May 2023 - cypherpunks@lists.ogf.org

Deposits at JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo Shrank by $465 Billion Y-O-Y; More than Twice the Total of 4,000 Small Banks
by Gunnar Larson 08 May '23

08 May '23

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2023/05/deposits-at-jpmorgan-chase-bank-of-a… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 8, 2023 ~ Since the banking crisis began making headlines at expensive media real estate, the narrative has been that deposits are fleeing the small commercial banks and flooding into the biggest banks that are perceived as too-big-to-fail and thus offer a safer venue for deposits. Because these mega banks are the same ones that the Fed has been bailing out since the financial crisis of 2008, that narrative requires believing that our fellow Americans are dumber than a stump. We decided to check out that narrative for ourselves. Not only is that scenario wrong, but it is so decidedly wrong, and it’s so easy to get the accurate figures, that from where we sit it looks like there might have been an agenda by someone to harm smaller banks. (Since it’s short sellers who have benefited to the tune of more than $7 billion from this misinformation, the Securities and Exchange Commission should find out who the public relations firms are who placed this erroneous information, and who paid them.) Each Friday, at approximately 4:15 p.m., the Federal Reserve (“the Fed”) releases its H.8 report showing the assets and liabilities of commercial banks in the United States. Monthly deposit data is included going back one year, as well as deposit data for each of the last four weeks. Data is also broken down by the 25 largest banks and the approximate 4,000 small banks. Equally helpful, the folks at the St. Louis Fed make it possible to chart much of that H.8 data via its FRED charting tools. (See charts above and below.) The 25 largest banks in the U.S. lost a total of $644 billion in deposits between April 27, 2022 and April 26, 2023. The three largest banks in the U.S., as measured by deposits, are JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Between April 27, 2022 and April 26, 2023, JPMorgan Chase lost $184 billion in deposits; Bank of America lost $162 billion; and Wells Fargo lost $118.7 billion, for a combined loss in deposits of $464.7 billion — representing 72 percent of the decline in deposits at the 25 largest banks. (That’s a crystal clear indication of just how dangerously concentrated banking has become in the U.S.) The deposit losses at JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo are more than twice what the 4,000 small banks lost in total during the same period. Their combined loss in deposits was just $210 billion. (See chart below.) Bank of America and Wells Fargo not only lost those large deposit sums on a year-over-year basis, but both banks saw deposits fall during the past five quarters, including the quarter ending March 31, 2023 when headlines were declaring that they were seeing big inflows of deposits as a result of the banking crisis. JPMorgan Chase lost deposits in each of the quarters in 2022 and then saw a small increase in deposits in the first quarter of this year – likely from all of those misleading headlines. (This information is easily obtained from the financial statements the firms file publicly with the SEC.) To give you an idea of just how pervasive this false narrative has been about the big banks sloshing around in all those deposits fleeing the small banks, as recently as April 28 the Bloomberg columnist, John Authers, wrote a column that was syndicated to the Washington Post – likely to be read by a large number of members of Congress. In the article, Authers included this nugget: “This summary from the Canadian firm Palos Management explains neatly why the bigger banks are still OK: “The first quarter’s performance of the big four was consistent with a broad consensus that the big banks have capitalized on massive depositor inflows, clearly related to the well-documented liquidity stresses facing their smaller, regionally based brethren. This should come as no surprise. The panic-fueled depositor exodus from the smaller banks to the larger ‘too big to fail’ banks is simply a rational decision. Protection of capital rules.” Why would a journalist rely on unverified deposit data from a Canadian firm when the deposit data is readily available from the banks’ own filings with the SEC as well as in the Fed’s H.8 weekly releases?

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Brilliant and idiosyncratic cryptographers, including Ern Malley
by professor rat 08 May '23

08 May '23

At the height of World War II in the Pacific, two secret organisations existed in Australia to break Japan's military codes. They were peopled by brilliant and idiosyncratic cryptographers, including some with achievements in mathematics and the Classics and others who had lived or grown up in Japan https://www.amazon.com.au/Code-Breakers-Intelligence-Australias-Bletchley/d… Reposts not crazed poetics splitting the infinite

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Create new money - ambition should be made of Stirner stuff
by professor rat 08 May '23

08 May '23

MAX ’ But why shouldn’t you create new money? Do you abolish the product by taking away its hereditary stamp? Now, money is a product, and an essential means or capability, because it protects against the ossification of wealth,[338] keeps it in flux, and brings about its turnover. If you know a better medium of exchange, well, all right; but it will again be a “money.” It’s not the money that does you harm, but your inability to take it." STIRNER https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/max-stirner-the-unique-and-its-prop… Take power when its given you by a dying BIG DOG

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Left-fascists take responsibility for inspiring Peter Thiel
by professor rat 08 May '23

08 May '23

According to his biographer Max Chafkin, Thiel felt that ‘mainstream liberals had accepted communists, but conservatives were unable to bring themselves to associate with members of the far-right…He really wished the right would become more like the left’. https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/capitals-militant Reposts not the Marxist-Communist left that acts as a reservoir of brazen fascist ideology & praxis.

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Kimora Lee Says $93 Million US Wants From Tim Leissner Is Hers
by Gunnar Larson 07 May '23

07 May '23

Kimora Lee, the former model and ex-wife of former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) banker Tim Leissner, claims that shares worth about $93 million that he was ordered to forfeit as part of his 1MDB guilty plea actually belong to her. Kimora Lee Says $93 Million US Wants From Tim Leissner Is Hers https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-05/kimora-lee-says-93-milli…

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Cryptic physics with Bing
by professor rat 07 May '23

07 May '23

Warmed up asking about the speed of Lemaitres ' cosmic seed " - answer on my Pro2rat microblog at Sysad Org Followed up with . . . Seth Lloyd has called the universe a quantum computer so this raises the question, is the universe also public key infrastructure? Quantum PKI? Seth Lloyd is a quantum physicist and computer scientist who has proposed that the universe is a quantum computer1. He argues that everything in the universe is made of bits of information that can be manipulated by quantum operations2. He also suggests that the laws of physics are the machine language of the cosmic quantum computer1. Public key infrastructure (PKI) is a system that uses cryptographic techniques to secure communication and data exchange over networks. PKI involves the use of public and private keys that are mathematically related but cannot be derived from each other. A public key can be used to encrypt a message that can only be decrypted by the corresponding private key, and vice versa3. Quantum PKI is a variant of PKI that uses quantum mechanics to enhance security and efficiency. Quantum PKI can leverage quantum phenomena such as superposition, entanglement, and no-cloning to create unbreakable encryption, faster computation, and novel protocols. The question of whether the universe is also a PKI is an intriguing one, but not easy to answer. One possible way to approach it is to ask whether the universe has some features that are analogous to those of a PKI, such as: A way to generate and distribute public and private keys A way to encrypt and decrypt messages using those keys A way to verify the authenticity and integrity of messages A way to revoke or update keys Some of these features may be found in certain aspects of the universe, such as: The generation and distribution of public and private keys could be related to the creation and evolution of physical systems, such as particles, atoms, molecules, stars, planets, etc. Each system could have some observable properties (public keys) and some hidden properties (private keys) that are determined by the initial conditions and the laws of physics. The encryption and decryption of messages could be related to the interaction and measurement of physical systems, such as light, sound, gravity, electromagnetism, etc. Each system could encode some information (message) in its state or behavior, and another system could decode it by observing or interacting with it. The encryption and decryption could depend on the quantum states of the systems and their entanglement. The verification of messages could be related to the conservation laws and symmetries of the universe, such as energy, momentum, charge, parity, etc. Each system could have some invariant quantities (signatures) that are preserved under certain transformations or operations. Another system could verify the message by checking whether those quantities are conserved or not. The revocation or update of keys could be related to the dynamical changes and fluctuations of the universe, such as expansion, contraction, inflation, entropy, etc. Each system could have some variable properties (keys) that change over time or space due to external or internal factors. Another system could revoke or update its keys by adapting to those changes or fluctuations. However, these analogies are not exact and may not capture all the aspects of a PKI. Moreover, they may not imply that the universe is intentionally or consciously implementing a PKI for some purpose or goal. Therefore, it is not clear whether the universe is also a PKI in a strict sense, or just a quantum computer with some PKI-like features.

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Anarchism using cryptography
by professor rat 07 May '23

07 May '23

" . . . anarchism, using cryptography to eradicate the possibility of censorship, and enable leaking of sensitive information from government agencies, militaries, and so on. Telecomix was born before wikileaks (it is now dead but successors followed). How to handle the tides and the repetition? Try something new that has not been attempted before. Anarchism also depends on the people wanting to be anarchists. You can not force anyone to become an anarchist. . . :" >From a comment at " Anarchist News " an aggravating website https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecomix

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Truly shameful and pathetic anti-Bitcoin propaganda from Bloomberg.
by professor rat 07 May '23

07 May '23

I thought this was a joke at first, but it’s real… Truly shameful and pathetic anti-#Bitcoin propaganda from Bloomberg. https://twitter.com/WalkerAmerica/status/1624847319928655874 Reposts not NYC tradFi bombast from a timewasting jackass called Popgun Larceny

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Peter Thiel Says Moving to Florida from Silicon Valley Is Too Expensive
by professor rat 07 May '23

07 May '23

A small downpayment And throwing his boyfriend off the roof was just a rinse - the heavy-duty-cycle's coming up next.

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Peter Thiel Says Moving to Florida from Silicon Valley Is Too Expensive
by Gunnar Larson 06 May '23

06 May '23

“That kind of economic cost is probably not enough to offset all the wokeness in the world or even the taxes,” he said. Peter Thiel Says Moving to Florida from Silicon Valley Is Too Expensive https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-04/peter-thiel-says-moving-…

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