TNT, Bix Weir, Lynette Zang and more Tuesday PM 3-10-2020
TNT:
Harambe: Bloomberg: Coronavirus Ravages Iran All the Way to the Top
(3/10/20)
Iran is dealing with one of the world’s worst outbreaks of the new coronavirus, and the disease was quick to reach the top ranks of the government.
Four current and former Iranian officials have died so far from coronavirus: a member of the Expediency Council that advises 80-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; an aide and mentor to Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif; a former ambassador to the Vatican; and a newly elected member of parliament.
Iraj Harirchi, the deputy health minister in charge of the country’s coronavirus task force, has it himself, as does the head of Iran’s medical services. Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar—once spokeswoman for the revolutionaries who took 52 Americans hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979—says she’s sick with the virus, too.
Major General Hossein Salami, head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), announced the likely culprit at a military ceremony in Kerman province on March 5: a U.S. biological attack, first on China and then on Iran.
Salami’s lashing out at foreign enemies underlines the sense of bewilderment in Iran as to why the disease has struck the country so hard. According to Iranian government statistics, as of March 9, there were 7,161 confirmed cases of Covid-19, as the disease from the virus is called, and 237 deaths across the nation of 84 million.
The coronavirus seems to have shot up northern Iran’s highway artery from Qom, a major religious center, to the capital of Tehran, which is now the country’s most affected city, with 1,945 confirmed cases on March 9. Despite it being the source of the earliest cases in Iran, Qom was never placed under quarantine—a stark contrast to containment measures taken in China and in Italy, the worst-hit European nation.
(Following Iran’s trajectory, politicians in Italy and France have tested positive for coronavirus.)
Harambe: AP News: US starts troop pullout, seeks end to Afghan leaders' feud (3/10/20)
AP News: US starts troop pullout, seeks end to Afghan leaders' feud (3/10/20)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The United States began withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, the U.S. military said Tuesday, taking a step forward on its peace deal with the Taliban while also praising Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s promise to start releasing Taliban prisoners after he had delayed for over a week.
The U.S.-Taliban deal signed Feb. 29 was touted as Washington’s effort to end 18 years of war in Afghanistan. The next crucial step was to be intra-Afghan talks in which all factions including the Taliban would negotiate a road map for their country’s future.
But Ghani and his main political rival, Abdullah Abdullah, were each sworn in as president in separate ceremonies Monday. Abdallah and the elections complaints commission had charged fraud in last year’s vote. The dueling inaugurations have thrown plans for talks with the Taliban into chaos, although Ghani said Tuesday that he’d start putting together a negotiating team.
The disarray on the Afghan government side is indicative of the uphill task facing Washington’s peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad as he tries to get Afghanistan’s bickering leadership to come together. In an early Tuesday tweet, Khalilzad said he hoped the two leaders can “come to an agreement on an inclusive and broadly accepted government. We will continue to assist.”
U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan Sonny Leggett said in a statement Tuesday the military had begun its “conditions-based reduction of forces to 8,600 over 135 days.”
https://apnews.com/2ac6e6ae6d805a5d067da8f36d3052d7
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Courtesy of Dinar Guru https://www.dinarguru.com/
Frank26 ...we believe the coronavirus has put the CBI in a very comfortable wonderful situation where they were lacking the mechanism to bring in the 3 zeros in order to complete the reinstatement of the Iraqi dinar...they're telling them they'll give you new currency when you bring in your three zeros...they say the reason why is they're saying they want you to bring in the currency that has the virus on it. But that's silly. That's ridiculous because the teller is not wearing a med-hat suit. He's not wearing gloves. He's not in a bubble...he's giving them the new small category notes...the logic is a bunch of baloney. It's not true at all. The CBI is using it to their advantage... the CBI has begun a very strategic usage of this...
Pimpy Vietnam has their ducks in a row way more than Iraq does. They don't have a problem with their government. It's not unstable. Their economy is pretty healthy and things seem to be going pretty good there...Vietnam is ready to really take a more active role on the international scene. They want to start doing business with other businesses in the United States...the banks want to get involved...this is great news if you hold Vietnam dong because the stronger they get the stronger the Vietnam dong becomes...April 6 is [when] the new Trump policies are being implemented that if any country is found manipulating their currency there's additional tariffs, penalties and sanctions put on them. Vietnam was red hot on their list...this is good. This is what we want...
Bix Weir
Paradise LOST? No Test - No Problem?!!
RoadToRoota: Mar 10, 2020
The people are starting to ask the hard questions on the islands...there is no excuse for politicians on what's about to hit!
NEGATIVE RATES, VARIABLE RATE DEBT, USD WORLD RESERVE… Q&A WITH LYNETTE ZANG AND ERIC GRIFFIN
Streamed live 62 minutes ago
Question 1. Doug C: With Russia making a move to become the next world currency they certainly have the best ratio of currency to gold in the world. If this is the case and they do become the world currency, will the price of gold stay with our pricing $10,000+ or will it reflect Russian pricing at $1700+?
Question 2. Rohan: Why is having a loan with a variable interest rate bad during or after a reset?
Question 3. B Jenkins: If US interest rates go negative, does this mean that the LIBOR or the SOFR would also go negative?
Question 4. RJS2248: Can the US really go to Negative Interest Rates? It seems that in the US the Repo Market, the Derivative Market and the accumulation of all the other markets cannot rebalance once Interest Rate goes from Zero to Negative. The US Dollar will throw US Markets into a Death Spiral which in turn will then poison the Global Central Banking system.
Question 5. H Tucker: How does the price of oil affect the Petro Dollar if at all. Its seems like there is an intentional move to dethrone the USD as the Reserve currency status with the new Oil price war starting.