Week in Review

---

Week in Review

01/14/2023

For the week 1/9-1/13

[Posted 7:00 PM ET, Friday]

Note: StocksandNews has significant ongoing costs, and your support is greatly appreciated.  Please click on the gofundme link or send a check to PO Box 990, New Providence, NJ 07974.

Special thanks to Pete M. and Jim D. for their ongoing support.

Edition 1,239

Last Friday I stayed up until 1:45 a.m. to watch the drama in the House, as well as the first speeches by Hakeem Jeffries and Kevin McCarthy.

“That was easy, huh?” McCarthy joked to House members in his initial address as Speaker. “I never thought we’d get up here.”

McCarthy flipped 15 previous GOP holdout votes following the 13th ballot, leaving Andy Biggs, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Bob Good, Matt Rosendale and Eli Crane as the remaining opposition.

There was massive confusion with the 14th ballot, as tensions boiled over, and McCarthy still didn’t receive the requisite margin of victory.  But, finally on the 15th ballot, the six all voted ‘present,’ handing the speaker’s gavel to the representative from Bakersfield, California.

McCarthy’s victory ended the deepest congressional dysfunction in over 160 years.  And it sharply illustrated the difficulties he could face in leading a narrow and deeply polarized majority.  McCarthy won at last with a margin of 216-212, with the six withholding their votes.

“Our system is built on checks and balances.  It’s time for us to be a check and provide some balance to the president’s policies,” McCarthy said in his inaugural speech, which laid out a wide range of priorities from cutting spending to immigration, to fighting culture war battles.

Lots of concessions were made by the new Speaker in gaining the gavel, including sharp spending cuts and other curbs on McCarthy’s powers, which could point to further turbulence in the months ahead, especially when Congress will need to sign off on a further increase in the debt ceiling.

Speaking of which, ironically, this afternoon, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen notified Congress that the U.S. is projected to reach its debt limit on Thursday and will then resort to “extraordinary measures” to avoid default.

We’ve been here before, but the real deadline to watch is when the combination of cash and extraordinary measures is exhausted, which Yellen says could be “before early June.”

So a showdown is comin’, sports fans.  The markets will be rattled from time to time as the deadline nears and the debate in Congress gets increasingly heated.

---

Documents with classified markings from President Biden’s time as vice president were found at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, the White House said Thursday, days after it was disclosed that sensitive documents were also found at the office of his former Washington institute.

Richard Sauber, a special counsel to the president, said after the initial documents were found by Biden’s personal lawyers, they examined other locations where records might have been shipped after Biden left the vice presidency in 2017.

Sauber said a “small number” of documents with classified markings were found in a storage room in Biden’s garage in Wilmington, with one document being located in an adjacent room.  The White House did not say when the subsequent search began or when the additional documents were found, only that the search was completed on Wednesday evening.

Sauber said the Department of Justice was “immediately notified” after the documents were located and that department lawyers took custody of the records.

“We have cooperated closely with the Justice Department throughout its review, and we will continue that cooperation with the Special Counsel,” said Sauber in a statement.  “We are confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced, and the President and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake.”

President Biden previously said former President Trump was “irresponsible” for keeping hundreds of such records at Mar-a-Lago.

Biden said on Wednesday he was “surprised to learn that there are any government records that were taken there to that office” but his lawyers “did what they should have done” when they immediately called the National Archives.

There are differences… “several hundred government files marked as classified” in Trump’s case vs. “a small number of documents with classified markings” in Biden’s.

And Biden’s attorneys will argue they turned over the relevant papers after finding them. Trump resisted doing so until an August FBI search, raising questions about whether he or his staff obstructed the investigation.

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday named a special counsel, Robert Hur, a former U.S. Attorney in Maryland who served as a senior Justice Department official during the Trump administration, to investigate whether Biden improperly handled sensitive documents, setting up a parallel inquiry to an ongoing probe of former President Trump.

The Biden inquiry no doubt casts a shadow over his expected run for re-election.

And what we need to find out during the probe is the ‘chain of custody’ and who had access to the documents, in all the locations.  And, yes, Americans deserve to see a visitor log for Biden’s home.

Biden said this week, “People know I take classified documents seriously.”

No we don’t.  I was never sitting at a bar with my friends, saying, “Well, at least we know Biden takes classified documents seriously.”

Obviously, he doesn’t.

Yup, what goes around, comes around.

Also, there is no way…no way…Joe Biden, nor Donald Trump…should be running for president again.

But one more thing…the Super Bowl is coming up.  Traditionally, the network broadcasting it interviews the president as part of the pre-game activities.  Guess who’s doing it this year.  Fox.  Heh heh.

Marc A. Thiessen / Washington Post…prior to appointment of special counsel

“After the Justice Department released a staged photo of classified documents – including some marked ‘Top Secret/SCI’ (sensitive compartmented information) – which the FBI had spread on the floor of former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, President Biden was asked on ’60 Minutes’ what he thought when he saw that picture.  He said he wondered ‘how that could possibly happen – how anyone could be that irresponsible.’

“Well, the Justice Department has not yet released a similar photo of the classified documents found in a locked closet at Biden’s private office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement.  But CNN reports that some of the Biden documents, like Trump’s, were top secret and ‘bore the marking ‘sensitive compartmented information’ – indicating the information was derived from our most sensitive intelligence sources.  The documents reportedly included ‘U.S. intelligence memos and briefing materials that covered topics including Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom.’

“How could anyone be that irresponsible?

“The classified documents – which reportedly were found in a manila folder labeled ‘personal’ – were not just kept at the Penn Biden Center’s D.C. office.  That office opened on Feb. 8, 2018 – more than a year after Biden left office.  So, where were they kept before then?  Who had custody of them and under what conditions were they held?

“When it was discovered that Trump had classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, critics said his holding them at his private club threatened national security.  Requesting the director of national intelligence to conduct a damage assessment, then-House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) wrote, ‘It is hard to overstate the national security danger that could emanate from the reckless decision to remove and retain this material.’  Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) warned that Trump’s actions had endangered our troops.  The New York Times even published a 3D interactive model to show how ‘easily accessible classified documents may have been to the thousands of guests’ who ‘may have been within feet of the materials.’

“Well, what about the Penn Biden Center?  It hosts classes for college students at its D.C. office and has participated in a joint program funded by the Japanese government.  Did any of these classes include foreign nationals?  Moreover, the center served as a way-station for Biden aides, including Antony Blinken and Steve Ricchetti.  Did they host anyone who might have connections with foreign governments and thus may have been ‘within feet of the materials’?  Maybe the Times will now give us a 3D model of the Penn Biden Center, too.

“Let’s be clear: None of this absolves Trump, who had hundreds of classified documents in his unlawful possession, including documents marked ‘HCS’ – a control system designed to protect intelligence information derived from clandestine human sources.  This is extremely serious.  And unlike Biden, whose lawyers immediately turned over the documents to the National Archives, Trump had to be forced to relinquish those in his possession….

“Prosecuting Trump, but not Clinton or Biden, for mishandling classified documents would be extremely difficult to explain to the American people.  It is already suspicious that the documents in Biden’s private office were discovered on Nov. 2 – less than a week before the midterm elections – yet the public was not informed of the discovery until this week.  The FBI search of Trump’s home, less than three months earlier, had led Democrats to argue that Trump and his supporters were too irresponsible to be trusted with the levers of power. Why weren’t the American people told that Biden had similarly mishandled classified information before they went to the polls?

“Add to that the recent revelations of attempts by the FBI, the intelligence community and social media platforms to censor and discredit the Hunter Biden laptop story as Russian disinformation, and millions of Americans will conclude that a Trump prosecution would be just the latest weaponization of federal law enforcement against conservatives.”

Editorial / New York Post

“Speaker Kevin McCarthy went on a rant Thursday when asked about the differences between the Trump and Biden document dramas – and rightly so.

“The idea that President Joe Biden’s case is entirely different from ex-President Donald Trump’s is the media’s first line of defense for the current prez. And yes, lots of details differ.

“But, as McCarthy noted, many of them make Biden look worse.  The speaker’s demolition of the apples-to-apples critique was a powerful performance, slicing all the issues expertly.

“He rightly pointed to the irony that a guy ‘on ’60 Minutes’ that was so concerned about President Trump’s documents’ now has been revealed to have kept secret documents ‘for years out in the open in different locations,’ none of them secure.

“Now to the double standard: ‘Did he utilize the Justice Department to raid President Trump?’  And: ‘You watched them leak photos of files of President Trump; where’s the photos of President Biden’s documents?’

“That is: ‘Why would they go after a political opponent that way, why would they leak photos and say all this, why would they go through the former first lady’s clothing, why would they go through his son’s clothing, why would they raid as they did?’

“Then came the turnaround: ‘Prior to an election, they found a sitting president, when he was vice president, with top secret documents – why did they handle that differently?  We’re in America, we believe in equal justice.  Why did they not even tell America that that transpired?

“ ‘How did he sit before ’60 Minutes’ knowing what he had done, how do we find a second location and he’s shocked by it?  Why aren’t you [the press] asking him these questions?

“ ‘Why doesn’t he come forward to the American public?’

“To recap: Biden was only ex-vice president when he carried off his secrets – meaning he had zero right to do so.  Yet he asked on ’60 Minutes’ of Trump’s docu-mess, ‘How could anyone be that irresponsible?’

“Meanwhile, Biden’s ‘explanation’ is straight out of the old Steve Martin ‘I forgot’ routine. He says he doesn’t remember any of it, and his lawyers say he shouldn’t say anything – which doesn’t oblige him to stonewall; it’s just an excuse for claiming ‘I hope to have a chance’ to talk about it ‘soon.’

“Nor does his lawyers’ claim that it was all ‘inadvertently misplaced’ add up: He wrote a book off this stuff.

“And sent lawyers to go through the old office.  As McCarthy noted, ‘If you call a lawyer to remove something from your office, you must have known ahead of time.’

“An ironic side note: At least one House Democrat has a novel defense of Biden.  Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson reportedly says, ‘I’m suspicious of the timing of it… Things can be planted on people, places and things…and then discovered conveniently.’

“Hilarious: ‘Possibly planted evidence’ was also a Trump defense after the Mar-a-Lago raid.

“Anyway, Attorney General Merrick Garland’s own Trump precedent has now forced him to name a special counsel to probe Biden’s docu-drama, too.  But Garland still won’t name an independent prosecutor for the Biden family foreign-influence peddling case, which clearly implicates Joe as well as Hunter.

“It’s beyond obvious that Biden took the docs with him after his time as vice president ended, mostly with an eye on using them in writing that book, then later moved them to his UPenn office.  (All without registering them with the National Archives, which has been notably quiet in this case, unlike in Trump’s.)

“By the way: Biden surely used a ghostwriter for his book.  Gen. David Petraeus faced felony charges (he cut a plea deal) for sharing classified docs with his biographer.

“Yes, Biden and Trump’s cases differ in endless ways.  But the Mar-a-Lago case prompted the media and some in government to amp up the ‘possible charges’ against the ex-prez, producing innovative legal theories that now clearly should apply to the ex-veep-and-current-prez.

“Why don’t they?  As McCarthy pointedly noted, this nation is supposed to believe in ‘equal justice for all.’”

Editorial / Wall Street Journal

“Hear that quacking sound from Washington?  It’s Attorney General Merrick Garland’s latest duck.  Faced with news that classified documents were recently found not only in a private office of President Biden’s but also his Delaware home, including in the garage, Mr. Garland on Thursday named another special counsel….

“The new special counsel is Robert Hur, who clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist before starting a career as a federal prosecutor.

“To repeat what we said when Mr. Garland appointed Jack Smith as special counsel to investigate President Trump, including Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago document hoard, the political insulation being sought here is a matter of mere perception. Whatever Mr. Hur finds out about how classified material wound up in Mr. Biden’s garage next to his Corvette, Mr. Garland shoulders the responsibility for the investigation, including how to conclude it.

“ ‘My Corvette’s in a locked garage, OK? So it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street,’ Mr. Biden said Thursday. Rest easy, America: The First Vette is safe and sound.  As for the classified papers from his time as Vice President, locked or not, Mr. Biden’s garage isn’t a secure place where they’re supposed to be kept.  Additional classified material, Mr. Biden also said, was recently found in his personal library.  Still, he argued: ‘People know I take classified documents and classified material seriously.’

“Apparently not as seriously as the feds usually do.  Last year a former civilian employee of the Pentagon was sentenced to three months in prison for taking classified documents to her hotel room, as well as keeping handwritten notes of meetings that included classified details.  That information was categorized as Confidential and Secret. To compare, Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump each reportedly held on to documents that were rated as more sensitive than Top Secret….

“Although Mr. Trump was inexplicably mulish about handing over his files, on current evidence there’s no good case for putting a President in prison – much less making two Presidents into cellmates – for improperly retaining materials from recent public office.  When Mr. Trump was out on a limb by himself, this point was less obvious to some of our media competitors.

“Now that Mr. Biden faces a similar inquiry, perhaps they see how ridiculous it is to have the Justice Department investigating both the current and former President who are running against each other for the same office in 2024.  Rather than pass the buck to special counsels, Mr. Garland would be wiser to help the country by seeking a better way.

“The Justice Department can clarify the facts, and explain whether each President handled documents recklessly in ways that could have harmed national security.  Barring some explosive revelation, however, Mr. Garland can then close both cases, giving voters their say next year when Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden each expect to be on the ballot.”

---

This week in Ukraine….

This was not a good week for Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky.  By all indications, the battle in the east has not gone well, with one Ukrainian commander around Bakhmut, near the main fighting at Soledar, saying: “So far, the exchange rate of trading our lives for theirs favors the Russians.  If this goes on like this, we could run out.”

Zelensky attempted to put a brave face on the situation, but as noted below, Russia is seemingly flooding the area with fresh troops.

And Russia and Belarus stepped up their joint military training, with Belarus announcing special attention was being paid to urban warfare training.  Disconcerting to hear if you live in Kyiv.

So this is how the week evolved….

--Russia ended its 36-hour ceasefire last weekend, that Vladimir Putin had ordered to observe Russia and Ukraine’s Orthodox Christmas, which fell on Saturday, but Ukraine had rightfully rejected the truce and there was shelling along the frontline, with a number of civilian deaths

--Ukrainian officials, led by commander in chief Gen. Valery Zaluzhniy, have warned that Russia is preparing fresh troops for a new, major offensive on Ukraine, possibly on the capital Kyiv.  Ukrainian intelligence claims Moscow is considering calling up an additional 500,000 troops ahead of planned offensive operations in the spring and summer.  But this would risk a repeat of the unrest caused by Putin’s attempt to press 300,000 Russians into service this fall.

Putin has said he is not preparing a second round of mobilization.

Moscow is also increasingly changing its tune from the war is fought to rid Ukraine of nationalists, to now, where Russia says it is fighting a Western threat to its own existence.

At a security conference in Sweden last weekend, NATO Sec.-Gen. Jens Stoltenberg said Putin’s invasion “is part of a pattern where Moscow uses military force to achieve its political goals.”  Other examples of this pattern include, “The brutality of Grozny; the invasion of Georgia; the bombings of Aleppo; and the war in Ukraine did not start last February,” he said.  “It started in 2014, with Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the attacks in Eastern Ukraine.”

“If Putin wins in Ukraine,” Stoltenberg warned, “the message to him and other authoritarian leaders will be that if they use military force, they will get what they want.”  That means freedom and democracy will take a back seat to oppression and tyranny, he said.  The specter of a Russian victory also highlights the urgency of Finland and Sweden’s bids to join the NATO alliance.

“NATO represents 50 percent of the world’s economic power and 50 percent of the world’s military power,” the alliance chief said. “In a way, that is half the world brought together to secure peace for each other, and to continue to preserve our freedom and democracy.”

“Regardless of when, or how, this war ends, we must accept that the security situation in Europe has changed permanently,” Stoltenberg told his Swedish audience.  “The regime in Moscow wants a different Europe.  It wants to control neighboring countries, and it sees democracy and freedom as a threat.”  The uncomfortable reality for NATO, said Stoltenberg, is that “even if this war ends, the problems in our relationship with Russia persist…That makes it even more important that we, who believe in freedom and democracy, stand together.”

On the NATO expansion issue, Turkish President Erdogan continues to put up roadblocks.

--Sunday, Russia claimed it struck the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk in a missile strike, with Moscow claiming the attack killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers.  The Russian Defense Ministry said the strike was revenge for Ukraine’s New Year’s Day attack that killed at least 89 Russian soldiers (Ukraine said at least 400) at a barracks in the Donetsk region.

But various news organizations, including Reuters and the BBC, said they saw the buildings that were supposedly destroyed and neither of the two college dormitories Russia said had been temporarily housing Ukrainian servicemen was damaged.  And there were no obvious signs that soldiers had been living there and no sign of bodies or traces of blood! 

--Russian forces were closing in on the eastern city of Soledar, which is near the hotly-contested city of Bakhmut, in the occupied Donetsk oblast.  “The invaders have now concentrated their greatest efforts on Soledar,” President Zelensky said on Monday.  “It is extremely difficult; there are almost no whole walls left” in the city, he said in his evening address.  “The whole land near Soledar is covered with the corpses of the occupiers… This is what madness looks like,” Zelensky added.

Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said fighting in the two cities “is the most intense on the entire frontline… So many (pro-Russian fighters) remain on the battlefield…either dead or wounded,” he said on YouTube.

“They attack our positions in waves, but the wounded as a rule die where they lie, either from exposure as it is very cold or from blood loss. No one is coming to help them or to collect the dead from the battlefield.”

“The enemy is advancing literally on the bodies of their own soldiers and is massively using artillery, rocket launchers and mortars, hitting their own troops,” Ukraine’s deputy defense minister Hanna Malyar said on Telegram on Monday.  “Currently, the enemy has deployed a large number of assault groups formed from the best reserves of the Wagnerites,” she said, referring to the mercenaries that have been trying and failing to take control of Bakhmut since May.  “The enemy disregards heavy losses its personnel and continues to storm actively.  The approaches to our positions are simply strewn with the bodies of dead enemy fighters,” Malyar added in a statement.  “Our fighters are bravely holding the defense.”

The British military said on Tuesday that Russian and Wagner elements “are likely in control of most of the settlement” of Soledar.  “Russia’s Soledar axis is highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut [Ed. six miles from Soledar] from the north, and to disrupt Ukrainian lines of communication,” the Brits tweeted, adding, “Despite the increased pressure on Bakhmut, Russia is unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes.”

However, there are “200 km-long (124 miles, according to Western intelligence) disused salt mine tunnels* which run underneath the district” around Soledar, according to the British.  And both the Ukrainians and Russians likely fear those tunnels “could be used for infiltration behind their lines.”

*The mines are huge, with “auditorium-sized rooms” in some sections that could be used for storing artillery, tanks, and missiles…as well as troops.

Wednesday, there were signs Russia was taking Soledar, with its symbolic, military and commercial value and if its forces capture the town and the salt mines, it would be Moscow’s most substantial gain since a series of retreats throughout much of the second half of 2022.

Russia’s defense ministry said airborne units had cut off Soledar from the north and south, and the Wagner militia published pictures of its chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, with fighters inside what appeared to be Soledar’s mines.

Prigozhin, on Tuesday, claimed in audio reports posted on Russian social media that his forces had seized control, though he also said that battles were continuing in a “cauldron” in the city’s center.  He is likely to use any victory to bolster the reputation of Wagner as an effective fighting force in the eyes of President Putin.

But the Russian defense ministry appeared to contradict the controversial oligarch’s claims.

Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in the military’s daily update that: “Soledar has been blockaded from the north and the south by units of the Russian Airborne Forces.

“The Russian Air Force is carrying out strikes on enemy strongholds.  Assault troops are taking part in battles inside the town.”  There was no mention of Wagner forces.

There have long been tensions between the Russian military and Wagner, with Prigozhin publicly criticizing generals for allegedly being out of touch with the realities of the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s deputy defense minister said Russian forces were trying without success to break through Ukrainian defensive lines and that fierce fighting was raging.

Separately, taking Bakhmut, should Russia do so, would disrupt Ukraine’s supply lines and open a route for Russian forces to press toward Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk.

The Institute for the Study of War says Russian forces are up against “concerted Ukrainian resistance” around Bakhmut.

“The reality of block-by-block control of terrain in Soledar is obfuscated by the dynamic nature of urban combat…and Russian forces have largely struggled to make significant tactical gains in the Soledar area for months,” the think tank said.

Russian forces also shelled 13 settlements in and around Kharkiv region, largely returned to Ukrainian hands in September and October, the Ukrainian military said.

Wednesday, Prigozhin claimed his forces had achieved the complete “liberation” of Soledar, killing around 500 pro-Ukraine troops, which could not be verified.

In a video address aired before Prigozhin’s statement, President Zelensky mocked Russian claims to have taken the city, saying that fighting was still going on.

Thursday, a senior Ukrainian officer said: “As regards Soledar: intense battles are continuing, and it’s a little inappropriate to estimate in percentage terms how much of the town we control and how much the enemy is trying to control.  Battles are taking place, intense battles – that’s how it is for now.”

Ukraine’s deputy defense minister Malyar said that “Russia is building up its forces in Ukraine, but Ukrainian forces are holding out in fierce fighting for control of Soledar.”

Citing the country’s intelligence service, she said that Russia was moving troops trained in Belarus and Russia to the combat zone to focus on Donetsk and Luhansk Provinces.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that “a huge amount of work has been done” in the battle for Soledar, but that “there is still a lot of work ahead.”

Friday, both Russia and Ukraine’s militaries claimed to hold Soledar.  “The enemy threw almost all the main forces in the direction of Donetsk and maintains a high intensity of the offensive,” said Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Malyar, writing on Telegram.  “Our fighters are valiantly trying to hold the defense,” she said, calling this “a difficult phase of the war, but we will win.”

John Kirby of the White House’s National Security Council said: “The fighting in areas around Bakhmut and, now, this town called Soledar has been significant and severe,” in discussing the further military aid headed Ukraine’s way, including Bradley Fighting Vehicles.

Kirby added that “even if both Bakhmut and Soledar fall to the Russians, it’s not going to have a strategic impact on the war itself.  And it certainly isn’t going to stop the Ukrainians or slow them down.”

--Wednesday, Vladimir Putin removed Russia’s top commander in Ukraine, just three months after he was installed.

Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov will now lead Putin’s “special military operation.”  [Like Joe Biden appointing Gen. Mark Milley.]

Gerasimov replaces Sergei Surovikin who has overseen recent brutal attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

The reshuffle comes as Russians claim they are making progress in eastern Ukraine.

Gen. Gerasimov, who has been in his post since 2012, is the longest-serving Russian chief of general staff of the post-Soviet era.

Gen. Surovikin – now his deputy – has been dubbed “General Armageddon” for his brutal tactics in previous wars, including Russia’s operations in Syria and the heavy bombardment of Aleppo.

Shortly after he was appointed to lead the operation in October, Russia began its campaign to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leaving millions without power or running water for extended periods in the depths of winter.

The Pentagon said Thursday that Russia’s shakeup in military leadership was likely caused by persistent troubles in Ukraine, such as logistics problems, command and control issues, sustainment problems and low morale, as well as the failure to achieve the strategic objectives that they’ve set for themselves.

---

--Ukraine introduced emergency power cuts in eastern and southeastern regions as low temperatures and difficult weather conditions stretched its crippled energy system.

--Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said a joint declaration on Tuesday by the European Union and NATO “confirms the complete subordination of the European Union to the tasks of the North Atlantic bloc, which is an instrument to guarantee U.S. interests by force.”

--Wednesday, Belarus said joint Russia-Belarusian air defense forces had been reinforced, with new missile units moved into position.

At the same time, Ukrainian forces have been training for the threat of a fresh assault across a new front in the north.  Ukraine fears Russia could build up forces on the territory of Belarus before striking in the northwest or even try to drive towards Kyiv as it did when it invaded in February.

By reopening a northern front, Russia would stretch Kyiv’s forces, which have been focused for months on battles raging in the east and south, forcing it to divert troops to the north.

--Pope Francis on Monday said wars like the one in Ukraine where civilian areas are subjected to what he called indiscriminate destruction are “a crime against God and humanity.”

Francis made his remarks in his yearly speech to diplomats accredited to the Vatican, what has come to be known as his “state of the world” address.

Francis spoke of “the war in Ukraine, with its wake of death and destruction, with its attacks on civil infrastructures that cause lives to be lost not only through gunfire and acts of violence, but also from hunger and freezing cold.”

He then immediately quoted from a Vatican constitution, saying “every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and humanity which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation.”

Referring to the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, he said: “Sadly, today too, the nuclear threat is raised, and the world once more feels fear and anguish.”

He repeated his appeal for a total ban on nuclear weapons, saying even their possession for reasons of deterrence is “immoral.”

Opinion….

Condoleezza Rice and Robert M. Gates / Washington Post

“When it comes to the war in Ukraine, about the only thing that’s certain right now is that the fighting and destruction will continue.

“Vladimir Putin remains fully committed to bringing all of Ukraine back under Russian control or – failing that – destroying it as a viable country.  He believes it is his historical destiny – his messianic mission – to reestablish the Russian Empire and, as Zbigniew Brzezinski observed years ago, there can be no Russian Empire without Ukraine.

“Both of us have dealt with Putin on a number of occasions, and we are convinced he believes time is on his side: that he can wear down the Ukrainians and that U.S. and European unity and support for Ukraine will eventually erode and fracture. To be sure, the Russian economy and people will suffer as the war continues, but Russians have endured far worse.

“For Putin, defeat is not an option. He cannot cede to Ukraine the four eastern provinces he has declared part of Russia.  If he cannot be militarily successful this year, he must retain control of positions in eastern and southern Ukraine that provide future jumping-off points for renewed offensives to take the rest of Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, control the entire Donbas region and them move west.  Eight years separated Russia’s seizure of Crimea and its invasion nearly a year ago.  Count on Putin to be patient to achieve his destiny.

“Meanwhile, although Ukraine’s response to the invasion has been heroic and its military has performed brilliantly, the country’s economy is in a shambles, millions of its people have fled, its infrastructure is being destroyed, and much of its mineral wealth, industrial capacity and considerable agricultural land are under Russian control.  Ukraine’s military capability and economy are now dependent almost entirely on lifelines from the West – primarily, the United States. Absent another major Ukrainian breakthrough and success against Russian forces, Western pressures on Ukraine to negotiate a cease-fire will grow as months of military stalemate pass.  Under current circumstances, any negotiated cease-fire would leave Russian forces in a strong position to resume their invasion whenever they are ready.   That is unacceptable.

“The only way to avoid such a scenario is for the United States and its allies to urgently provide Ukraine with a dramatic increase in military supplies and capability – sufficient to deter a renewed Russian offensive and to enable Ukraine to push back Russian forces in the east and south.  Congress has provided enough money to pay for such reinforcement; what is needed now are decisions by the United States and its allies to provide the Ukrainians the additional military equipment they need – above all, mobile armor.  The U.S. agreement (last) Thursday to provide Bradley Fighting Vehicles is commendable, if overdue.  Because there are serious logistical challenges associated with sending American Abrams heavy tanks, Germany and other allies should fill this need.  NATO members also should provide the Ukrainians with longer-range missiles, advanced drones, significant ammunition stocks…more reconnaissance and surveillance capability, and other equipment.  These capabilities are needed in weeks, not months.

“Increasingly, members of Congress and others in our public discourse ask, ‘Why should we care?  This is not our fight.’  But the United States has learned the hard way – in 1914, 1941 and 2001 – that unprovoked aggression and attacks on the rule of law and the international order cannot be ignored.  Eventually, our security was threatened and we were pulled into conflict. This time, the economies of the world – ours included – are already seeing the inflationary impact and the drag on growth caused by Putin’s single-minded aggression.  It is better to stop him now, before more is demanded of the United States and NATO as a whole. We have a determined partner in Ukraine that is willing to bear the consequences of war so that we do not have to do so ourselves in the future.

“President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech before Congress last month reminded us of Winston Churchill’s plea in February 1941: ‘Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.’  We agree with the Biden administration’s determination to avoid direct confrontation with Russia.  However, an emboldened Putin might not give us that choice. The way to avoid confrontation with Russia in the future is to help Ukraine push back the invader now.  That is the lesson of history that should guide us, and it lends urgency to the actions that must be taken – before it is too late.”

---

Wall Street and the Economy

This week was all about the latest consumer price data for December, as well as the start of what’s expected to be a volatile earnings season.

Thursday’s CPI data came in as expected, with prices falling 0.1% month-over-month, 6.5% year-over-year, while the critical core readings, ex-food and energy, were 0.3% and 5.7%.

It was the sixth straight year-over-year slowdown, while the monthly drop of 0.1% was the first such decline since May 2020.

The softer readings add to growing signs that the worst inflation bout in four decades is gradually waning and initially, markets celebrated.

But in terms of what it all means to the Federal Reserve, they are going to keep hiking their benchmark funds rate, at least another two times, though with the increasing probability the increases will be 25 (0.25%), not 50, basis points, as the Fed moves towards its stated target on the funds rate of 5% or higher, from its current 4.25%-4.50% range.

Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank chief Patrick Harker said in remarks right after the CPI release that the Fed can probably get away with raising rates “a few more times this year, though, to my mind, the days of us raising them 75 basis points at a time have surely passed,” Harker said in the text of a speech.  “In my view, hikes of 25 basis points will be appropriate going forward.  Once the Fed gets to a stopping place for rate increases,” Harker said, “it will likely have to hold there for a while.”

Harker is a voting member of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee this year.

I totally agree with his sentiments…tighter for longer, not a pivot.  Harker sees a core inflation rate of around 3.5% by year end.  That’s not the target 2%.

Harker was upbeat about the economy’s ability to navigate the Fed’s action.  “Overall activity in 2023 will be modest, but I’m not forecasting a recession,” he said, noting he expects GDP to rise by 1% this year. 

“What’s encouraging is that even as we are raising rates, and seeing some signs that inflation is cooling, the national economy remains relatively healthy overall,” Harker said.  He added the “labor market remains in excellent shape,” though he sees unemployment rising from its current 3.5% to 4.5% this year.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said at an event in Wisconsin: “It is encouraging that we got some information today that went in the right direction.”  But Bullard noted that inflation remains far above the Fed’s 2% goal, and he repeated his view that he would like to see the central bank’s policy rate to go north of 5% “as soon as possible.”

Bullard also said: “There’s probably too much optimism inflation is going to easily come back to 2%.  That is not the history of inflation,” noting that he expects the path down to be bumpy. “We are really moving into an era of higher nominal interest rates for quite a while going forward as we try to continue to put downward pressure.”

But he did not push back against the possibility that the Fed could raise rates by 25 basis points at its upcoming meeting.

Noting that he likes “front-loading” policy and would rather not drag out the rate increases, Bullard added that the tactics of getting rates higher don’t matter than much.

Tuesday, speaking in Stockholm, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said: “Price stability is the bedrock of a healthy economy and provides the public with immeasurable benefits over time.  But restoring price stability when inflation is high can require measures that are not popular in the short term as we raise interest rates to slow the economy.”

Tuesday, JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon said the Fed may need to raise interest rates to 6% to fight inflation, higher than the 5% or so that most Fed officials penciled in after their December meeting.

“Inflation won’t quite go down the way people expected,” Dimon told Fox Business channel.  “But it will definitely be coming down a bit.”  [This was before the latest CPI report.]

Next week, the producer price data for December, which the Fed will scrutinize.

With the optimism on interest rates in the market to start off the year, Freddie Mac’s 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 6.33%, down from 6.48% last week and the peak of 7.08%.  It was 3.45% a year ago as rates were beginning to rise.

The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow barometer for fourth-quarter growth is at a solid 4.1%.

The World Bank sharply lowered its growth forecast for the global economy this year as persistently high inflation has elevated the risk of a worldwide recession.

The bank expects global growth to slow to 1.7% in 2023, down from an estimate of 3% growth in June.  That would mark the third-weakest pace of global growth in nearly three decades, overshadowed only by the 2009 and 2020 downturns, according to the WB.

“Global growth has slowed to the extent that the global economy is perilously close to falling into recession,” the World Bank said in its latest report.  World Bank President David Malpass told reporters Tuesday he is “deeply concerned that the slowdown may persist.”

For all of 2023, the World Bank forecasts U.S. GDP will increase 0.5% from the prior year, with zero growth in the eurozone.  China’s GDP will increase 4.3%, an uptick from an estimate of 2.7% growth last year.

Europe and Asia

Euro area unemployment for the month of November came in at 6.5%, via Eurostat, stable compared with October and down from 7.1% in November 2021.

Germany 3.0%, France 7.0%, Italy 7.8%, Spain 12.4%, Netherlands 3.6%, Ireland 4.4%, Greece 11.4%.

Separately, industrial production for November rose 2.0% Y/Y, and up 1.0% over October.

France: French labor unions called for nationwide strikes after French President Emmanuel Macron renewed his call for an overhaul of the country’s pension system, a test of his ability to enact his pro-business agenda during his second term in office.

Revamping the country’s pension system was one of the main planks of his campaign platform when he was re-elected president in April.  Macron is calling for the gradual increase in the retirement age in France from 62 years old to 64 in 2030.  Macron says it is the only way to preserve the pension system without raising taxes or increasing the country’s debt.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, during a news conference, said: “The imbalance between the number of workers and retirees will cause losses that will increase year after year.”

Union leaders say raising the country’s retirement age is unnecessary and would penalize people who started working at a young age.  They called for a nationwide strike by all French workers on Jan. 19.  As in, not a good time to be a tourist in Paris.

Turning to Asia…China reported inflation data for December, with consumer prices up 1.8% year-over-year vs. 1.6% in November, but producer prices fell 0.7% Y/Y.

December exports slumped 9.9% from a year earlier, in line with expectations and following a revised 8.9% drop a month earlier.  This was the steepest decline since January-February 2020, amid cooling global demand.  Exports to the U.S. plunged 19.5%, the fifth straight month of contraction; while shipments to the EU dropped 17.5%.

For the full year of 2022, exports grew 7% due to strong trade with Southeast Asian nations as well as an export boom of new energy vehicles.

December vehicle sales fell 8.4% year-over-year overall.

Japan reported November household spending fell 1.2% Y/Y.

Street Bytes

--The Street is taking all the economic news of the past few weeks and calling it a goldilocks scenario, not too hot, not too cold, i.e., a “soft landing.”

But should China’s reopening prove successful, and at some point it will be, you’ll have inflationary pressures all over again on the commodities front, including energy prices. At least that’s my bet.  Plus the situation in Ukraine is going to worsen, at least in the short term (next 3-4 months).  As in inflation will prove sticky, and it will not be good for Corporate America and earnings.  Think about all the corporate debt rolling over at much higher interest rates.

For the week, the Dow Jones rose 2% to 34302, while the S&P 500 advanced 2.7% and Nasdaq, on a six-day win streak, 4.8%.

Separately, Wall Street liked that the S&P rose the first five trading days of the year, an old saw having that when this is the case, since 1929, the index has risen 75% of the time for the year.  If the month of January is ‘up,’ that’s another positive, according to history.

The Stoxx Europe 600 (their S&P 500) is already up 6.5% for the year, with France and Germany both up 8%+.  Europe liked that the UK reported it eked out a GDP gain in November, when a loss was expected (the Brits releasing monthly data on this front, for rolling three-month periods).  Seriously, what helped here was lots of pints while watching the World Cup.

--U.S. Treasury Yields

6-mo. 4.78%  2-yr. 4.22%  10-yr. 3.50%  30-yr. 3.61%

The huge two-week rally in Treasuries continued, with the 10-year down from 3.87% over that time, which is helping mortgage rates bigly.

--Russian oil producers have had no difficulties in securing export deals despite Western sanctions and price caps, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told an online government meeting on Wednesday.  “We’ve been in constant contact with the companies, the contract making for February has been completed, and on the whole, the companies are not saying they have problems as of today,” Novak told a meeting led by President Putin.

Russian oil production has so far shown resilience in the face of the sanctions, imposed after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine last February 24, and of the price caps, introduced by Western countries last month.

Novak said the main problem for Russian oil was a high discount to international benchmarks as well as rising freight costs.

A European ban on most Russian oil starting Dec. 5 did not create a sudden surge in global oil prices, and neither did a price cap from the Group of 7.

Much of the Russian oil shunned by Western buyers has been shipped to India and China at a steep discount.

And on the natural gas front, some Russian gas is still flowing to Europe through pipelines crossing Ukraine to Slovakia and under the Black Sea to Turkey and on to Bulgaria.

With the warm weather, Europe has been successful in filling storage tanks at a time when it normally would be drawing down supplies.

--Some big banks reported earnings today, Friday.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said its fourth-quarter profits rose 6% from a year ago, as higher interest rates helped the bank make up for a slowdown in deal-making in its investment bank.  The bank also set aside more than $2 billion to cover potential bad loans and charge-offs in preparation for a possible recession.

JPM earned $11.0 billion last quarter, up from $10.4 billion in the same period a year earlier.  On a per share basis, JPM earned a profit of $3.57, compared to $3.33 a share in 2021, much better than analysts’ forecast.

Thanks to the Fed aggressively hiking rates, JPMorgan’s net interest income was $20.3 billion, up 48% from a year earlier.

But while the Fed’s rate hikes have helped JPM’s bottom line, the chance that the Fed will push the economy into recession has increased as well. 

“The U.S. economy currently remains strong with consumers still spending excess cash and businesses healthy,” said CEO Jamie Dimon in a statement.  “However, we still do not know the ultimate effect of the headwinds coming from geopolitical tensions including the war in Ukraine, the vulnerable state of energy and food supplies, persistent inflation that is eroding purchasing power and has pushed interest rates higher, and the unprecedented quantitative tightening.”

Dimon would later say he sees a “mild recession.”

--Bank of America’s fourth-quarter profits rose slightly from a year ago, as higher credit costs and potentially bad loans more than offset the bank’s sharp rise in interest revenue.

BofA said it earned a profit of $7.13 billion, or 85 cents a share, compared to a profit of $7.01bn, or 82 cents, in the same period a year ago.

The bank saw a slowdown in its investment banking business, like all the others, and had to set aside more money to cover potentially bad loans; $1.1 billion in credit reserves added this quarter, whereas a year earlier, it released $500 million from that account.

“We ended the year on a strong note growing earnings year over year in the quarter in an increasingly slowing economic environment,” said CEO Brian Moynihan.

--Citigroup reported fourth-quarter profit of $2.51 billion, $1.16 per share, $1.10 adjusted, below expectations, and down 21% from a year ago.

The bank posted revenue of $30.44 billion; $18.01 billion net of interest expense, which beat slightly and was up 6% from last year.

And fears of a potential recession prompted Citi to add $640 million to its reserves in the quarter, compared with a release of $1.37 billion in 2021 when pandemic-related loan losses failed to materialize.

--Wells Fargo’s profit for the fourth quarter came in ahead of Wall Street’s targets but was half of what it earned last year as the bank had to pay another $3.3 billion in fines and penalties to settle numerous scandals from recent years.

Wells earned $2.86 billion, or 67 cents per share, above the 60 cents analysts expected.  Last year, the bank earned $5.75 billion in the fourth quarter, or $1.38 per share.

Revenue of $19.66 billion fell short of Wall Street’s projections of $20 billion, and the $20.86 billion logged in the same quarter last year.

The San Francisco-based bank also set aside an additional $397 million for its loan loss reserves in preparation for a potential economic downturn.

“We are planning for it to get worse than it’s been in the past few quarters,” said Mike Santomassimo, Wells’ chief financial officer.

Earlier in the week, Wells announced it was dramatically shrinking its home-lending business following a string of scandals and a record fine from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Going forward, the bank said it would largely focus on lending to existing customers and minority borrowers.

Following the last financial crisis, Wells remained the nation’s largest mortgage lender, while its competitors shrank their mortgage businesses.

Wells began to reassess its home-lending business under CEO Charles Scharf, who took the helm in 2019 and has sought to put the bank in better standing with regulators following its 2016 fake-accounts scandal.

Wells Fargo made some $21.5 billion in mortgages in the third quarter, a nearly 60% decline from a year earlier.

[Despite all the above mixed news, the four bank stocks rallied 1.7% to 3.2% today.]

--Goldman Sachs, which reports earnings next week, began laying off staff on Wednesday in a sweeping cost-cutting drive, with around a third of those affected coming from the investment banking and global markets division, according to reports.  Just over 3,000 employees will be let go.

The investment bank had 49,100 employees at the end of the third quarter.  Goldman is also cutting its annual bonus payments this year to reflect depressed market conditions, with payouts expected to fall about 40%.

--BlackRock is cutting up to 500 jobs, according to reports.  Bank of New York Mellon Corp. is planning to cut 1,500 jobs, or around 35 of its workforce this year, the Wall Street Journal reported today.

--The Federal Aviation Administration announced shortly before 9 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday that air traffic operations were resuming at airports across the United States, following an overnight outage of the agency’s Notice to Air Missions system, which provides safety information to flight crews.  The FAA had previously ordered U.S. carriers to temporarily halt all domestic flight departures as it worked to fix the technical outage, which ended up being caused by a corrupted database file (that was perhaps the result of the work of an independent contractor working on the system), causing a nationwide mess…over 10,000 flight disruptions, delays, into and out of the United States and over 1,300 cancellations, this after the Southwest Airlines holiday debacle.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was left scrambling, again: “With a government system, we’re going to own it, we’re going to find it, and we’re going to fix it,” he told reporters.

Two key Republican lawmakers vowed to seek accountability and changes at the Federal Aviation Administration in the wake of the system failure.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), the incoming top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, said the agency’s “inability to keep an important safety system up and running is completely unacceptable and just the latest example of dysfunction within the Department of Transportation.”

--Pilots at Spirit Airlines Inc. approved a two-year contract agreement that will boost their pay by an average of 34% over that period, signaling how growing competition for aviators is fueling higher wages.

The deal was backed by nearly 70% of the pilots who voted.  Captains will receive cumulative pay increases of 25% over the term of the agreement, while first officers’ pay will increase 43%, the union said.

Spirit has agreed to be acquired by JetBlue Airways Corp., and the agreement between Spirit and the pilots union calls for the airline to immediately restart negotiations with pilots if the merger isn’t approved by regulators or if it is abandoned.

Spirit CEO Ted Christie said in October that Spirit was experiencing higher rates of attrition and had struggled to attract new pilots as regional airlines and major carriers had raised pay.  He said at the time that a new pilot contract could help address the outflow of pilots.

Under Spirit’s current contract with its pilots, a captain with five years of experience earns $17,664 per month, based on an 80-hour month, while a first officer’s monthly pay averages $10,994.  Captains with ten years of experience at the airline average $19,599 a month.

Delta Air Lines recently reached an agreement in principle with its pilots that raises pay at least 34% over a four-year deal, which union leaders still need to approve before it is sent to members for a vote. 

United and American Airlines have been unable to come to agreements with their pilots.  Ditto Southwest.

--Speaking of Delta, it forecast first-quarter profit below analysts’ estimates on a rise in labor costs as carriers go all out to improve staffing levels amid robust travel demand.  Delta’s shares fell about 4% on the news.

Delta said Friday it expects non-fuel unit costs to rise 3% to 4% in the first quarter from a year earlier.  And the company cited the above pay hike for its pilots.

A worsening economic outlook has sparked concerns about consumer spending, but travel demand remains strong and exceeds the pace of flight capacity growth, keeping ticket prices high.

“As we move into 2023, the industry backdrop for air travel remains favorable and Delta is well positioned to deliver significant earnings and cash flow growth,” said CEO Ed Bastian.

The company forecast first-quarter revenue would be 14%-17% higher than 2019 on capacity that is 1% lower.  Delta expects earnings of 15 cents to 40 cents per share, which is below estimates of 55 cents.

For the fourth quarter, adjusted profit came in at $1.48 a share, above forecasts.  Delta reported $12.3 billion in adjusted revenue.

Thursday, American Airlines lifted its profit outlook for the December quarter, with the airline due to report Jan. 26.

--TSA checkpoint numbers vs. 2019

1/12…116 percent of 2019 levels
1/11…87
1/10…104
1/9…103
1/8…113
1/7…110
1/6…117
1/5…99

--Sales of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids almost doubled in China last year, even as overall car sales remained sluggish with auto makers weathering severe production disruptions and economic challenges under strict zero-Covid policies.

China sold 5.67 million EVs and plug-ins in 2022, the China Passenger Car Association said Tuesday, as state subsidies and high oil prices led buyers to switch from gas-guzzling models.

Overall, passenger-car retail sales climbed 1.9% from 2021 to 20.5 million, according to the CPCA data.  That was down from more than 4% growth in 2021.

BYD Co. jumped from 10th place on the retail sales chart in 2021 to the top in 2022, replacing Volkswagen AG’s joint venture with FAW Group Co., which slipped to second.

BYD’s overall sales – which includes all-electric cars and plug-in hybrids – more than tripled from a year earlier to 1.86 million cars.

Tesla delivered more than 710,000 EVs from its Shanghai factory last year.

China’s car sales plummeted in April from a year earlier as its auto-manufacturing hubs in Shanghai and in northeastern cities underwent weeks of lockdowns amid a surge in Covid cases.

--Mercedes-Benz Group more than doubled sales of battery electric vehicles this past year.  That’s just a start.  The company, and its European peers, want to sell a lot more.

Mercedes sold 117,800 battery electric vehicles in 2022, up from the 42,400 EV units sold in 2021, and about 6% of overall company sales (2,043,900) to retail customers.

Other European auto makers are targeting big EV growth.  Volkswagen, Stellantis and BMW sold about 900,000 battery electric vehicles in 2022.  [Tesla delivered 1.31 million units in 2022, compared with 2021 deliveries of about 936,000 units.]

--Speaking of Tesla in China, hundreds of Tesla owners there gathered at the automaker’s showrooms and distribution centers over the weekend, demanding rebates and credit after sudden price cuts they said meant they had overpaid for electric cars they bought earlier.

Last week, Tesla had decided to slash prices for a second time in three months in China, and many said they had believed that prices Tesla charged for its cars late last year would not be cut as abruptly or as deeply as the automaker just announced in a move to spur sales and support production at its Shanghai plant.  The scheduled expiration of a government subsidy at the end of 2022 also drove many to finalize their purchases. 

After the latest surprise discount, Tesla’s EV prices in China are now between 13% and 24% below their September levels.

So then Friday, Tesla announced it was cutting prices across its lineup in the U.S. and major European markets in the latest effort to stoke demand after several quarters of disappointing deliveries.

The EV maker lowered the cost of the cheapest Model Y by 20% and lopped as much as $21,000 off its most expensive vehicles in its home market.

Tesla shares fell about 2% today in response.

--Back to Volkswagen, it reported its lowest sales in more than a decade, but said it was confident business would improve this year as supply-chain blockages ease and semiconductors become more easily available.

VW, which includes passenger-car brands Skoda and Seat, luxury-car maker Audi, and sports-car maker Porsche AG, said Thursday that global sales dropped 7% to 8.3 million vehicles, as supply-chain constraints shut down some factories in Europe in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Covid measures in China.

--Walt Disney Co. is asking its workers to return to the company’s offices four days a week starting on March 1.

“Employees currently working in a hybrid fashion will be asked to spend four days a week on-site, targeting Monday through Thursday as in-person workdays,” Bob Iger, who returned as CEO of Disney in November.

The company’s film “Avatar: The Way of Water” became the seventh highest-grossing film of all time (as of last weekend), as Iger cited in his memo, praising staffers for their work, as well as ESPN’s handling of Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest during Monday Night Football.

“In a creative business like ours, nothing can replace the ability to connect, observe, and create with peers that comes from being physically together, nor the opportunity to grow professionally by learning from leaders and mentors,” Iger said in the memo.

Meanwhile, billionaire Nelson Peltz on Thursday launched a fight for a board seat at Disney to help turnaround the company that he said was “in crisis” due to failed succession planning, mounting streaming losses and overspending on 21st Century Fox’s acquisition.

The prominent activist investor’s Trian Fund Management filed documents for his election as a director at Disney after the company denied him a board seat.   Peltz’s move is a serious challenge to Bob Iger.  The battle would pit the activist investor known for his work at consumer companies against Iger, who has been one of the most popular figures in Hollywood for decades.  The stock tumbled 39% last year.

--Macy’s warned on sales and margins.  Retailers will be reporting in a few weeks and for some of them it will be ugly.  The issue is how much is already priced into the shares.

Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette said last Friday in a statement: “Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales were in line with our expectations, while the week leading up to and following Christmas were ahead.  However, the lulls of the nonpeak holiday weeks were deeper than anticipated.

Heading into 2023, the company expects consumers will “continue to be pressured,” especially in the first half of the year, Gennette said.

--Crypto exchange FTX has recovered more than $5 billion but the extent of customer losses in its collapse is till unknown, an attorney for the bankrupt company founded by Sam Bankman-Fried said on Wednesday.

The company, which was valued a year ago at $32 billion, filed for bankruptcy in November and U.S. prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried or orchestrating an “epic” fraud that may have cost investors, customers and lenders billions of dollars.

Andy Dietderich, an attorney for FTX, told a U.S. bankruptcy judge in Delaware at the start of Wednesday’s hearing that the legal team is still working to create accurate internal records and the actual customer shortfall remains unknown.  The $5 billion recovered does not include assets seized by the Securities Commission of the Bahamas, where SBF was located.  FTX’s attorney estimated the seized assets were worth as little as $170 million while Bahamian authorities put the figure as high as $3.5 billion.

--Crypto trading platform Coinbase Global on Tuesday said it would lay off nearly 20% of its workforce (950 employees), which some analysts say staves off fears of a bankruptcy filing.

--PC makers are looking at another difficult year in 2023, with a full recovery not until 2024.

Worldwide shipments dropped nearly 29% in the fourth quarter from a year ago, marking the largest quarterly decline since the mid-1990s, according to preliminary data from Gartner Inc.  International Data Corp. issued a similar report, saying it is clear the pandemic boom is over for the PC market.

Personally, about 18 months ago, when I thought my main desktop was about to ‘go out’ after being in service to StocksandNews for like 13 years, I bought a new one. 

Well, that new one is sitting in a closet because the old warhorse continues on.  As in I won’t need a new desktop for at least ten more years, and I have a new laptop.  I’m typical of what the industry faces.

PC makers shipped between 65.3 million and 67.2 million PCs in the fourth quarter of 2022. Worldwide PC shipments totaled 286.2 million units in 2022, a 16% decline from the prior year, according to Gartner.

Lenovo Group Ltd. is No.1 in market share, globally, according to Gartner and IDC.  HP Inc. and Dell Technologies Inc. came in second and third, respectively, and Apple Inc. followed in the No. 4 spot.

HP is the top vendor by shipments in the U.S., followed by Dell, Apple and Lenovo, according to Gartner.

--Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract chipmaker, reported a record quarterly profit of $9.4 billion.  Strong demand for high-performance chips for 5G infrastructure and gadgets meant that TSMC bucked the trend of collapsing profits for tech firms.

But TSMC warned of waning demand in the first half of this year, saying it expects first-quarter revenue of between $16.7 billion and $17.5 billion, down from $19.93 billion in the preceding quarter.  “We expect our business to be further impacted by continuing end-market demand softness, and customers’ further inventory adjustment,” said the company’s CFO.

TSMC announced its capital budget for 2023 is set to be between $32 billion and $36 billion, down from $36.3 billion in 2022.

--The United States, Mexico and Canada will take steps to strengthen North America’s semiconductor industry, the White House said on Tuesday, as the countries try to resolve a dispute over Mexico’s energy policy that has angered investors.  Leaders of the three nations had met in Mexico City and the White House said the countries would in early 2023 organize a semiconductor forum to increase investment in the strategic hi-tech industry; including coordinating semiconductor supply chain mapping to identify needs and investment opportunities in making chips used in everything from telecoms, to carmaking and defense.

The energy spat centers on Mexico’s efforts to give priority to its cash-strapped energy companies at the expense of private investors.  There’s still is no resolution.  And no resolution on illegal border crossings at the southern U.S. border.

Separately, Canada and Mexico won their challenge to the U.S. interpretation of content rules for autos under the new North American trade pact, a dispute panel ruled on Wednesday, a decision that favors parts makers north and south of the border.

--Sandwich chain Subway is exploring a sale of its business.  A sale of the Milford, Conn.-based company could value the sandwich chain at more than $10 billion, though the process is in the early stages, multiple reports said.

Subway has been privately owned by its two founding families for over five decades.  I’m a fan.

--As for the saga of Bed Bath & Beyond, which will soon file for bankruptcy, according to reports, last week I commented on how my favorite retail chain had lost its way over the years with the excessive focus on private-label products.

So I went to the store on Saturday and I swear it had changed a little…a quirkier product line, which had always made BBBY fun to explore…20% off coupon in hand.  I needed a fondue set, but they were out, and the salesman gave me an additional 20% off, shipped it in two days, and I was a happy camper.*

Anyway, the company announced it was closing another 62 Bed Bath & Beyond locations in addition to 56 announced in September.   BBBY also announced it was on track to cut $500 million in costs in its third-quarter fiscal report, which revealed a net sales decline of 33% to $1.26 billion over the prior year on $393 million in losses.

*One of the things I like about the local store is it has a number of ‘special needs’ employees.  So my guy in taking the information for where to ship the product, sees I’m in an apartment.  “Do you go to Japan a lot?” he asked me.  “Nooo…”  “They like little apartments.”  Priceless.

--National Football League ratings for the just-concluded 2022-23 regular season are expected to be down about 3% from a year earlier, a decline that is primarily because of the move of “Thursday Night Football” to Amazon Inc’s Prime Video.

During the 2021-22 season, the NFL averaged 17.1 million viewers per game, which was its highest average in six years.  This season, the average is likely to be around 16.6 million, according to Nielsen data.

“Thursday Night Football” averaged 9.58 million viewers, compared to last year’s 16.2 million viewers when it was available on Fox and Amazon. 

Ratings were up for NBC, Fox and CBS’ Sunday packages of games, up 3%-4% for each (18.5 million to 19.9 million viewers).

“Monday Night Football” on Walt Disney’s ESPN was down about 3% in viewers to 13.8 million.

Foreign Affairs, Part II

China: The World Health Organization said it is working with China to manage the risks of Covid-19 surging again as people travel for Lunar New Year celebrations, but the response continues to be challenged by a lack of data, the agency said.

Covid is spreading unchecked in China after the country lifted its zero-Covid policy in December, but the WHO said it still does not have enough information from China to make a full assessment of the dangers of the surge.  That is also an issue in working with China on how to mitigate the risks of travel ahead of the Lunar New Year public holiday, the WHO said.

The holiday, pre-pandemic, was known as the world’s largest annual migration of people, and generally lasts about a month.

The WHO continues to say China is still heavily underreporting deaths from Covid, although it is now providing more information on the outbreak, and what’s clear is Covid is spreading far more quickly into the rural areas than initially expected, and now with the travel surge, you’ll see an explosion of cases in areas ill-equipped to handle the elderly who will get the sickest.

Separately, health authorities in Shanghai said up to 70 percent of the city’s 26 million residents had been infected, and they expressed confidence that its outbreak had peaked.

But many of the city’s hospitals are still overcrowded, particularly with older people. Funeral homes have been inundated.

On a different matter, China suspended issuing some visas for South Korea and Japan in Beijing’s first retaliation against Covid-related curbs on Chinese travelers.

On the travel issue, the WHO said countries should consider recommending passengers wear masks on long haul flights to counter the latest Omicron subvariant, XBB.1.5, given its rapid spread in the United States.  Yours truly, having had Covid three months ago, finally received his third booster last Monday.

The WHO pegged XBB.1.5 as “the most transmissible” descendant yet of the Omicron variant.  More than 70 percent of cases in the Northeast U.S. are believed to be XBB.1.5.

While there is no evidence so far that XBB.1.5 is more virulent than its predecessors, a recent swirl of misinformation linking the rise of new variants to vaccination has cast a spotlight on this latest strain and raised concern among some health experts that it could further limit booster uptake.

“XBB did not evolve because people were vaccinated,” said Vaughn Cooper, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Pittsburgh.  “The way it evolved, let’s be straight, is because people were infected by multiple viruses at the same time.”  [See Moi…Covid followed by RSV.]

Only 15 percent of those eligible – and 38 percent of senior citizens, who are most at risk – have received the updated shots, such as that which I just took.

North Korea: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said for the first time on Wednesday that if North Korea’s nuclear threat grows, South Korea would consider building nuclear weapons of its own or ask the United States to redeploy them on the Korean Peninsula.

Speaking during a joint policy briefing by his defense and foreign ministries, Yoon was quick to add that building nuclear weapons was not yet an official policy.  He stressed that South Korea would deal with the North’s threat by strengthening its alliance with the United States.

But his comments marked the first time since the U.S. withdrew all of its nuclear weapons from the South in 1991 that a South Korean president officially mentioned arming the country with nukes.

South Korea is a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, or NPT, which bans the country from seeking nuclear weapons.  It also signed a joint declaration with North Korea in 1991 in which both Koreas agreed not to “test, manufacture, produce, receive, possess, store, deploy or use nuclear weapons.”

But North Korea has reneged on the agreement by conducting six nuclear tests since 2006.

--President Biden welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to the White House Friday, hailing what Washington sees as historic plans by Tokyo for a major military buildup in the face of shared concerns about China.

The two discussed the state of the U.S.-Japan alliance, as well as “establishing a free and open Indo-Pacific,” code for describing efforts to push back against China.

U.S. and Japanese defense officials met on Wednesday and announced stepped-up security cooperation with U.S. officials praising Tokyo’s modernized military buildup plans.

White House Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell called it “one of the most consequential engagements between our two countries in decades.”

A joint statement said that given “a severely contested environment,” the forward posture of U.S. forces in Japan should be upgraded “by positioning more versatile, resilient, and mobile forces with increased intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, anti-ship, and transportation capabilities.”

The Pentagon has announced plans to introduce a Marine Littoral Regiment in Japan, which would bring significant capabilities including anti-ship missiles, and the two sides also agreed to extend their common defense treaty to cover space.

Japan announced last month that it would double its defense spending in its biggest military build-up since World War II.

Brazil: Authorities have charged more than 1,200 people with crimes in connection with Sunday’s attack on government buildings in the nation’s capital, Brasilia.  Well over 1,500 were initially detained, but closer to 1,200 will face charges, the BBC reported.

Supporters of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro launched the assault on Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace nearly two years to the day after supporters of Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Bolsonaro, once described as “The Trump of the Tropics,” lost his reelection bid against Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in October.  Like Trump, Bolsonaro refused to concede the election.  And then as I noted last week, he flew to Florida before Lula was inaugurated.  We then learned Bolsonaro was hospitalized on Monday due to chest pain, though I do believe the reports this has to do with ongoing complications related to his stabbing in 2018 while on the campaign trail.  He has said he would return to Brazil end of January, or sooner.

Though the “Bolsonaristas” smashed windows and generally wreaked havoc throughout the buildings, no one was killed in the chaos.

Security forces were blamed for their weak reaction to the demonstrators.

Authorities eventually responded with a federal “intervention” in which military personnel secured the streets of Brasilia.

Lula has vowed to bring those responsible to justice, accusing the rioters of trying to overthrow democracy, and questioned why the army had not discouraged calls for a military coup outside their barracks.

Bolsonaro condemned the violence in Brasilia, but found a way to criticize his adversaries.

“Peaceful demonstrations, by law, are part of democracy,” he tweeted, hours after the assault began. “However, depredations and invasions of public buildings as occurred today, as well as those practiced by the left in 2013 and 2017, were outside of the law.”

As the violence was taking place, Bolsonaro was largely silent.

Iran: Authorities sentenced to death a former defense ministry official on Wednesday, on charges of spying for Britain, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Earlier, a Belgian national held in Iran was sentenced to 40 years in prison and 74 lashes on charges including spying that Brussels has denounced as fake.

The sentence imposed on aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, reported by Tasnim, was more severe than the 28-year term Belgium had reported in December.  Vandecasteele has denied all the charges.

Last Saturday, Iran hanged two men for allegedly killing a member of the security forces during nationwide protests that followed the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16, drawing condemnation from the EU, the United States and other Western nations.

The two men executed on Saturday had been convicted of killing a member of the Basij paramilitary force militia.  Three others have been sentenced to death in the same case, while 11 received prison sentences.

The French foreign ministry called the executions “revolting” and urged Iranian authorities to heed the “legitimate aspirations of the Iranian people.”

Amnesty International said last month that Iranian authorities are seeking the death penalty for at least 26 others in what it called “sham trials designed to intimidate protesters.”

As of last weekend, rights group HRANA said 517 protesters had been killed during the unrest since September, with 68 members of the security forces killed.  Over 19,200 protesters are believed to have been arrested.

Random Musings

--Presidential approval ratings….

Gallup:  40% approve of Biden’s job performance, 55% disapprove; 37% of independents approve (Nov. 9-Dec. 2).

Rasmussen: 46% approve, 52% disapprove (Jan. 13).

Clueless Joe….

I liked this summary of President Biden’s little trip to the border this week by Zachary B. Wolf / CNN:

“President Joe Biden’s immigration policy is confusing and full of contradictions.

“Make some sense of these developments:

“Biden…

“made his first visit to the border as president on Sunday, but failed to see any migrants…

“is expanding former President Donald Trump’s border policy, known as title 42, even though Biden says he doesn’t like it…

“asked courts to end that Trump-era policy, but seemingly had no workable plan for when they nearly did…

“has traveled to Mexico City for a summit with North American leaders, but his White House is making very clear they aren’t anticipating any progress on the border crisis…

“watches on as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, in particular, freelances his own border security with increasingly elaborate stunts to argue the border is too porous.  The latest involves adding a wall of shipping containers to the border at El Paso, Texas.

“How did Biden visit an aid center at the border during an admitted crisis and fail to encounter any actual migrants?

“ ‘There just weren’t any at the center when he arrived,’ a senior administration official said in Priscilla Alvarez and MJ Lee’s report for CNN.  ‘Completely coincidental.  They haven’t had any today.’

“Granted, border crossings have dropped in the new year.

“But Alvarez and Lee point to on-the-ground reporting from CNN’s Rosa Flores that ‘hundreds of migrants, including children, were living on the street after crossing into the United States in El Paso.  And nearly 1,000 additional migrants were in federal custody in detention facilities in El Paso on Sunday, according to the City of El Paso’s migrant dashboard.’”

--After Friday night’s fireworks, and the election of Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker, Monday, House Republicans narrowly pushed through an overhaul of operating rules for the new Congress, overcoming the concerns of some rank-and-file members about concessions that Speaker McCarthy made to the far right in the process of securing his job.

The package passed Monday evening in a mostly party-line vote of 220-213, with just one Republican voting “no.”  Among the provisions was it’s now harder for lawmakers to raise the debt ceiling; and paves the way for the creation of a new select subcommittee under the Judiciary Committee focused on the “weaponization” of the federal government.

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Tex.) opposed the legislation, citing concerns that McCarthy’s agreement with the rebels on spending changes would lead to a significant cut to the nation’s defense budget.  That prospect was a “horrible idea,” he said.

Among the Republican House majority’s first legislative moves on Monday was a bill rescinding $72 billion in spending on 87,000 new IRS agents.

House Resolution 23, or the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act, passed in a 221 to 210 vote along party lines.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, one of the House GOP’s most prominent figures, and a man I like, was denied the chairmanship of the chamber’s Homeland Security Committee Monday in favor of a member of the Freedom Caucus – days after Crenshaw called opponents of House Speaker McCarthy “terrorists.”

Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), will instead lead the panel that provides oversight over the Department of Homeland Security – and handles issues related to illegal immigration and terrorism.

Editorial / Wall Street Journal

“As we reported Saturday [Ed. Jan. 7], Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s deal with GOP dissenters puts defense spending on the chopping block.  No less than Rep. Jim Jordan, spiritual leader of the House Freedom Caucus, confirmed this in response to a question from host Shannon Bream on Fox News Sunday.

“ ‘We got a $32 trillion debt. Everything has to be on the table,’ Mr. Jordan said.  He said the Pentagon should focus on money for the troops and cut the general staff.

“ ‘Maybe if we focused on that, helping the troops who do so much of the work out there for our great country, and maybe focus on getting rid of all the woke policies in our military, we’d have the money we need to make sure our troops get the pay raise they deserve, we have the weapons systems and the training that needs to be done, so we’re ready to deal with our adversaries around the planet, that’s what we want to focus on,’ Mr. Jordan said.

“If Congress wants to cut general officer and PR jobs, and reform military healthcare and pensions, by all means go for it. The latter two are where some money is, but neither is likely to happen this Congress. Woke training is a matter of culture, not money.

“The reality is that if defense is cut, what will go first is spending for operations and maintenance to sustain military readiness, as well as money for the weapons to deter China.  If the GOP rebels honor their demand for ‘regular order,’ defense hawks may have more votes.  But it’s worrisome that some Republicans are joining the progressive calls to shrink the military when the world grows more dangerous.”

--Rep. George Santos defiantly refused to step down on Wednesday despite a new call from fellow Republicans for his ouster over unending lies about his background, education and finances. 

Rejecting the dramatic demands of Long Island Republican leaders, Santos said he isn’t going anywhere.

“I was elected to serve the people of NY03 not the party & politicians, I remain committed to doing that,” Santos tweeted.  “I will NOT resign!”

Santos then urged critics to “go on CNN and cry about it.”

Santos said this just minutes after the entire leadership of the Nassau County GOP demanded he resign or be removed from office.

“He should [not] serve in public service or as an elected official,” Joseph Cairo, Nassau County GOP chair, said at a press conference packed with party leaders that I watched.  “His lies were not mere fibs.  He [has] disgraced the House of Representatives.”

Fellow newly elected Rep. Anthony D’Esposito joined the chorus of demands for Santos to step down.

“George Santos does not have the ability to serve here in the House of Representatives and should resign,” D’Esposito said via video from Washington, D.C.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he has no plans to ask for the resignation of Santos, and he plans to appoint Santos to committees like any other incoming lawmaker, although he suggested he may face an ethics probe.

I understand McCarthy’s position, with his ultra-slim majority.  It’s pathetic, however, that Santos doesn’t see the writing on the wall.  He obviously needs the House salary.

Immensely creepy, George Santos is a potential mass-murderer, in my very humble opinion.  I can guarantee the FBI is all over the case and we should not in the least be surprised to see him hauled off in cuffs in the near future.  He’s a danger.  I would fear for my life if I was working with the guy.

We literally know nothing about him, except he is back on the ‘Wanted List’ in Brazil for stealing checks back in 2008.

The Daily Beast reported that Santos got donations from Rocco Oppedisano, an Italian national whose family runs Il Bacco, an upscale restaurant in Whitestone (Queens).

Santos’ campaign splurged on several events at the restaurant including his election night victory party, raising financial questions about whether the donation was legit.

Rocco Oppedisano was forced to leave the U.S. under a cloud and pleaded guilty to trying to smuggle 20 illegal Chinese immigrants on a yacht in 2019, the news site said.

Appearing on Steve Bannon’s podcast, hosted by Rep. Matt Gaetz, Santos made the bizarre claim that he’s got a squeaky clean image.

“I’ve lived an honest life,” he said.  “I’ve never been accused of any bad doings.”

--A New York judge on Friday sentenced Donald Trump’s namesake real estate company to pay a maximum $1.61 million criminal penalty after it was convicted of scheming to defraud tax authorities for 15 years.

Justice Juan Merchan of the Manhattan criminal court imposed the sentence after jurors found two Trump Organization affiliates guilty of 17 criminal charges last month.  Merchan on Tuesday sentenced Allen Weisselberg, who worked for Trump’s family for a half-century and was the company’s former chief financial officer, to five months in jail after he testified as the prosecution’s star witness.  A defense lawyer for Trump’s company said they plan to appeal.

No one else was charged or faces jail time in the case.

--The storms battering California will continue this weekend, with one hitting Northern California tonight and tomorrow, Saturday, and another on Sunday that could persist through Monday, and possibly one more midweek.

As of Thursday, over the prior 16 days, “large portions of Central California received over half their annual normal precipitation,” according to the National Weather Service.  Read that again…over half their annual normal precipitation.  That was true in Oakland at 69%; Santa Barbara, 64%; Stockton, 60%; downtown San Francisco, 59%; and downtown Sacramento, 50%.

Over 18 inches of rain has fallen in some areas.

All this before the next storms. 

Monday, the mass evacuation of Montecito was ordered, exactly five years after mudslides in the same area left 23 people dead.

The death toll sits at 19 since the storms began as a I go to post.

The good news, of course, is that the reservoirs are filling up quickly.  And the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab reported Thursday that, looking at the state as a whole, the snowpack is up to 104% of April 1 levels (227% of normal for this time in January), a key datapoint as April 1 is deemed the maximum snowpack for a season, which then helps determine the potential for the reservoirs when it all melts off.

And, again, this is before the next round of storms, which will take us out to Jan. 20 or so…with February and March left.

Snowpack accounts for 30% of California’s overall fresh-water flows.

As for a potential $dollar figure for the damages incurred, it will undoubtedly be in the $billions.  And only 2% of homeowners in California have flood insurance, according to the CEO of Neptune Flood, one of the nation’s largest private flood insurance companies.

A recent climate assessment by the U.S. Global Change Research Program found that “atmospheric rivers” such as those sweeping California will become more and more common and more severe as global temperatures rise.

--Death rates from cancer in the U.S. have fallen by 32% over the three decades from 1991 to 2019, according to the American Cancer Society.

The decline is thanks to prevention, screening, early diagnosis and treatment of common cancers, including lung and breast cancer.

The drop has meant 3.5 million fewer deaths.

However, cancers are still the second leading cause of death in the U.S., after heart disease.

--The Economist, on Prince Harry’s memoir, “Spare.”

“(The book) is all very engaging.  But it also feels somehow iffy.  ‘Autobiography,’ George Orwell once wrote, ‘is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful…since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.’  This book manages to feel both like a series of defeats and somewhat untrustworthy at the same time.  Things are rarely just Harry’s fault.  A decision to go to a fancy-dress party as a Nazi is explained away by saying that he was merely following the orders of Herr und Frau Obergruppenfuhrer William and Kate.  They look the sort.  Camilla is a scheming villain; Charles is a duffer; an editor is a ‘pustule’.  Only Meghan – ‘she’s perfect, she’s perfect’ – is exempt.

“For all the romps, and the rumps, this book feels less like a lark than a terrible miscalculation.  Harry, as he points out himself, is the creature in the gilded cage.  Presumably he hoped that by writing a memoir, he’d set himself free. The cage isn’t fashioned by the royals, however, but by the eyes of the audience.  By revealing so much, all he has done is draw the bars in closer.  The Firm would have stopped him from producing a book like this.  And that would have been a service.”

Piers Morgan / New York Post

“The New York Times should stop trashing Britain and our monarchy as callous racists – we’re not!

“It didn’t take long for the first laugh-out-loud lie to spew from Prince Harry’s mouth in the trans-Atlantic TV tour for his new autobiography.

“After penning 416 pages of nasty, repulsive vitriol about his family, he insisted to ITV’s Tom Bradby: ‘Nothing of what I’ve done in this book or otherwise has ever been with any intention to harm them or hurt them.’

“This was the royal equivalent of Bill Clinton’s infamous ‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky’ denial of something everyone, including him, knew to be 100% true.

“The cold, bitter reality – and we’re talking Siberian levels of seething, icy resentment here – is that Harry fully intended to cause maximum harm and hurt to his family with this literary weapon of mass destruction.

“That’s been his relentless mission since quitting the royals, Britain, and public duty three years ago.

“Far from seeking the privacy he pretends to crave, he’s coughed his confessional guts up to anyone prepared to give him a massive fee to trash his family, from Oprah and Netflix to Spotify and now Penguin Random House.

“It’s made him stinking rich, but at what cost?

“The More Harry proclaims that he’s ‘never been happier,’ the more wretchedly miserable he looks….

“Harry’s shamelessness knows no bounds.

“Nor does his entitlement, arrogance and chronic sense of victimhood.

“It take stupendous chutzpah to bleat about how awful your life is from the comfort of your palatial California mansion, as much of the world is reeling from a pandemic and the worst  financial crisis for decades.

“Yet is anyone surprised?

“The more Harry lambastes the British tabloid press…the more he behaves like the very worst kind of nasty, gossipy guttersnipe whom he professes to most despise.

“He brands King Charles a poor father, calls Queen Consort Camilla a dangerous villain, and launches constant withering attacks on his brother, Prince William, and William’s wife, Catherine, Princess of Wales.

“He even reveals, without any permission, that William is circumcised.

“Yes, a guy who hates press intrusion tells the world in a media interview that his brother had the tip of his foreskin severed.

“You couldn’t make it up!

“Some of his revelations are highly dangerous.

“Harry’s stupid boast that he killed 25 Taliban troops while fighting in Afghanistan has enraged his former military colleagues, incensed Muslims around the world, and significantly increased the risk of a retaliatory terror attack against him and his family, the royals and members of the British armed forces….

“In his ’60 Minutes’ interview with Anderson Cooper, Harry is asked why he’d want to keep his royal titles if he feels this way about the royal family and the monarchy.

“ ‘What difference would it make?’ he retorts.

“Hmmm, try $200 million of difference, your royal highness.

“Prince Harry’s book and interviews to promote it have revealed him to be a pathetic, paranoid, privileged, and jaw-droppingly two-faced man intent on destroying his family and the institution they front.

“The late, great Queen…will surely be turning in her grave at such grotesque disloyalty.

“As I have said many times, and reiterate now, Harry and Meghan must be stripped of all their remaining titles immediately.

“And they shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the coronation in May.

“They’ve made their treacherous bed, and they can lie in it, just as they lie about everything else.”

---

Pray for the men and women of our armed forces…and all the fallen.

Pray for Ukraine.

God bless America.

---

Gold $1923
Oil $80.03

Regular Gas: $3.28; Diesel: $4.61  [$3.30 / $3.59 yr. ago]

Returns for the week 1/9-1/13

Dow Jones  +2.0%  [34302]
S&P 500  +2.7% [3999]
S&P MidCap  +3.7%
Russell 2000  +5.3%
Nasdaq  +4.8%  [11079]

Returns for the period 1/1/23-1/13/23

Dow Jones  +3.5%
S&P 500  +4.2%
S&P MidCap  +6.2%
Russell 2000  +7.1%
Nasdaq  +5.9%

Bulls 41.4
Bears 32.9

Hang in there.

Brian Trumbore

---