Tag: banks

Trump Treasury Expands Financial Surveillance

More than one million Americans are about to face a new level of financial surveillance. The Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced that the threshold for currency transaction reports has been lowered from $10,000 to $200 for Americans living in 30 zip codes in California and Texas. Financial surveillance in the United States has long needed reform, but this move is in the wrong direction.

FinCEN officially announced the temporary policy change as an effort “to further combat the illicit activities and money laundering of Mexico-based cartels and other criminal actors along the southwest border of the United States.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “As part of a whole-of-government approach to combatting the threat, [the] Treasury remains focused on leveraging all our available tools and authorities to better identify and counter these criminal activities.”

While this announcement is disappointing, it is not surprising. Alex Nowrasteh, the Cato Institute’s vice president for economic and social policy studies, warned people in February that President Trump’s decision to designate cartels as terrorists could have repercussions for civil liberties and the economy at large. Specifically, Nowrasteh noted that the designation would allow the government to freeze assets, enact secondary sanctions, and take greater control of the financial system generally.

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Trade War: Tariffs Are Needed To Defeat Globalism But They Come With A Cost

Ever since the days of Herbert Hoover and the official start of the Great Depression the concept of trade tariffs has been readily demonized across most of academia and among the majority of modern economic ideologies. Is is actually one area where globalists and free market economists tend to align (though each group has very different reasons).

Proponents of Adam Smith’s free market philosophy or Ludwig Von Mises and his Austrian school are Just as likely to be opposed to Donald Trump’s tariff plans as any globalist from the halls of Davos.

First and foremost we have to make it clear what tariffs are: Tariffs are taxes on international companies importing goods from other nations. These taxes are designed to force companies to import from countries outside of the tariff list or produce goods domestically. The primary targets of tariffs are actually corporations. The secondary targets are countries on the tariff list.

Austrian economists in their opposition to tariffs operate on the assumption that large corporations are “free market” entities. They also assume that globalism is a product of free markets.

Adam Smith might have witnessed the corruption of mercantalism, but he had no inkling of the monstrosity of modern globalism and how it would ultimately pervert the free market ideal. The same goes for Mises. Their support for global trade was contingent on the idea that government interference is always the root problem, the fly in the ointment.

They did not take into account the blurring of lines between corporations, governments and NGOs – They did not consider the corporate shadow government of Davos and the manipulation of markets in the name of “free trade”. They couldn’t have even fathomed the creation of organizations like the IMF, World Bank, the BIS, etc. at the time they came up with their economic theories.

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Trump Sues Capital One: Banking Giant Accused of Political Bias

President Donald Trump’s business trust has taken legal action against Capital One, accusing the bank of shutting down its accounts in 2021 due to political bias, allegedly inflicting significant financial damage.

Filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on Friday, the lawsuit, brought by the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust and Eric Trump, alleges that the Virginia-based lender violated consumer protection laws in Florida and other states. The plaintiffs seek financial compensation for what they describe as an unjustified move that disrupted their business operations.

According to the lawsuit, Capital One informed Trump’s business in March 2021 that it would be closing hundreds of accounts holding millions of dollars within two months. The legal complaint broadens its argument by asserting that individuals and businesses across the country are being denied access to financial services due to their political views.

We obtained a copy of the lawsuit for you here.

“Plaintiffs have reason to believe that Capital One’s unilateral decision came about as a result of political and social motivations and Capital One’s unsubstantiated, ‘woke’ beliefs that it needed to distance itself from President Trump and his conservative political views,” the lawsuit states.

The filing further alleges that Capital One’s decision reflects an industry-wide trend aimed at pressuring individuals and businesses to conform to certain political ideologies. “Capital One’s conduct is but one example of a systemic, subversive industry practice that aims to coerce the public to shift and re-align their political views,” it claims.

However, Capital One has denied these allegations, asserting that its actions were not politically motivated. “Capital One has not and does not close customer accounts for political reasons,” a spokesperson for the bank said in a statement.

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The Push to End Debanking

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, who chairs the US Senate Banking Committee, is spearheading an effort to eliminate regulatory oversight of customer reputational risks in banking.

Scott has introduced a bill designed to put an end to debanking, a controversial practice that has been used to deny financial services to certain businesses and individuals based on subjective risk assessments.

We obtained a copy of the bill for you here.

Debanking allows banks to cut off clients deemed to pose “reputational risks.” The Federal Reserve defines this term as “the potential that negative publicity regarding an institution’s business practices, whether true or not, will cause a decline in the customer base, costly litigation, or revenue reductions.”

The broad and vague nature of this definition has led to concerns that financial institutions wield too much discretionary power over who can access essential banking services.

Scott’s legislative push has garnered significant Republican backing, with at least 11 GOP lawmakers co-sponsoring the measure. Major banking industry groups are also lining up in support, including the Bank Policy Institute, which represents many of the country’s largest financial institutions.

“As Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, I have made addressing debanking a top priority.

“This discriminatory and un-American practice should concern everyone, which is why I’ve led my colleagues in working to find tangible solutions. It’s clear that federal regulators have abused reputational risk by carrying out a political agenda against federally legal businesses. This legislation, which eliminates all references to reputational risk in regulatory supervision, is the first step in ending debanking once and for all,” said Senator Scott.

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Trump Yanks SBA Benefits From Illegals After ‘Record Invasion’

Illegal immigrants receiving taxpayer benefits are fresh out of luck – after the Small Business Administration (SBA) announced a series of reforms, including removing offices from sanctuary cities.

SBA administrator Kelly Loeffler said in a press release that the reforms will “put American citizens first by ending taxpayer benefits for illegal aliens.”

According to the agency, in the coming days it will require all SBA loan applicants to include citizenship verification so that only legal citizens are accessing its programs. Lenders will also need to confirm that businesses are not owned in “whole or in part by an illegal alien” in order to adhere to President Trump’s executive order prohibiting “taxpayer subsidization of open borders.”

The SBA is also relocating offices in six sanctuary cities, per the press release, including locations in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York City, and Seattle. The new locations will be less costly, more accessible, and located in areas that “better serve the small business community and that comply with federal immigration law,” Fox News reports, citing the release.

“Over the last four years, the record invasion of illegal aliens has jeopardized both the lives of American citizens and the livelihoods of American small business owners, who have each become victims of Joe Biden’s migrant crime spree,” said Loeffler.

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Rep. Thomas Massie, Sen. Mike Lee Introduce Bills to Audit and Abolish Federal Reserve

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) have teamed up to reintroduce the “End the Fed” bill in the House and Senate to liquidate the Federal Reserve’s assets and transfer all money to the Treasury. 

Additionally, Massie also introduced a bill to audit the Federal Reserve in the House.

Massie previously introduced the bills in 2024.

“The Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act was first introduced by former Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) in 1999 and hasn’t been reintroduced since 2013. In addition to introducing this legislation to “End the Fed,” Rep. Massie has also introduced H.R. 24, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2025 to audit the Federal Reserve. H.R. 24 was originally introduced by former Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) in 2009,” according to a press release from Massie’s office.

The Act will abolish the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and liquidate all assets to return to the taxpayer. It also repeals the Federal Reserve Act, the 1913 law that created the Federal Reserve, effective one year after the bill is signed into law.

Read the full bill here.

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REVEALED: Bank of America Not Only Targets and Debanks Conservatives But Also Has Deep Ties and Exposure with the Chinese Communist Party

The Gateway Pundit has uncovered alarming evidence of Bank of America’s extensive ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Through its investments, board member connections, and collaborations with CCP-linked organizations, one of America’s largest banks appears to have placed profits above national security, raising serious questions about foreign influence.

Bank of America’s entanglement with the CCP dates back to 2005, when it invested $3 billion in China Construction Bank (CCB), the second-largest bank in China at the time.

This unprecedented investment, which marked the largest-ever foreign financial deal in China, signaled a willingness to align with CCP interests to gain access to the lucrative Chinese market.

While Bank of America sold its stake in 2013, it remains one of only eight U.S. banks permitted to locally incorporate in China, a privilege granted only with CCP approval.

The connections extend to Bank of America’s leadership. Maria Zuber and Lionel L. Nowell III, two board members, also serve on the board of Textron, an aviation company with deep operations in China.

Textron partnered with AVIC, a Chinese state-owned defense conglomerate sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for aiding the People’s Liberation Army.

Reports suggest that Textron’s aircraft designs were copied by Chinese companies, further underscoring the risks of such partnerships.

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EPA head Lee Zeldin reveals no real oversight of shocking $20B that Biden admin funneled through Citibank: ‘Tip of the iceberg’

A $20 billion Biden administration green-energy slush fund was collecting interest at a private bank and is being distributed without proper oversight, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin reveals in an exclusive interview.

President Joe Biden’s EPA parked $20 billion at the financial institution, which The Post has learned is Citibank, as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. But the awardees weren’t announced until August 2024 and Citibank was not brought in until September — after Biden’s disastrous June debate performance led him to withdraw from his re-election effort in July, making for a very different race with Vice President Kamala Harris the Democratic nominee.

Zeldin’s team is looking into whether former EPA employees are working at any of the grantees, which include the Opportunity Finance Network (receiving $2.29 billion), where vice president Laura Silverman says she brings “economic, financial, and social justice to communities,” and the Native CDFI Network ($400 million), which has featured Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as a speaker. Power Forward Communities, a $2 billion recipient, has no list of employees on its website — but does have openings for government affairs VP, communications VP and special assistant.

The others: Climate United Fund (which got the biggest grant, nearly $7 billion), Coalition for Green Capital ($5 billion), Inclusiv ($1.87 billion), Justice Climate Fund ($940 million) and Appalachian Community Capital ($500 million).

Here Lee Zeldin tells The Post’s Kelly Jane Torrance why it was “a high priority for me and my great team to get to the bottom of these questions as quickly as possible.”

This was on our radar during the transition, when the video was posted online at the beginning of December of the Biden EPA political appointee admitting on camera they were “throwing gold bars off the Titanic.”

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Senators and Witnesses Expose Biden Admin’s Debanking Scandal as New Operation Choke Point Evidence Emerges

During a US Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing titled “Investigating the Real Impacts of Debanking in America,” senators and witnesses laid out how Joe Biden’s administration, regulators, overbearing rules, big banks, and more had resulted in millions of Americans being blacklisted from the banking industry.

Throughout the hearing, witnesses and senators noted that Biden regime pressure was a major contributor to this debanking wave, particularly through Operation Choke Point 2.0, a Biden-era push that primarily focused on pressuring banks to refuse to service cryptocurrency companies.

These claims were bolstered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC’s) release of 175 pages of documents before the hearing, which, according to FDIC Acting Chairman Travis Hill, show that banks that sought to offer crypto-related products or services were “almost universally met with resistance” from the FDIC, with some of this resistance coming in the form of “directives from supervisors to pause, suspend, or refrain from expanding all crypto- or blockchain-related activity.”

“Under the Biden administration, we’ve seen the rise of what many are calling Operation Choke Point 2.0, where federal regulators exploited their power, pressuring banks to cut off services to individuals and businesses with conservative dispositions, or folks aligned with industries they just didn’t like, like the color of one’s skin in my family’s history,” Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) said. “I wholeheartedly believe that debanking someone over their political ideology is un-American and goes against the core values that our nation was founded upon.”

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The Hidden Dangers Of AI In Finance

Jim Rickards recently published a compelling article on AI risk for Insider Intel subscribers.

In it, Jim discusses a different way in which AI could crash markets. One that is totally separate from the DeepSeek, China, and NVIDIA angle we’ve been covering for the past week.

Today we’re going to review his key points and explore them in detail.

Here’s Jim:

“The ultimate danger arises when a large cohort of asset managers controlling trillions of dollars of assets all employ the same or similar AI algorithms in a risk management role. An individual robot working for a particular asset manager tells the manager to sell stocks in a crashing market. In some cases, the robot may be authorized to initiate a sale without further human intervention.

Taken separately, that may be the best course of action for a single manager. In the aggregate, a selling cascade with no offsetting buy orders from active managers, specialists or speculators takes stock prices straight down. Amplification through feedback loops makes matters worse.

Individual AI systems have various trigger points for selling. Not all will be triggered at once, yet all will be triggered eventually as selling begets more selling, which triggers more automated systems that add to the selling pressure, and so on. There are no contrarians among the robots. Building sentiment into systems is still at a primitive stage.”

This is a good example of why I read Jim’s work. He always approaches issues from a unique and thoughtful angle.

This risk is clearly real. We are now at the point where trading firms are integrating LLMs (AI models) into their proprietary algorithms.

What happens if a majority of trading firms are using the same AI software to drive their trading? For example, it’s likely that many money managers have integrated OpenAI’s ChatGPT models into their algos.

Now that DeepSeek R1 is the new shiny object, maybe a significant portion of firms are switching to that model.

Perhaps DeepSeek approaches trading in a completely different way. What happens if ChatGPT interprets data bullishly, but DeepSeek sees the same information as bearish?

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