By Tyler Durden, The US federal income tax deadline is fast approaching, and in a sign that US taxpayers are desperate for cash, the IRS has already received 45.4 million individual returns as of Feb. 25, a 0.3% increase from the prior season. Meanwhile, the newest LendingTree survey of more than 1,000 taxpayers showed that 46% of […]

By Tyler Durden, Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance It was just a couple of weeks ago that I wrote an article arguing that the economic sanctions we have cast upon in Russia, due to its invasion of Ukraine, likely mark the beginning of a period where China and Russia would bifurcate the global monetary system, leading them to […]

By Tyler Durden, After Wednesday concerns that holders of Russian government dollar bonds may be hosed amid a lack of confirmation that interest payments had been successfully made, Bloomberg reports that JPMorgan has indeed processed the funds, which have been forwarded to Citigroup, according to people familiar with the matter. Russia’s Central Bank JPMorgan was the correspondent bank Russia used […]

By Tyler Durden, Holders of Russian government dollar bonds with coupons due on Wednesday have not received confirmation of payment as of close of business in London, according to Reuters, raising fears that the Russian default we previewed last night – the first since 1998 – may be imminent (once the 30 day grace period expires). At issue are two […]

Tyler Durden, Beijing is learning the hard way that its “COVID Zero” approach toward combating the virus is having serious drawbacks. For example, while the US and Europe continue to roll back their tightening measures, a growing number of Chinese citizens are facing draconian lockdowns similar to the one imposed on Wuhan during the early […]

By Tyler Durden, The Russian war in Ukraine has very belatedly sent one lead NATO country into a defense spending spree. Before the Feb.24 invasion, Germany wouldn’t so much as let its weapons be transferred to Kiev via allies – wanting to present a sense of neutrality with Moscow – but now with all prior […]

By Tyler Durden, With Russia now officially cut off from both the USDollar and the euro, Russia’s VTB Bank is seeing a surge in Chinese Yuan deposits, attracted by the bank offering significantly higher interest rates as Putin shifts focus to ‘friendly’ nations. The state-owned bank is offering a Chinese yuan savings account with a maximum interest […]

By Tyler Durden, By John Kemp, Senior Market Analyst at Reuters Global stocks of diesel and other middle distillates have fallen to the lowest seasonal level since 2008, when similar shortages of these transport and industrial fuels helped to propel oil prices to a record high. Distillate fuel oil inventories in the United States are 30 […]

By Tyler Durden, Authored by Michael Maharrey via Libertarian Institute/Tenth Amendment Center The government of the United States has intervened militarily in other countries for decades, against the council of founders like George Washington who advised America should “observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all.” But the U.S. doesn’t only project […]

By Tyler Durden, Finally, after months of pressure from entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, the White House is taking a leading role in developing US crypto regulation. Optimism surrounding the actual statement – which was released this morning – was parked last night when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen appeared to accidentally praise the new executive order… before […]