Free Republic

Chinese local banks are freezing deposits. Protestors cannot go near banks as their health app for COVID-19 turns red. Authorities provided no explanation...As The Epoch Times' Dorothy Li reports, several depositors told The Epoch Times on June 14 that the health code on their COVID-19 app turned red as soon as they scanned venue barcodes at Zhengzhou, the provincial capital city of central China’s Henan Province.A red health code - indicating a potential COVID-19 patient - means the carrier is barred access to all public places from public toilets to shops to train stations, and faced mandatory quarantine in centralized...

Several depositors told The Epoch Times on June 14 that the health code on their COVID-19 app turned red as soon as they scanned venue barcodes at Zhengzhou, the provincial capital city of central China’s Henan Province. A red health code—indicating a potential COVID-19 patient—means that the carrier is barred access to all public places from public toilets to shops to train stations and faces mandatory quarantine in centralized isolation centers. They’re among tens of thousands of bank depositors who have fought to recover their savings for more than two months. The crisis started in April, when at least four...

In the anatomy of an economic crisis, a bank run is the point of no return. Bank runs occur when people scramble to withdraw cash from banks in fear of collapse. In the worst cases, banks’ liquid cash reserves are exhausted, not everyone gets their money and the bank defaults. It’s a grim scenario which, fortunately, has occurred rarely in history. The most significant bank runs in the United States took place during the 1930’s Great Depression. More recently, there were runs on numerous U.S. banks during the Financial Crisis in 2008. In Asia, bank runs have also been rare....

WASHINGTON—One of America’s most powerful regulators of business and finance has, at first glance, a relatively small job. Rohit Chopra’s title is director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which regulates consumer finance. From that perch, he has built substantial sway at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which oversees about 5,000 banks, and the Federal Trade Commission, the antitrust watchdog.

Run for cover! Markets opened after a long (and expensive) Memorial Day weekend, with the 10-year Treasury yield up 8.1 basis points (to Meanwhile, banks continue to park funds at The Federal Reserve in the form of reverse repos as global inflation soars. And then we have US gasoline prices rising to the highest in history. Its like banks know something that the rest of us don’t. Although we do know about the highest gasoline prices in history.

After a quick trip in a San Francisco taxi, the passenger handed a credit card to the driver to swipe, then hopped out of the cab. Soon, a gargantuan charge — thousands of dollars — appeared on the passenger’s credit card bill for the ride. Despite months of pleading, the bank insisted the passenger owed the money and only relented after being contacted by a reporter. Wait, you’ve heard this story before, right? The Chronicle’s article about Margarita Bekker’s $9,875 bill for an 11-minute Yellow Cab ride went viral earlier this year. Three people who read that story contacted The...

In the best of times, the Internal Revenue Service is tough to deal with, and tax season is never fun. But the past few years have seen the IRS lurch from one crisis to another. And things are about to get much worse for millions of taxpayers. In 2021 Congress expanded the reporting requirements of the obscure Form 1099-K. This information-reporting form tracks business transactions done with a credit or debit card or such peer-to-peer services as Venmo and Paypal. Prior to the change, taxpayers received a 1099-K only if they processed more than 200 business transactions, amounting to more...

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and Joe Biden’s ongoing war on fossil fuels are jacking up oil prices, and now left-wing climate change activists are adding to high energy costs by pressuring banks to stop investing in fossil fuels in the name of stopping “climate change.” The pressure comes in the form of a report titled “Banking on Climate Chaos: Fossil Fuel Finance Report 2022,” which seeks to shame the banks into dropping oil, gas, and other fossil fuel energy resources. And the effort is backed by well-funded climate activists groups, including the Sierra Club and Oil Change International.

There is a known $41 billion in Credit Default Swaps (CDS) on Russian debt. There is likely many billions more in unknown amounts. There are also billions more in Credit Default Swaps on state-owned Russian corporate debt and non state-owned Russian corporate debt. In addition to Wall Street not knowing which global banks and other financial institutions are on the hook to pay out on the Credit Default Swap protection they sold in case of a Russian sovereign debt default (or Russian corporate debt default), there is also approximately $100 billion of Russian sovereign debt (whose default is looking more...

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation announced on Sunday that several banks will switch to the Chinese card system following the suspension of Visa, Mastercard, and Paypal in Russia. It can be recalled that Visa, Mastercard, and Paypal announced on Saturday they will suspend all operations in Russia. “We are compelled to act following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and the unacceptable events that we have witnessed,” said Al Kelly, chairman and chief executive officer of Visa Inc. On Sunday, several banks in Russia will start to issue new cards with the new Russian payments system “Mir” and China’s...

[H/T rodguy911]The only way to avoid World War III is to listen to both sides. The refusal to listen ensures that we will move into World War III, and this is not my opinion; unfortunately, our computer has never been wrong, for it is unbiased. It called BREXIT when nobody else did, and also forecast that Trump would win in 2016 when everyone thought that was impossible.This time if our computer could hide under the covers in bed going into 2023, it would. We have the most incompetent crop of world leaders perhaps in human history, and the press is...

As Australian banks continue to focus on digital transactions for customers, ATMs and bank branches are disappearing across the country, according to new data. The analysis revealed close to 460 bank branches have shut down across the nation in recent years, and dating back to 2020, approximately 3800 previously active ATMs have been removed. NSW alone now has 140 fewer in-store banks, and almost 300 suburbs don't have a singular ATM to withdraw cash.

According to the Canadian financial blog Armstrong Economics, the emergency powers activated by Justin Trudeau to cripple the trucker protests have sparked panic among citizens, which could lead to a devastating financial crisis. On Feb. 14, Trudeau enacted the Emergencies Act, which enabled Canadian banks to freeze the assets of anyone who donated to protests against the vaccine mandates — without due process or any court action. Trudeau then ordered the banks to unfreeze the accounts after the protesters had been cleared away. But what is reported to have happened after that is being ignored by the corporate press. Armstrong...

Two Chinese state-owned banks will restrict financing for Russian commodity purchases, suggesting there are limits to Beijing's support for Moscow as the Kremlin confronts severe economic sanctions over its attack of Ukraine.

Several Ukrainian government websites were offline Wednesday as a result of a mass distributed denial of service attack, Mykhailo Fedorov, head of Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation said in his Telegram channel. The attack, which also impacted some banks, began around 4 p.m. local time, according to Fedorov. He didn’t say which banks were attacked or what the extent of the damage was. Websites for the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cabinet of Ministers and Rada, the country’s parliament, were among those down as of Wednesday morning Eastern time. The government sites were offline as officials attempted to switch traffic...

Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the suspension of Canadians’ rights last week in his invocation of the Emergencies Act to stop the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa and elsewhere. Among the restrictions announced are greater controls over the online crowdfunding sites that help to fund the protesters and attempts to control the flow of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. According to news reports, “credit card processors and fund-raising services will be required to report any blockade-related campaigns to Canada’s anti-money laundering agency.” Canadian banks quickly fell in line with the decrees, with Toronto-Dominion Bank freezing two personal bank accounts...

VIDEOWhat an embarrassment for the Son of Fidel and his very jumpy sidekick! After grandly announcing that protesters' bank accounts would be frozen they had to BACKTRACK completely just days with the announcement that those bank accounts would be unfrozen. Why? Not because they were enlightened about human rights but because their dopey decision caused a financial crises in the Canadian banking system.

In state legislatures throughout the country, lawmakers are introducing bills to protect the rights of their constituents concerning freedom of speech and freedom of association. Bank lobbyists are aggressively opposing these consumer protection bills, which begs the question: why? The banks say they do not use ESG metrics, so why oppose these consumer protection bills that merely erect some guardrails to ensure the rights, freedoms, and choices of citizens are protected? The banks and others opposing legislation to protect consumers and small businesses from ESG discrimination say the legislation interferes with the free market, that the government is meddling with...

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland commented on what information was given to financial institutions by the RCMP, and mocked those with frozen bank accounts by saying that the only way to unfreeze their accounts was to not be apart of "illegal" blockades. Freeland: "The way to get your account unfrozen is to stop being part of the blockade and occupation." pic.twitter.com/wSAAXMcBF6— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 21, 2022 "The RCMP has given to the financial institutions names of leaders and organizers of the protest and of people whose trucks were part of occupations and blockades. that is the only information,...

Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland said in an announcement that names of both individuals and entities have been shared by the RCMP with financial institutions and accounts have been frozen and as well as investigation of crypto wallets. Both journalists and politicians are assisting in identifying anyone who has donated to the Freedom Convoy after hackers illegally released GiveSendGo donor data on Monday. True North has gathered information on the most prominent figures who have engaged in sharing the illegal data contents, but the names have been removed. Gerald Butts, the former principal secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was among...