To whom it may concern.

"With a contraction in bank liquidity and lending and an increased radar for bank stress testing from regulators due to the recent turmoil, banks with the highest [Commercial Real Estate] concentrations could see a pull-back on their lending books to allow their debt to roll off," writes Trepp, an analyst specialising in securitized mortgages. As a result, there could be lower origination volumes in the coming months and years.

The news that evolution would be cut from the curriculum for students aged 15–16 was widely reported last month, when thousands of people signed a petition in protest. But official guidance has revealed that a chapter on the periodic table will be cut, too, along with other foundational topics such as sources of energy and environmental sustainability. Younger learners will no longer be taught certain pollution- and climate-related topics, and there are cuts to biology, chemistry, geography, mathematics and physics subjects for older school students.

Apple’s savings account, a partnership with Goldman Sachs, launched in April to great fanfare. Some customers say it has been hard to get their money out. Customer service representatives at Goldman, which holds the deposits, sometimes gave differing responses about what to do, they said. Sometimes, custumers' money appeared to have simply vanished, not showing up in their Apple account or in the account they were trying to move it to.

The BRICS nations, consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, are actively seeking to expand their alliance by inviting additional countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE to join, forming what is referred to as BRICS+. Furthermore, there have been discussions within the group about the possibility of creating a shared currency called BRICS.

New regulations include that crypto exchanges and wallet providers looking to operate across the 27-nation bloc will be able to do so with a license issued under MiCA, which will likely be truly enforced in June after being published in the official EU journal. However, critics argue that excessive regulations could stifle innovation and drive crypto businesses away from the EU.

"[The] SEC’s function now is not to protect the American people, but it’s to protect the banks – particularly the central banks and those interests," Kennedy said. The presidential candidate also spoke about the impact of inflation [...], saying that digital assets presented an "exit ramp" for those worried about traditional money being misused in the name of foreign wars or bailing out big banks.

This has been happening quite often over the recent few months. Why?

In the current case, which has been observed and reported by Lookonchain, a participant in Ethereum's ICO has moved holdings to another wallet address, also with a very short transaction history.

Here is the data from the Ethereum explorer: https://web.archive.org/web/20230527172457mp_/https://etherscan.io/address/0x6ccb03acf7f53ce87aadcc21a9932de915f89804

The firm asserted that regulators in the U.S. are “actively trying to stop companies (banks and fintechs) from supporting crypto assets – even when the companies are trying to do it correctly and by the book”. Unbanked said it recently signed a term sheet for a $5 million investment with a $20 million valuation. Though it did not state which regulations prevented it from receiving the loan, it said it ultimately had not received the funds as of yet and will resume operations.

Recent comments by Ledger shareholder and former CEO Éric Larchevêque that governments could subpoena access to user funds held on a Ledger device that has subscribed to its new Recover service sparked consternation among Ledger users. Now Ledger's current CEO Pascal Gauthier has shrugged off concerns, arguing that governments only issue subpoenas in the case of a serious act like terrorism or one involving drugs. "It's not true that the average person gets subpoenaed every day."

Aha.

Household wealth in countries with commission bans grows significantly more than in countries without commission bans, a research team from the University of Regensburg claims. They measured the difference in returns at 1.7 percent p.a. The researchers call lawmakers in countries like Germany, where the loss amounts to 2,400 euros per household per year, to ban commission-based sales of financial products.

In the recent past, Denmark, Finland, the UK, the Netherlands, Norway as well as Australia and New Zealand have introduced such bans and established alternative payment methods, e.g., according to advisory time or assets under management.

Here is the study: https://epub.uni-regensburg.de/54281/

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) made high-risk, often-unneeded billion-dollar infrastructure loans, with no conditionality, poor risk planning, shrouded in opacity and secrecy. Cash-poor developing countries that lacked the ability to pay were particularly vulnerable, a report says. The seeds of project failure were sown from the outset by a lack of transparency, risk management, and viable controls to check corruption and incompetence.

52% of those doing jobs ranging from data entry to food delivery are earning below the minimum wage, a study by University of Bristol finds. Average wages are £8.97 per hour – around 15% below the current UK minimum which rose to £10.42 in May. Three out of four workers say they are experiencing work-related insecurity and anxiety.

"We are in an age which, to an extent, embraces feminism, anti-racism and anti-ableism. Perhaps it is also time to include “speciesism” in our discussions about ethics – since valuing some species over others is a form of prejudice."

Cross-posted from https://beehaw.org/post/344431

A financial model investigating the issuance of digital money as central bank digital currency (CBDC) or as stablecoins found that a fully-integrated digital currency would lead to higher and less volatile asset prices, and household welfare gains are potentially large which could lead to an increase in consumption by up to 2%.

However, a fully-integrated digital currency would depress bank deposit spreads, particularly during times of crises, which limits the banks’ abilities to recapitalize losses after a bank crises. These investment losses, not specifically bank runs, create instability, the paper argues.

Another research paper found that bank runs are not as big as initially feared. This paper can be found here: https://www.financialresearch.gov/working-papers/2022/07/11/central-bank-digital-currency/

Both papers focus on the issuance of CBCD and stablecoins and do not include privately issued money like LETS/Time Dollars and similar privately issued complementary currency systems.

(Edited to correct a typo.)

From 2006 to 2018, the tiger numbers almost doubled to 2,967 and are now well above 3,000, according to the recently released census in India, home to 70 percent of the world’s tigers. Indian PM Narendra Modi also launched the 'International Big Cats Alliance', which will focus on the protection of seven big cat species: the tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard, puma, jaguar and cheetah.

Federal Reserve notes would become fully redeemable for and exchangeable with gold, with the U.S. Treasury and its gold reserves backstopping Federal Reserve Banks as guarantor. Historians have long been criticizing that the elimination of gold redeemability from the monetary system freed central bankers and federal government officials from accountability when they expand the money supply, fund government deficits though trillion-dollar bond purchases, or otherwise manipulate the economy.

The species whose lives were offered up for sale include polar bears, lions, African elephants and leopards wrapped up in special holiday packages offered at relatively low prices, like 900 euros for a giraffe and 4,500 euros for a hunt to kill a female lion—including international flights and 7-day accommodations.