Free Republic

Washington State Democrats are defining the 2024 legislative session as an all-out war on gun rights. They are not only trying to impose licenses on gun ownership and a per-bullet tax. Now, far-left lawmakers are trying to put gun shops out of business with insurmountable, frivolous costs under the lie that it’s about public safety. What they’re asking for is not possible, and that’s the point. Federal Firearms Licensed (FFL) shops are subject to intense regulation, requiring significant investments in security under penalty of loss of license, business-ending financial punishments, and jail time. HB 2118 would completely upend the high...

Ohio Republican Congressman Jim Jordan says, "We now know the federal government flagged terms like “MAGA” and “TRUMP,” to financial institutions if Americans completed transactions using those terms. "What was also flagged? If you bought a religious text, like a BIBLE, or shopped at Bass Pro Shop." https://x.com/Jim_Jordan/status/1747718053365010737?s=20 https://x.com/Jim_Jordan/status/1747718064374730900?s=20

On Wednesday, the Republican majority on the House Judiciary Committee revealed even more drastic examples of government surveillance and breaches of privacy in the aftermath of the peaceful protest on January 6th, including the searching of Americans’ private bank transactions. According to Fox News, the Judiciary Committee and the subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government described their latest findings in a letter obtained by Fox. The letter states that investigators ordered banks to search through their customers’ private transactions for key terms such as “MAGA” and “Trump,” while also claiming that the purchasing of “religious texts” were a...

A U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary subcommittee is seeking to question a former official in the U.S. Treasury's financial crimes enforcement office over revelations the agency urged financial institutions to flag customer transactions linked to phrases like "MAGA" and "Trump" as well as purchases of religious texts. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chair of the House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, sent a letter Wednesday to Noah Bishoff, the former director of an office in the Treasury's Strategic Operations Division of Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Requesting a transcribed interview with Bishoff, Jordan stated that the subcommittee obtained documents...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is pushing to reduce the overdraft fees Americans are charged at banks and credit unions when they don’t have enough money in their accounts to cover spending, which could save customers $3.5 billion a year, the latest in a string of crackdowns on fees by the Biden Administration. Key Facts Under a new proposed rule, large financial institutions could either charge a flat fee for overdraft payments that aligns with the service’s cost, or provide the same disclosures and protections for overdraft services that are required for credit cards and other loans. If banks choose...

"China's state-owned banks are tightening curbs on funding to Russian clients as they fear being subjected to secondary sanctions from the U.S., according to a Tuesday report by Bloomberg... "...Chris Weafer, chief executive officer of strategic consultants Macro-Advisory Ltd., which focuses on Russia and the Eurasia region, previously told Newsweek that Russia should be wary of this increased reliance on China. "While China is eagerly buying energy and materials and selling Chinese-made goods to the Russia market, all of which suits Beijing, there is very little investment coming into Russia, certainly nothing like enough to replace the lost investment from...

The Federal Reserve quietly lost a fortune in 2023 as interest it pays out to banks swamped the interest it earns on its bond portfolio, data released by the central bank Friday showed. The Fed said it lost roughly $114.3 billion in 2023, its largest-ever annual loss. The losses occurred because the money the Fed pays banks for reserves held at the central bank exceeded the interest earned on the mortgage bonds it holds. The Fed has been raising the interest rate paid on reserves alongside the hikes on the benchmark federal funds rate to stem the worst inflation in...

71-YEAR-OLD BANK ROBBER ARRESTED AFTER $64,000 HEIST ISAI ROCHAJANUARY 11, 2024 Bruce Edward Bell,71, was arrested after a string of bank robberies in Los Angeles. In his most recent December heist, Bell allegedly stole more than $64,000, maneuvering his way to restricted areas of the bank and demanding that employees fill his bag with cash. “During this incident, Bell entered the location, grabbed an employee and pointed a firearm,” the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said in a statement. “Bell forced the employee to walk over to an access-restricted door. Bell demanded entry into the secure area and stated he...

Top U.S. bank JP Morgan Chase on Friday reported $49.6 billion in profits for 2023, a record for the bank, despite a sector crisis that shut down multiple smaller institutions. Profits for the year were up for the bank despite net income bringing in only $9.3 billion in the fourth quarter, falling 15%, while the company brought in $39.9 billion in net revenue, up 12% for the quarter, according to JP Morgan’s fourth quarter earnings report. JP Morgan’s record profits come after a year of crisis for the sector, starting with a bank run in March at Silicon Valley Bank...

acknowledging a "clearly disappointing" quarter marred by one-off charges that resulted in a $1.8 billion loss. ... in the middle of a multi-year effort to cut bureaucracy, increase profits and boost a stock that has lagged peers ... "The fourth quarter was very clearly disappointing," CEO Jane Fraser .. We know that 2024 is critical." ... layoffs from the sweeping reorganization, Chief Financial Officer Mark Mason ... Citi will also no longer count 40,000 jobs when it spins off and lists its Mexican consumer unit Banamex in an eventual initial public offering, eventually aiming to reach a staffing level of...

Large US banks reported mixed results Friday, dented by exceptional costs connected to job cuts and to replenishing a federal fund tapped during last year’s crisis involving midsized lenders. But while consumer credit quality has diminished somewhat, executives continued to describe a relatively solid US economy, with talk of a recession replaced by a “soft landing” of slower growth. “We think the soft landing is a core thesis,” Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan said on a conference call with analysts, adding that consumers are “still in the game” even as consumption has shifted from retail goods to going...

Citigroup warned investors late Wednesday that charges tied to the decline of the Argentine peso as well as the bank’s reorganization came in far higher than recently disclosed. The bank said its fourth-quarter results, scheduled to be released Friday morning, were impacted by $880 million in currency conversion losses from the peso and $780 million in restructuring charges tied to CEO Jane Fraser’s corporate simplification project. Those charges are significantly larger than the “couple hundred million dollars” apiece that CFO Mark Mason told investors to expect at a Dec. 6 conference hosted by Goldman Sachs. ... They gave guidance just...

Trump Predicts the Fed Will Lower Rates to Help Democrats We also were keen to ask Trump if he thinks the Federal Reserve and Chairman Jerome Powell will cut interest rates specifically to help Joe Biden (or another Democrat) win the general election. The former President said he does think that is how things will play out. "Yeah, I think they will,” he said, before taking a light dig at Powell. “I was never a big fan of this guy,” Trump told us, before casually pointing the finger at his own Treasury Secretary. “Steve Mnuchin recommended him, but I was...

Hundreds of loans on office buildings are about to come due at a very bad time.. Loans were taken out in time of low interest rates and are now hard to refinance.. Too many of the loans defaulting could trigger banking crisis and hurt economy ... About $117 billion worth is expected to be due this year and needs to be repaid or refinanced, ... A big chunk of it is at risk of defaulting and costing banks and developers huge sums, sending some into insolvency. Owners of office space around the country took out their loans when interest rates...

While The Who Sang “The Kid’s Are Alright” ,the same can’t be said of banks. It has been nine months since the spectacular and sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. After witnessing three of the four largest bank failures in U.S. history in 2023, the attention of the media and the markets has turned elsewhere. Banking crisis? It is as though it never happened. Having fallen by some 40 percent in March, the NASDAQ Bank Index has recovered to within 15 percent of its high from February. In the last few months, nearly all markets have gone on a bull...

President Biden on Friday is expected to sign an executive order expanding sanctions targeting Russia’s ability to build up its military. The new authority would threaten foreign banks connected to the U.S. financial system with penalties for transacting with Moscow. The executive order (EO) warns foreign banks against processing “significant transactions relating to Russia’s military industrial base,” saying that doing so would risk losing access to the American financial system.

Both the US Federal government and California’s government are facing a fiscal inferno. Thanks to a softening economy and inane fiscal policies. First, let’s begin with banks to illustrate the worsening condition of the economy. Emergency loans from The Fed’s Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP) is on the rise, signaling perceived trouble in the economy. Small banks are suffering more than big banks. Consumer sentiment is below 70 (100 baseline) under Biden and Bidenomics. And then we have Gavin “Gruesome” Newsom and California. California is now facing a $68 billion deficit. It has also defaulted on a $20 billion loan...

Are we headed toward a war with China? Recent developments seem to suggest that things are heading in that direction. Congressional lawmakers are now pressing the Federal Reserve to ‘stress tests’ banks for the ensuing fallout from a potential war with the Chinese Communist Party. Aside from the fact that this indicates Washington D.C. is anticipating conflict, it also calls into question the current health of our banking sector overall. It’s no secret that banks have been failing left and right, while both consumer and national debt have skyrocketed to unsustainable levels. Consumer spending is down in several key areas,...

resident Biden's administration has begun probing the nation's largest banks to assess their plans to mitigate climate risk with their loans and business. A recent "discovery review" led by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) looked into more than two dozen banks to determine how they are accounting for climate risk in their loans and investment strategies, in addition to investigating how they manage energy finance and greenhouse gas emissions, Reuters first reported. The purpose of this review is to supervise bank activities and support the effective management of climate-related financial risks among institutions...

Nearly a third of Christians in the U.S. have considered switching banks in the last year due to conflicts with their values and other factors, according to a new survey.The research conducted by the faith-based Christian Community Credit Union (CCCU) in San Dimas, California, found as Christians are being increasingly discriminated against by major banks, more are choosing to bank with companies that reflect their most deeply-held beliefs and values.In its survey of more than 1,300 professed Christians, over 30% of respondents said they thought about taking their banking business elsewhere in the past year in response to several reports...