Earlier on Friday afternoon, the House passed the third version (AKA Plan C) of a continuing resolution (CR) crafted by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, in an effort to avoid a partial government shutdown before many in Washington head home for winter recess. As RedState's Susie Moore wrote:

The House has now passed the "Plan C" CR, with a total vote of 366 to 34, with one voting "present." The 34 nay votes were Republicans. All Democrats voted in favor of it, save for the one who voted "present."

...The measure will now move onto the Senate, where, given the latest developments, it appears it will likely pass. //

Senators began voting on the stopgap government spending bill just before 12:30 a.m. EST. It will need 60 ayes to pass.

Now, the Senate has spoken:

The Senate has voted 85 to 11 to pass the stopgap spending bill approved in the House earlier today and keep the government open.

Here's some of what is (and isn't) in the bill:

The final bill did not include anything related to the debt limit, though House Republicans agreed to increase the borrowing limit by $1.5 trillion in exchange for $2.5 trillion in net cuts to mandatory spending. That would take place during next year’s budget reconciliation process. //

Senate Press Gallery @SenatePress
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As promised here is the breakdown -

Senators voting against - Bruan, Crapo, Hawley, Johnson, Kennedy, Lee, Paul, Risch, Romney, Sanders, and Schmitt

Senators Manchin, Rubio, Schiff and Vance did not vote.
Senate Press Gallery
@SenatePress
By a vote of 85-11 the #Senate passed H.R. 10545 (The Continuing Resolution )

Breakdown to come

This was the last vote of the 118th Congress.
12:02 AM · Dec 21, 2024

Nancy Mace
@NancyMace
·
Follow
It’s not the number of pages that matter - it’s what’s in those pages.

This CR had the same level of spending today as it did yesterday, but the debt ceiling was suspended, meaning there was no limit on the debt. I don’t trust Congress or the government to spend responsibly… Show more
6:50 PM · Dec 19, 2024

Hakeem Jeffries
·
Dec 18, 2024
@RepJeffries
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House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government.

And hurt the working class Americans they claim to support.

You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow.

Elon Musk @elonmusk
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You seem to think the public is dumb.

They are not.
4:51 PM · Dec 18, 2024 //

Elon Musk @elonmusk
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The voice of the people was heard.

This was a good day for America.

Chad Pergram @ChadPergram
GOP KY Rep Barr on CR: The phone was ringing off the hook today. And you know why? Because they were reading the tweets, the X from musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, and they were telling me that they were, that they were listening to them.. this shows the influence that president,…
5:12 PM · Dec 18, 2024

I'm asking congressional Republicans to read this slowly because it might confuse them, but they have a majority. That means they can now pass a clean CR. If Democrats then vote it down, angry that they didn't get their pork-filled 1,500-page monstrosity, then they will be the ones shutting the government down. Jeffries would be forced to eat his own words about hurting "everyday Americans."

The same thing applies to all the emotional pleas about "disaster relief."

Again, make Democrats own this. If they want to make disaster relief a marker, then pass a standalone bill and make them vote it down. What excuse would they have to do so after they proclaimed how vital it is? And if Democrats do scuttle it, then Republicans can go to the podium and place the blame where it belongs.

It's so simple, and I'm at a loss as to why that wasn't the plan in the first place. If Republicans can't grow a backbone and play hardball now, especially when the opportunity is being handed to them on a silver platter, then when can they? Democrats have no leverage, and it's long past time they are made to understand what losing actually entails. It means not getting all your priorities passed because you scream "crisis" every few months after refusing to govern in a normal fashion.

Republicans need to put their differences aside and come together to do the smart thing. Pass a clean CR and force the hand of Democrat leadership.

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“…as a condition of participating in the modern economy, Americans are forced to disclose details of their private lives to a financial industry that has been too eager to pass this information along to federal law enforcement.”

A report from the House Judiciary Committee and Government Weaponization Subcommittee exposed the FBI for abusing the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) to spy on Americans’ bank accounts without a warrant.

“Documents show that federal law enforcement increasingly works hand-in-glove with financial institutions, obtaining virtually unchecked access to private financial data and testing out new methods and new technology to continue the financial surveillance of American citizens,” according to the report.

The Susu club is a universal feature of the Liberian workplace. Hardly any agency, trading firm, or NGO is without a Susu Club. The Susu club comes in two variety, the non-profit and the commercial. The non-profit is the more benign of the two. It is normally organized rather informally. The employees of a company, or even a section of a company agree to form a Susu club and will pay a certain amount of their salary to the club cashier every month. In an non-profit Susu, the percentage of the salary pledged tends to be higher than in a commercial Susu. The drivers of one NGO operating in Liberia pay 70 USD, about one third of their salary, into their Susu account every month. But every month one of them is the lucky one. He will receive the combined input of the other Susu members. In this particular Susu club the payout is 700 USD. The next month it is another persons term to collect the 700 USD. So, the Susu club is in effect, a revolving loan given by the paying members to the receiving member. The advantage for the member is that, once or twice a year, depending on the structure of the Susu club he gets paid 700USD instead of his regular salary of 250 USD.

Friday, Socialist Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders used a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, to announce that he was willing to work with the incoming Trump administration to accomplish mutually beneficial legislation.

I look forward to working with the Trump Administration on fulfilling his promise to cap credit card interest rates at 10%.

He received a quick reply from Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley. "An anti-usury bill capping outrageous credit card rates," said Hawley, "ought to be a top priority of the next Congress." //

In my view, the number of times the government has intervened in markets directly and produced the intended result can probably be counted on the fingers of one hand. The obvious problem with a return to the medieval system of slapping usury laws on lenders is that when interest rates spike, banks lose the ability to adjust their interest rates. This, by definition, creates a drought in the credit market, which is quickly felt by commercial enterprises that rely on credit card transactions. If one is hellbent on regulating credit cards to save people from themselves, then allow a certain rate against the Fed's bank rate. //

Years ago, the Fed sponsored a study of the impact of usury ceilings:

Economic research clearly supports the current legislative moves toward deregulation of usury ceilings. The evidence on the impact of usury ceilings shows that they have not achieved their objectives. According to the empirical studies surveyed, usury ceilings have significantly reduced the availability of credit and created hardships for those who were supposed to be protected. Ceilings have encouraged lenders to use credit rationing devices such as higher down payments, shorter maturities, higher fees for related non-credit services, which increase the effective interest rate. They have curtailed the amount of credit available to lower income and higher risk borrowers, harming primarily those individuals whom the ceilings are intended to benefit. Finally, the lack of uniformity in usury laws across states has distorted credit flows and economic activity, favoring those states and regions which are less regulated.

What is worse, a guy holding a credit card that carries a 30% interest rate or his car breaking down and losing his job because he can't get to work all due to some well-meaning Karen in DC deciding it is more virtuous for him to be destitute than enrich some bank?

Trump needs to back off faux-populist issues like this. I understand the sugar rush of applause as well as the next guy, but cutting off credit card access from banks doesn't mean that poor people won't pay exorbitant interest rates.

How much does a payday loan cost? //

We have two parties here, and only two — one is the evil party, and the other is the stupid party. I’m very proud to be a member of the stupid party. Occasionally, the two parties get together to do something that’s both evil and stupid. That’s called bipartisanship. —M. Stanton Evans //

DaleS an hour ago edited

The graphes don't go back that far, but I'm old enough to remember when the federal funds rate (the rate when banks borrow from each other) was well over 10%. What do you suppose happens to the credit card market when credit card holders can borrow from the bank at a lower rate than they can borrow from each other?

Even if you thought an anti-usury law was a good idea, it would be madness to peg it to a fixed rate. I believe every card I've ever had (ignoring promotional rates) has been set at an offset on prime. Pegging the maximum interest to Prime+5 would still allow the banks to offer credit cards as a product no matter where interest rates go -- but it would be to a far smaller group of consumers. Markets work better than government. Lowering interest rates for everybody means that good credit risks lose their rewards, and bad credit risks lose their credit. This would not be a good thing. //

Musicman an hour ago

The Founding Fathers created a government that required consensus to get anything done. But don't confuse consensus with "bipartisanship." Bipartisanship means each Party gets something it wants. And often that means the two most extreme elements of our body politic--the far right and the far left--get something they want. It's also called log rolling. It's too often a compromise that benefits Washington insiders rather than the country. It's why we have a 35 trillion dollar debt.

A consensus is where you can get more than a pure majority, say 60 or 70 % of the people behind something. Or in the case of a Constitutional Amendment, 75% (of the states). Trump can reach a consensus without giving the Dems--or at least their left wing base--a damn thing. He just needs to get most Republicans and independents, and then a slice of the Democrat Party behind whatever he does. That is how to build a lasting movement.

European Union regulators warned Elon Musk's X platform that it may calculate fines by including revenue from Musk's other companies, including SpaceX, according to a Bloomberg article published today.

X was previously accused of violating the Digital Services Act (DSA), which could result in fines of up to 6 percent of total worldwide annual turnover. That fine would be levied on the "provider" of X, which could be defined to include other Musk-led firms. //

Bloomberg's report says that Tesla "sales would be exempt from this calculation because it's publicly traded and not under Musk's full control."

"In considering revenue from his other companies, the commission is essentially weighing whether Musk himself should be regarded as the entity to fine as opposed to X itself," Bloomberg's sources say.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) climate disclosure rule posts real problems for public companies. The SEC’s mission is to do facilitate capital formation and maintain market efficiency, but for the first time in its 90-year history, the SEC has injected political risk factors into its traditionally principles-based disclosure framework.

Leading up to the new rule, the SEC buckled under pressure from left-wing special interests to impose the first environmental disclosure mandate on public companies. If the SEC’s final rule is allowed to go into effect by the courts, it will be a financial disaster for the public markets. //

The climate rule will require most large and mid-sized public firms to report annual and quarterly disclosures that account for an endless range of climate risk factors. This translates to approximately 3,488 firms spending upwards of $628 million on direct disclosure costs and millions on indirect costs.

Consequentially, firms will need to expend great resources hiring climate scientists, ESG experts, lawyers, and accountants to properly prepare their disclosures for SEC review, neglecting the time normally spent on enhancing their market value.

Corporate boards will lose much of their discretionary decision making, forced to prioritize environmental risk factors over purely financial concerns. In its place, corporate boards must infuse speculative climate science to determine which climate risks warrant inclusion in their SEC disclosure.

With the SEC’s 12 new climate disclosure categories, investors will be spammed with a flood of confusing and potentially contradictory environmental data. This will undermine the ability of investors to navigate the actual meaningful risks in the markets or assess the health of a company. The doom and gloom of climate risks will imperil sensible financial analysis. //
As many as 25 state attorneys general have pursued two lawsuits against the SEC for exceeding its statutory authority and violating the major questions doctrine by promulgating climate regulation.

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals was chosen by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to consolidate nine challenges into one case against the SEC. Soon after, the SEC halted the rule’s implantation to fend off its legal challenges.

The SEC is in the unenviable position of trying to defend the indefensible. //

Mandatory climate disclosures represent an undemocratic form of ESG policymaking that neither Congress nor the U.S. electorate actually approved.

“The Justice Department has charged Yahya Sinwar and other senior leaders of Hamas for financing, directing, and overseeing a decades-long campaign to murder American citizens and endanger the national security of the United States,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “On October 7th, Hamas terrorists, led by these defendants, murdered nearly 1200 people, including over 40 Americans, and kidnapped hundreds of civilians. This weekend, we learned that Hamas murdered an additional six people they had kidnapped and held captive for nearly a year, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23 year old Israeli American. We are investigating Hersh’s murder, and each and every one of Hamas’ brutal murders of Americans, as an act of terrorism. The charges unsealed today are just one part of our effort to target every aspect of Hamas’ operations. These actions will not be our last.” //

Hamas raises money to fund its terrorist activities through a variety of methods, including by soliciting and receiving cryptocurrency payments, advertising the ostensible anonymity of such transactions. //

While that may be true, it leaves out a key detail that UNWRA, the UN refugee organization meant to help stabilize the area, became embedded with Hamas with even its staff perpetrating crimes on Oct. 7. The U.S. has been the largest contributor of UNWRA, giving it $7.3 billion since 1950. //

Dieter Schultz Jim frm Palo Alto
3 hours ago edited

Political theater. The U.S. has no jurisdiction over what happens in Israel and Gaza.

It's more than just political theater!

Like the saying in the movie that "the Russians don't take a dump, son, without a plan", the Dems don't make a move like this without an ulterior motive.

mopani Dieter Schultz
a few seconds ago edited
Yep. This is the beginning of making anonymous cryptocurrency illegal because it funds terrorism.

But here's our shiny new government approved crypto currency, you can use this, it will be great! //

Dieter Schultz
4 hours ago edited
The charges unsealed today are just one part of our effort to target every aspect of Hamas’ operations. These actions will not be our last.
If I were the suspicious type I'd think that this action was taken to preempt or provide leverage over Netanyahu to stop him from ending Sinwar's life...

They are trying to force Netanyahu to stop and turn it over to the US' court system. Then, if I had to guess, the plan, on the off-chance that they would be able to capture him or have him turn himself over to the US, would be to turn him over to be tried in... oh, I don't know, a federal court in Dearborn?

But... I'm not the suspicious type... nope, I'm not!

I imagine this arrangement should help the credit bureaus steer more people away from freezing their and toward their respective “credit lock” services, which the bureaus have marketed as just as good as a credit freeze but also easier to use.

All three big bureaus tout their credit lock services as an easier and faster alternative to freezes — mainly because these alternatives aren’t as disruptive to their bottom lines. //

Unsurprisingly, the bureaus’ use of the term credit lock has confused many consumers; this was almost certainly by design. But here’s one basic fact consumers should keep in mind about these lock services: Unlike freezes, locks are not governed by any law, meaning that the credit bureaus can change the terms of these arrangements when and if it suits them to do so.

This case has taken 13 years to conclude. Billions of dollars were lost to consumers in what will ultimately be seen as excess fees.

With Loper Bright opening the door to challenging agency regulations and Corner Post removing a six-years-from-rule-finalization statute of limitations, many regulations that should be tossed out will no longer have the shield of Supreme Court precedent and a lapsed statute of limitations to hide behind. This is the beginning of an Administrative State that is modest and chastened, and it remembers that it works for the people, not for the post-retirement careers of the bureaucrats writing rules to favor industries.

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See what information about you is maintained in our files by requesting a Consumer Disclosure Report. The report includes items such as real estate transaction and ownership data, lien, judgment, and bankruptcy records, professional license information, and historical addresses.

If one drop was $1, the national debt would fill an Olympic pool... 4000 feet deep...

KilRoy-db
3 days ago
Fill a tractor trailer with 18,000# of $100. bills it would take 1225 of them to carry 1 trillion
dollars.
So it would take 41,650 truck loads of hundred dollar bills for 34 trillion dollars.
MIND BLOWING THE AMOUNT WE PISS AWAY FOR SHITTY PROJECTS.......

In today’s enlightened digital age, your purchase is simply an entry at your broker’s computer, and you do not own what you think you own. Under laws in all 50 states, what you actually own is a “securities entitlement.” This is a new form of “property ownership” that is more like a contract between you and your broker. Progress.

But if the financial system were to totally collapse—think 2008, but much bigger—nearly every stock and bond that is in electronic form can be legally taken as collateral by the largest “too big to fail” financial institutions. Sure, it would crush many millions of individual investors. But it’s all for a good cause: saving the systemically important financial institutions. You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, right?

This will happen without your knowledge and without any action or fault on your part—even if you are entirely debt free. If that sounds wrong, it’s because it is. It is also legalized fraud.

So, how did we get here? It is a fascinating story involving some of the most boring and dense state laws on the books. Hat tip to ZeroHedge for posting an article titled “Intentional Destruction: First COVID, Now Comes ‘The Great Taking’” by Matthew Smith that was in part based on the work of David Webb and his book The Great Taking. //

The Uniform Law Commission (ULC) was formed for the purpose of developing state-level laws that would change the patchwork quilt of state laws into a more uniform set of statutes. The most prominent uniform law is the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), and this issue centers around UCC Article 8. The ULC presented a model law revising Article 8 in 1994, and the law was passed by all 50 states over the next several years.

Sitting inside the new Article 8 language are several provisions that put the rights of individual investors at risk. The first significant change is the concept of “securities entitlement.” //

The individual investors have no role in the lending practices of their broker, why does the law allow the taking of their assets?

To answer that question, you need to know the fundamental objective of the Article 8 revisions. The driving motivation was systemic risk in the financial markets (if they were worried about systemic risk in 1994, what do they think about it now?). Importantly, the Article 8 revisions did not do anything to reduce the likelihood of systemic risk. In fact, the committee made it worse by removing risk and consequences for shady financial activity. Instead, what the changes actually do is protect the “too big to fail” banks if a systemic financial collapse occurs.

The UCC has turned the concept of property rights upside down, but the UCC is also a state law, and state legislators can, therefore, take steps to restore the rights of investors or, at the very least, require informed consent. //

any system that requires the people to sacrifice their property to support the financial institutions that built this mess in the first place is not a system worth saving. //

anon-cugn
14 hours ago
From The Two Towers:
Theoden: I will not risk open war!
Aragorn: Open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not.
We have an enemy. We are at war.
1 Peter 5:6-11

John LeFevre @JohnLeFevre
·
Charlie Munger’s formula for success is simple and perfect:

• Spend less than you earn
• Invest prudently
• Avoid toxic people and toxic activities
• Defer gratification
• Never stop learning

4:12 PM · Nov 28, 2023 //

Geiger Capital @Geiger_Capital
·
Some of the best of Charlie Munger:

“Every time you hear EBITDA, just substitute it with bullshit earnings”. Absolute legend. 🐐
5:00 / 5:00
4:15 PM · Nov 28, 2023 //

My favorite from that clip? "Warren, if people weren't often so wrong, we wouldn't be so rich." //

In a 2019 interview with CNBC, Munger taught us how to lead a happy life:

You don’t have a lot of envy, you don’t have a lot of resentment, you don’t overspend your income, you stay cheerful in spite of your troubles. You deal with reliable people and you do what you’re supposed to do. And all these simple rules work so well to make your life better. And they’re so trite.

And staying cheerful ... because it’s a wise thing to do. Is that so hard? And can you be cheerful when you’re absolutely mired in deep hatred and resentment? Of course you can’t. So why would you take it on?