Israel will reveal how Iran funds Hezbollah and its terror activities; IDF planes strike banks in Beirut's Dahieh and elsewhere around the country.

The Biden Administration is pushing banks to report every $600 transaction, whether a deposit or withdrawal, from every business or personal account. The Democrats want everything, and no matter how much they collect, they will always spend more. TAXES are really no longer even necessary along with borrowing. They never pay off the debt anyhow, and it would be immensely more efficient for the government to just print the money they need and end both borrowing and taxation. Over 70% of the national debt is due to interest and wars. It does not go to expand the economy or help...

Many of you may remember my reporting around "Operation Choke Point 2.0" from the spring of 2023; TLDR, Biden's financial regulators, namely the Fed, FDIC, and OCC, launched a crackdown on banks covering the crypto space. The first casualty was Silvergate Bank, which voluntarily liquidated. The standard reporting around Silvergate was that the bank lent to crypto depositors and those depositors were flighty; when rates rose, Silvergate suffered M2M losses on bond portfolios and ended up insolvent. Except that's not true. Silvergate weathered the storm, even though short sellers and members of Congress like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) encouraged a...

The U.S. is entering an era of hyperinflation, warns Lynette Zang, Founder & CEO of Zang Enterprises, adding that the transition in the U.S. has already begun. "I believe with all my heart and everything that I know that we've already begun the transition to hyperinflation," Zang told Michelle Makori, Lead Anchor and Editor-in-Chief at Kitco News. "We're going to see more borrowing, more money printing, more inflation because they have not killed that beast that they created and continue to create. It'll become very obvious in 2025." Zang sees the economy holding up well through the U.S. elections on...