Tag: banks

PayPal Admits Freezing Account Over Covid Mandate Criticism

It seemed pretty obvious as it was happening – but now there appears to be proof that PayPal was punishing users for their Covid-era speech that didn’t align with official narratives.

One of the critics of pandemic mandates that got “debanked” is UsForThem founder Molly Kingsley, who has been told by PayPal that her account got frozen because it was used to receive donations, and that was found to be outside the payment giant’s “acceptable use” rules.

The parent campaign group and Kingsley were vocal critics of obligatory Covid vaccination of children, forcing them to wear face masks, as well as school closures.

And now PayPal has spelled it out. The Telegraph reported the account was terminated because of “content published by UsForThem relating to mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations and school closures.”

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UK Gov’t Wants Sweeping Powers to Spy on Your Bank Account

The UK’s Labour government announced plans this week that would further erode civil rights in the country, this time in the name of “preventing benefit fraud”.

The plans include revoking the driver’s licenses of those convicted of benefit fraud, “early morning raids” by “crack teams” from the DWP, and –  most shockingly – permitting the government access to private banking information so they can take back money they believe they are owed, without the knowledge or permission of the accused.

In their own classically impartial fashion, the BBC reported this as:

Benefit cheats could be stripped of driving licenses

But this isn’t about “benefit cheats”. Even the government’s own figures say that benefit fraud makes up only ~3% of the welfare budget, and this move will only save £1.5 billion over the next five years.

£300 million per year is nothing in government terms. They just pledged 10x that amount, per year, to Ukraine.

They don’t care about the money, they care about power and precedent.

  • They want to be able to take away your driver’s license.
  • They want to be able to monitor your bank account.
  • They want to be able to take your money without your knowledge.
  • They want to be able to search your electronic devices and track your spending.

Maybe it will start with “reclaiming benefits”, but do you think it will end there?

Remember they also want to introduce Universal Basic Income, which would mean – technically – everyone is on “benefits”.

This is clearly a pathway to a “Social Credit” system.

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U.S. Federal Reserve withdraws from global climate coalition

The United States Federal Reserve has withdrawn from the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), a global coalition of central banks engaged in the study of climate risk that was launched in 2017.

“While the Board has appreciated the engagement with the NGFS and its members, the work of the NGFS has increasingly broadened in scope, covering a wider range of issues that are outside of the Board’s statutory mandate,” the central bank said in a statement on Friday.

The Fed has come under pressure in recent years from Republican lawmakers, including over concerns that climate concerns have unduly influenced financial regulation and that the central bank has become increasingly politicized.

In September, two House Republicans asked the Government Accountability Office to evaluate U.S. bank regulators’ membership in the NGFS.

Graham Steele, a former Biden-era Treasury official, said the Fed’s decision is “clearly a political move.”

“It defies what we know about the science and economic science risks of climate change,” Steele said in a statement. “There is no way to read this as anything other than responding to short-term political considerations.”

The central bank joined the global coalition in 2020.

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‘Net-Zero’ ESG banking cartel continues collapse in aftermath of Trump victory

BlackRock announced on Thursday that it is leaving the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. The asset management behemoth becomes the latest U.S. megacorporation to leave the ESG climate narrative coalition after President-elect Trump defeated Kamala Harris on Election Day.

The move follows the departure of the six biggest U.S. banks—Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Citi, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and JP Morgan—from the group after Election Day.

Charles Gasparino of the New York Post, who first broke the BlackRock news, remarked on X that it represents a “massive blow to the ESG investing movement.”

The Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) was established in April 2021, at the height of Covid hysteria, under the auspices of the United Nations. Initially, the NZBA attracted 43 major global banks, representing a significant portion of the world’s banking assets.

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World War I—The Great Banker Bailout

“We see men living with their skulls blown open; we see soldiers run with their two feet cut off, they stagger on their splintered stumps into the next shell-hole; a lance-corporal crawls a mile and a half on his hands dragging his smashed knee after him; another goes to the dressing station and over his clasped hands bulge his intestines; we see men without mouths, without jaws, without faces; we find one man who has held the artery of his arm in his teeth for two hours in order not to bleed to death. The sun goes down, night comes, the shells whine, life is at an end.”—All Quiet on the Western Front

It is estimated that the disaster of World War I claimed some 15-22 million lives. This does not even take into account the injuries, property destruction, and other post-war consequences. The above quote from the well-known novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, captures a horrific snapshot of World War I. While people often flippantly talk about war—especially from within the borders of a wealthy international hegemon like the United States—people ought to read such descriptions and soberly weigh the costs and benefits of going to war.

Given the description of the destruction above, plus the fact that Woodrow Wilson ran on the slogan, “He kept us out of war,” Americans probably would have resented the fact that the late entry of the United States in World War I served, at least in large part, to bail out American bankers. Such a statement as, “We are fighting this war on behalf of the bankers,” was, at one time, enough to land an American populist presidential candidate—Eugene V. Debs—in prison under the Espionage Act and Sedition Acts in 1918. However, following the war, Woodrow Wilson admitted,

Why, my fellow-citizens, is there any man here, or any woman—let me say, is there any child here, who does not know that the seed of war in the modern world is industrial and commercial rivalry? . . . This war, in its inception, was a commercial and industrial war. It was not a political war.

Yet, in the above quote, Wilson only admitted that this was the case for the commercial powers of Germany and its rivals, but he did not acknowledge the rescue that the US performed for American bankers in the war, who had been funding the Allied cause and providing loans to the Allied powers. The newly-printed money for these loans, supplied to Allied European powers, was quickly funneled back to certain industries in the United States who provided war materials. In the middle were the Fed-connected bankers.

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The CFPB Wants You To Pay For Mistakes Of Others

Imagine receiving an email from a stranger offering you one hundred thousand dollars in a week if you send them ten thousand dollars today. Most of us would immediately recognize this as a scam and avoid it. However, what if you were guaranteed to get your initial ten thousand dollars back, even if it turned out to be a fraud? It seems obvious that removing such risk would encourage people to make reckless financial decisions – to everyone except President Biden’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB.) This is evidenced by their recent lawsuit against the fintech payment service Zelle.

The CFPB is suing Zelle arguing that it should be forced to reimburse anyone who unwittingly transfers their own money to a scammer. Its actions seem all the more disingenuous given that no federal law endorsed or approved by Congress saddles fintech payment processors with such liability — but progressives have long been trying to create one.

Now with a new administration incoming, CFPB Chair Rohit Chopra and his army of bureaucrats are making a final push to circumvent Congress and enact laws themselves to burnish their resumés before Trump cleans house. If Chopra’s policies are so beneficial or popular, why can’t they receive a vote in Congress? 

What the CFPB is asking Zelle to do is akin to forcing us to reimburse others for their online gambling losses. It presents a unique moral hazard by effectively making Zelle provide ‘scam insurance’ on its peer-to-peer platform where users directly self-authorize transactions. How could such platforms possibly ensure that any and every time its customers send money to another (at their behest) it’s not a scam? The notion that people should be able to irresponsibly send money – despite receiving warnings from the app, already in place – to an unvetted dubious recipient without consequences is one of the more wrongheaded ideas to have ever been floated when it comes to regulating our banks.

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Secretive Shadow Banks Utilize Innovative BoE Tool Amid Financial Scrutiny

The Bank of England (BoE) has recently launched a new financial facility aimed at providing support to non-bank financial institutions, commonly known as shadow banks. However, details regarding the identities of these shadow banks remain shrouded in secrecy, raising concerns and interest in the financial community. The introduction of this tool marks a significant step in the BoE’s efforts to monitor and enhance financial stability within the market.

This newly developed tool enables these shadow banks to access liquidity while avoiding the transparency obligations typically mandated for traditional banking entities. This move has sparked a debate about the potential risks involved, particularly regarding the systemic stability of the financial ecosystem, as more entities operate outside the purview of regulatory scrutiny.

According to the BoE, the initiative aims to foster resilience in the financial sector, a goal that gains importance amid escalating economic pressures. As non-traditional banks increasingly play a pivotal role in the economy – providing credit to businesses and consumers alike – their operations have come under increased scrutiny from regulators concerned about risk management and leverage.

Despite the advantages, the decision not to disclose the identities of the accessing shadow banks has led to questions about accountability and risk assessment. The lack of transparency could hinder regulators’ ability to gauge potential vulnerabilities in the financial system and act preemptively in the event of instability.

The BoE is insisting that the tool will be pivotal in shielding the economy from monetary shocks and broadening its surveillance capabilities. However, the financial community is divided on whether this approach is conducive to fostering a sound financial environment or if it would exacerbate the challenges associated with non-bank financial entities operating in the shadows.

As the K-shaped recovery from the pandemic continues, the implications of this new facility could be profound. Observers are keenly watching how this development unfolds, especially given that shadow banks often emerged as lending sources during economic downturns. Nonetheless, their rise also invites cautious examination regarding the inherent risks that accompany their operations.

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Operation Choke Point 2.0: How The Feds Are Seeking To ‘Debank’ Targeted Industries

A federal initiative that began during the Obama administration with the goal of debanking certain industries disfavored by federal officials has apparently been resurrected and is taking aim at cryptocurrencies.

Operation Choke Point was started by the U.S. Dept. of Justice in 2013 as a way to put pressure on banks to sever their ties, without due process, with legal businesses like gun dealers, cannabis dispensaries and payday lenders which the administration found objectionable.

That initiative was ended by President Trump in 2017 but under the Biden administration, it appears that Operation Choke Point 2.0 has begun with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) sending letters to U.S. banks in 2022, urging them to “pause all crypto-related activity.”

Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) told Fox Business that the regulatory abuse is real and that President-elect Trump will put an end to this type of regulatory abuse.

Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen recently described the practice of debanking as “a privatized sanctions regime” on The Joe Rogan Experience, saying, “There’s no rules, there’s no court, there’s no decision process, there’s no appeal. Who do you go to to get your bank account back?”

And if the tune of Operation Choke Point 2.0 sounds familiar, there are also familiar faces as well.

Palmetto State News reports that Michael Eakes is the founder of the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) and Self-Help Credit Union, which operates five credit unions in South Carolina and was also an inaugural member of the FDIC’s Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion when it was started in 2006.

Another member of the advisory committee is Michael Calhoun who is president of the Center for Responsible Lending and a former employee of Self-Help Credit Union.

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Texas AG Ken Paxton Reveals Multiple Instances of Debanking Amid Political and Legal Challenges

Texas Attorney-General Ken Paxton has spoken at a Turning Point USA event to detail a series of unjust obstacles he has been facing since taking office, one of those being debanking.

According to Paxton, as many as four different banks denied him their services, which was followed by a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit, attempts to revoke his law license, and an FBI investigation.

This was happening during the last four years of the Biden-Harris Democrat administration, suggesting that the reasons were political, but it went all the way to “a Republican split”: while the state House tried to impeach Paxton – the Senate later acquitted him in the impeachment trial.

The takeaway here is that democratic norms and the principle of due process are at this point considerably compromised and highly vulnerable to political influence.

And Paxton is by no means the only high-profile individual to become the target of debanking. When the new administration took over after President Trump’s first term in office, his wife Melania, and son Barron were denied banking services.

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Printing Power: The Central Bank And The State

“Printing Power” in our title has a double meaning: It can mean “printing power”—the power to print money, which central banks have. But we will focus on “printing power”—the central bank’s money printing as an essential source of the power of the state, including of course the Federal Reserve’s printing to promote the power of the United States government. 

The Fed is good at literal printing, exercising its monopoly of currency issuance granted by the government. It has outstanding $2.3 trillion in pure paper money circulating around the world, of which perhaps 45 percent, or more than $1 trillion, is held abroad. All the currency represents zero-interest-rate financing of the Fed and the US government. With interest rates currently at 5 percent, this means a potential profit of $115 billion a year for them by the Fed’s having issued the currency. 

The Fed is also good at metaphorical printing, which is simply entering credits on the deposit accounts of banks in its own books. The Fed thereby creates money which it can use to buy the debt securities of the Treasury, or, in other words, to lend the printed money to the government. The Fed now has $4.1 trillion in deposits. 

All together then, as of October 2024, there is $6.4 trillion in currency and deposits used to finance the American state’s programs, payroll, interventions, subsidies, and wars. The Fed can and does use its buying power to keep the interest cost of the government’s debt lower than it would otherwise be. At peak Fed, in March 2022, the Fed owned $8.4 trillion in Treasury debt and government mortgage securities. 

Because the central bank prints power for the state, virtually all governments want and have one. 

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