Free Republic

5:32 AM PST - 1 Month US Treasury - 5.8% (annual rate). 1 Year US Treasury - 5.17% (annual rate).

Yes, the clock is ticking on a possible debt default and Biden is off in Hiroshima Japan instead of negotiating with House Speaker McCarthy. The treasury cash balance is only $18 billion away from Yellen’s minimum balance redline of $50 billion. That’s one day of spending in crazy spending Washington DC.

The U.S. Treasury Department said on Friday that there is only $88 billion in extraordinary measures left for the government to pay its bills as of Wednesday, down from $110 billion a week earlier. As of Wednesday, May 10, the U.S. is said to only have $88 billion left before it reaches the debt ceiling. Just one week earlier, there was said to be $110 billion left, meaning only about a quarter of the $333 billion of authorized measures are left for the government to use before hitting the debt limit.

The interpretation of a few words of regulation by the U.S. Treasury Department could upend expectations for how tens of billions of dollars in new electric-vehicle tax incentives will be distributed, according to Bloomberg discussions with a dozen manufacturing executives, battery analysts and government officials. At stake over the coming weeks is the extent to which a critical part of the battery supply chain will end up being made in North America or remain where it’s currently concentrated, in Asia. “There are specific factories — and there are thousands of jobs tied to those — that are hanging in the...

Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the Washington-based lender of last resort, said rising interest rates have put pressure on debts, leading to “stresses” in leading economies, including among lenders. Georgieva said the world economy would expand by just 3% in this year as rising borrowing costs, combined with the war in Ukraine and scarring from the Covid-19 pandemic would suffocate growth. Adding to a growing chorus of warnings from economic leaders, the IMF chief said it was clear that risks to financial stability had increased after the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Swiss-government brokered rescue of Credit...

The Federal Reserve's year-long effort to fight inflation through aggressive rate hikes appears to be near its end, and that sets up a new landscape for investors, according to DataTrek Research. "Markets expect the Fed to cut rates later this year, and even the [Federal Open Market Committee] believes we are near the end of the current rate cycle," DataTrek's co-founder Nicholas Colas wrote in a note Friday. "We are entering a 'Post-Fed' world, where monetary policy decisions will be less important to market psychology." DataTrek noted that as the Fed slowed its hiking pace late last year and early...

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is set to tell members of the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday the U.S. banking system remains "sound" as the impacts of three bank failures in less than a week continue to be felt in financial markets and beyond. "I can reassure the members of the Committee that our banking system remains sound and that Americans can feel confident that their deposits will be there when they need them," Yellen is set to tell the Senate ahead of a scheduled hearing on President Biden's proposed budget. "This week's actions demonstrate our resolute commitment to ensure...

The Biden family business received a $3 million wire transfer from a Chinese energy company and subsequent payments after President Joe Biden left the vice presidency in 2017, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) announced upon receiving suspicious activity reports from the Treasury this week. U.S. banks have flagged over 150 SARs from Hunter and James Biden that included “large” amounts of money flagged for further review. According to a 2020 Senate report, SARs “often contain evidence of potential criminal activities, such as money laundering and fraud.” “According to bank documents we’ve already obtained, we know one company owned...

WASHINGTON — Plans announced Sunday to fully reimburse deposits made in the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank and the shuttered Signature Bank will rely on Wall Street and large financial institutions — not taxpayers — to foot the bill, Treasury officials said. “For the banks that were put into receivership, the FDIC will use funds from the Deposit Insurance Fund to ensure that all of its depositors are made whole,” said a senior Treasury Department official, who spoke to reporters Sunday about the plan on the condition of anonymity.

The following statement was released by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen, Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome H. Powell, and FDIC Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg: Today we are taking decisive actions to protect the U.S. economy by strengthening public confidence in our banking system. This step will ensure that the U.S. banking system continues to perform its vital roles of protecting deposits and providing access to credit to households and businesses in a manner that promotes strong and sustainable economic growth. After receiving a recommendation from the boards of the FDIC and the Federal Reserve, and consulting with the...

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration flags 42,000 so-called "federal employee non-filers" and states the government is limited in its authority to punish them, according to the Washington Times. The IRS puts little effort into targeting the non-filers because of laws that restricts how much information the agency can share with other federal agencies, so it has limit ability to prod or punish the employees, the audit found. As of 2021, delinquent federal employees owed $1.5 billion in unpaid taxes, The Times also reports. “Repeatedly not filing a tax return when a taxpayer is required to do so is...

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich rejects the publication in Calcalist according to which the Director General of the Treasury is preventing a discussion of the economic consequences of the legal reform. "What are the 'gatekeepers' worth if we don't control them Journalists are not worth a penny. Shame on you. Take your hands and keyboards off the dedicated public servants! Come to me with complaints. I run the office, and as an elected official I am the one who must give you an account," he said "In essence, it's a dress code. I'm a big believer in open discourse and a...

The 2-year U.S. Treasury yield on Tuesday topped 5%, and rose to its highest level since 2007, as investors assessed comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell who said the central bank may need to increase the pace of interest rate hikes again.

As we’ve discussed here previously, the House Oversight Committee is looking into various communications and financial transactions related to the Biden family’s involvement with overseas entities from China, Ukraine, Russia, and beyond. (Biden Incorporated.) Or at least they’re trying to look into this. One area of inquiry has been a demand for the Treasury Department to turn over any records of dubious financial transactions involving the President, his Brother Jim, and First Son Hunter. These records, submitted by various banks to the Treasury Department when financial transactions look shady, are known as Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and they would probably...

H.R. 187 – Default Prevention Act H.R. 187 guarantees the sovereign debt of the United States Government by authorizing the Treasury Secretary to continue to borrow to pay interest and principal due on the debt, even in the event of an impasse concerning the debt limit.

After Jerome Powell raved about the strong US labor market and oddly ignored the staggering crowding-out of US interest payments on its massive debt, the US Treasury’s 3-year debt auction was … a Hinderburg moment. First, the high yield at today’s auction of 3-year Treasury notes was 4.073%. This occured as the allotment to brokers and dealers collapsed along with M2 Money growth YoY. Then we have this horrible chart of the 3Y auction stop through, crashing into uncharted waters. A stop-through indicates when the highest yield the Treasury sold in the auction is below the highest yield expected when...

Shortly after the new Congress was seated, Congressman James Comer, Chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen with a records request. He wanted his committee to review any “suspicious activity reports” the Treasury might have related to Hunter Biden’s financial transactions over the years. This was meant to be part of the “Biden Incorporated” investigations that recently began. Yesterday, the Treasury’s Legislative Affairs chief, Jonathan Davidson, responded to Comer, telling him to basically go pound sand. His letter wasn’t quite that blunt, but he declined to provide any records, saying that the Treasury...

The first headline I saw when I turned on Bloomberg.com was “DOJ Officials Find More Classified Documents at President Biden’s Home.” This is an improvement! So far, the task has been handled by Biden’s private attorneys who don’t have proper security clearance; at least the Justice Department is finally getting involved! But back to the US yield curve. It is now the most inverted in 30+ years as M2 Money growth stalls. Inverted yield curves have preceded recessions in the past. But as China reopens and Europe is experiencing a warmer winter than expected (meaning that Europe has sufficient natural...

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has signalled that she will “tap” into Social Security to avoid breaching the US debt limit. Of course, if she does, it is unlikely that she will return the dollars. The Credit Default Swaps 1-year for the US (insurance against default) sits at 68.55, near the highest since 2013 debt ceiling crisis. Notice that the debt ceiling keeps on climbing once the Kabuki Theater of Democrats and Republicans is over. The Volatility Cube for the US CDS 1 year signals that it will all be over soon. So, Yellen and Treasury are threatening us with...

We got trouble in Potomac City! No, I’m not talking about the numerous Top Secret documents that Biden carelessly left in his garage in Delaware and the UPenn Biden Center. And they found more over the weekend. I’m talking about the US Treasury 10Y-2Y yield curve being inverted for 135 straight days. And thanks to inflation, REAL wage growth has been negative for 21 straight months. All this is happening while M2 Money growth (green line) stalls to 0% YoY. Swaps 5Y are rising as The Fed withdraws monetary stimulus.