Podcasts about International Monetary Fund

From the BBC World Service: Sri Lanka has been battling economic breakdown for nearly a year. A foreign reserve crisis toppled the country’s president and led to shortages and soaring inflation. Now a $3 billion rescue package has been agreed upon with the International Monetary Fund. We ask if it’s enough and find out what reforms the nation will have to implement to keep the cash flowing. Plus, investors holding Credit Suisse debt lost everything in the rescue deal with UBS. We hear from one of them on how it’s affected confidence in the market. And, with another warning on climate collapse from the UN, we ask what Lego — one of the biggest toymakers in the world — is doing to cut emissions.

Welcome to the Adams Archive, where the unspoken truths of society are uncovered and explored with passion and precision. Host Austin Adams dives deep into controversial topics that will make you question the very fabric of our world. In this groundbreaking episode, Austin investigates the American banking system and its unnerving implications for the future of the nation. Delve into the intricacies of fractional banking and discover how this seemingly innocuous concept has evolved into a far more sinister reality. Austin takes listeners on an intellectual journey that starts with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and leads to an examination of the Federal Reserve. With the aid of Edward Griffin's "The Creature from Jekyll Island," the podcast unravels the complex history and mechanisms behind modern banking practices that affect every aspect of our lives. As Austin navigates this labyrinth of information, he pursues an interview with Griffin himself to provide even greater insight into the hidden world of banking. If you're ready for a mind-blowing exploration of the financial system and its consequences, join Austin Adams in the Adams Archive for this eye-opening episode. Subscribe, leave a five-star review, and share your thoughts on this crucial issue. Find additional resources, articles, and videos at austinadams.subs.com, and prepare to have your perspective transformed. The Adams Archive is more than just a podcast; it's an invitation to challenge the status quo and uncover the astonishing truth about the world around us. Join the substack, follow our social media and more at https://linktr.ee/theaustinjadams   Full Transcription:  Hello, you bu to full people. My name is Austin Adams, and welcome to the Adams Archive. Today's episode is going to absolutely blow your mind. I have been diving deep into this topic over the past several, several days, and I can tell you I have never been more concerned for the future of America as I am now. Now, this is not about trafficking. This is not about politicians. This is not about, this is about the American banking system. Okay? Now, that may not sound very enticing to you, but once we get into this topic to the depths that we are going to today, You're gonna realize what I'm talking about. Okay. Now, what prompted this for me was looking into the Silicon Valley Bank collapsing. Okay? Now, that prompted me to figure out what the hell fractional banking is Figuring out fractional banking led me to realize that that is no longer the concept that we operate off of. No matter how scary fractional banking itself is, what we have today is even worse. Now. That drove me down a rabbit hole to figure out how we got to a point where fractional banking was even possible, which led me to learn all about the Federal Reserve, to learn about the Federal Reserve. There was a book that was written, and we will go over some of the highlights called The Creature from Jekyll Island. . Okay, now, that book beautifully written, um, there's some really good, uh, really, really good, uh, lectures online by, uh, Edward Griffin, and I'm gonna see if I can get him on the podcast. I messaged him today to see if, uh, maybe he can come on here and explain these things a little bit better than I can. But he's very, very brilliant. You should go listen to these lectures. They'll be included in the ck All right. If you're not in the CK already, go to austin adams.subs.com. You can sign up, you'll get all the articles, all the videos, all of the ish that we are talking about here today. All right. So without further a. Well maybe wanna do subscribe? , leave a five star review. All right. Tell me what you like about the podcast. Tell me what you learned about, uh, fractional banking, which again, doesn't sound very enticing, but promise you after you figure out everything that I figured out, your mind's gonna be blown. All right, so without further ado, let's jump into. The Adams Archive, the very first subject to today's podcast is going to be on the collapse of S V B. Okay, now, SVB is the Silicon Valley Bank. Silicon Valley Bank, obviously located in Silicon Valley, basically sent shockwaves through the entire tech industry. And that was right about a week ago, right? A few, not even a few days ago. All right. Through Wall Street, through Washington, everybody was shocked by what happens. Regulators have since shut down the bank to prevent a crisis in the broader banking system. Just days after another bank, signature bank was abruptly closed as well. Silicon Valley Bank, which provided banking services to nearly half of the country's venture capital backed technology and life science companies made this very the same mistake as many other banks. It invested most of its deposits in long-term debt like treasury bonds, promising steady, modest returns. However, the strategy proved shortsighted when the Federal Reserve looking to combat rapid inflation, started raising interest rates, making these once safe investments, far less attractive. All right. Silicon Valley Bank was also el uh, uniquely vulnerable due to its business being concentrated in the tech industry, which was experiencing a rapid decline in startup funding. As a result, its clients started to withdraw their money, and once some people started drawing their money, other people started withdrawing their money causing what they call a bank run. All right, now a bank run, so you have some terminology behind this. A bank run is basically when everybody starts to go line up outside of the banks, asking banks to give them the very money that they worked so hard for, the very money that they sweat bled, worked their asses off weekends over time to feed their children. Okay? And we'll learn about that fractional banking, which some of this has already alluded to already, which is terrifying, like I said. Okay, so now the collapse of Silicon Bank is the largest, since the 2008 financial crisis, the very largest bank to do so since. , which again, is only gonna get worse as people realize that our banking system is built on a house of cards. Just a little whistle in the wind will cause our entire financial system to collapse. All right, we're gonna talk about today some things like what is money, right? Why is it even hold value? Which is probably the most fundamental question that has one of the most concerning answers. Um, as you've noticed recently, I've been using the AI chatbot chat. G p T pretty consistently came out with their fourth generation of it today. Um, it's pretty incredible technology, but it helped me along the way doing some of these calculations to actually figure out what it would cause for the American financial system to collapse. And that's some of the things that we're gonna discuss here today. I'll go through those calculations with you. All right. It highlights the dangers of fractional reserve banking. When banks invest most of their deposits, they create more money than they hold in reserves, leading to a precarious situation where a loss of faith in the bank can trigger a run on deposits. In such cases, the bank makes gains privately, but losses are socially distributed. That's what you have to realize about this. When a bank is doing well, they profit ungodly amounts of money. When things aren't going well for a bank, you know who foots the bill? You and me, the American public foots the bill when they get bailed out by our government. So things are going great. They profit, you'll make a dollar. Well, maybe you make, you know, 2 cents off of every a hundred dollars that you have in your bank account based on interest. But when things are going great for the banks, they're not coming to you to pay you out dividends, right? But when things are going horribly bad,  and the government decides to bail them out. You know who pays that bill? And we don't even really pay it. And that's what I've realized from learning all of this. We don't even really pay it. We pay it through inflation. We pay it through the fictitious magical creation of money, which has no value unless we decide that it does again, which we'll talk about in a minute. So fractional Reserve banking to me is theft. It is a entity taking your money and putting it in as many places as possible so that they can continue to make money. They can give out loans with it. They can do all of these things, but the second you come ask for your money, while you and maybe your neighbor and a few other people at the same time, they don't have it. Cuz it's often these fictitious little places that they're hoping to make interest based on the fact that you're never gonna come ask them for it. At the same time. Right before the Great Depression, the US dollar was backed by gold. That ensured that the money in the economy was backed by something physical, something tangible, right? When something is backed by something, a commodity like gold or silver, right? Or even Bitcoin, right? If you understand how this works, right, the, the way that gold is created, gold is a, gold is a specific element that is created. And forgive me, I'm not a damn science teacher over here. Got a beer in my Yeti. So the way that gold is created is the earth puts together certain amounts of carbon. And when you get the perfect alignment of these, these elements, right? It creates what we know today is gold, right? Not fool's gold. Not all these other renditions of this potential possibility, but actual physical gold as we know it today, is a specific type of gold. Okay. Now that gold is minted, right? The, the earth had to have all of these situations happen simultaneously and in the proper way perfectly to cause gold to be created and to be in your hand the way that it can be today. Okay? That's what happens, right? The, the, the earth has a mathematical equation of circumstances and pressure and whatever the hell else it is, and then gold is physically created and minted by the earth. Okay? Something like, think of it, if you know anything about cryptocurrency, think of it like Bitcoin, right? Bitcoin ha has a computer that is working nonstop to create a bunch of algorithms and calculations to try to decrypt a or or mine a Bitcoin, the same way you mine gold. And eventually, after so many algorithms, so many computers are working to do this, one unlocks a Bitcoin and that creates scarcity. There's only a certain amount of bitcoins that are being created on a general basis. There's only a certain amount of gold that is being. By the earth at any given time, that scarcity gives it value, right? So during the Great Depression, our money was backed by gold. After the depression, the US abandoned the gold standard and became a fiat system. Okay? Fiat currency is not backed by anything at all. No assets, no commodities, right? And the fact that Silicon Valley Bank had basically uninsured depositors highlights the need for money to be backed by something physical like gold. And that ensures that depositors money is protected. It is being held physically somewhere to show that that piece of paper that you have is attached to a certain amount of, of physical minted developed by the earth gold or even Bitcoin, right? It has some sort of, of, of, uh, built-in scarcity.  that drives value, right? There's not, there's not an unlimited amount that can be created at the whim of any American who wants to profit based off the central banking system, which again, we'll learn more about in a minute. We're gonna learn a lot today. Um, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank underscores the need for tighter banking regulations, right? We've seen several, several things that have happened, right? Like, um, some regulations that were rolled back in 2018 under Donald Trump, right? Some banking experts believed that Dodd-Frank Financial regulatory package intended to prevent such collapses and could have stopped this bank from handling its interest rate risks, um, had it not been rolled back, which is some opinions, but the bigger problem, the biggest issue. When we talk about fractional banking, which again, I'll pull up here. Let, I'll, I'll talk you through it. Lemme just go through this article with you. The collapse of these banks that says has prompted a swift reevaluation of the Fed's interest rate increases. On Monday. Smaller banks rushed to en reassure customers that they were on firmer financial footing, but shares of US regional banks plummeted. The b W Bank Index, which tracks the performance of 24 major banks, fell 10%, erasing nearly 200 billion of value of the banks. In the index, it says, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in Signature Bank highlights the dangers of fractional reserve banking and the need for money to be backed by something physical. The follow of these collapses underscores the need for tighter banking regulations to prevent such collapses and ensure the stability of the financial system. Okay, let's talk about it. What is fractional banking? Okay. Fractional banking was the cause of what happened with svb. Right. What is fractional banking? Fractional banking is the idea that if you deposit a hundred dollars into a bank, the bank can take $90 of that 100. Hold onto the remaining 10, which was the standard prior to 2020. The standard prior to 2020 was that the banking system had to hold 10% of the overall val value in reserves. Now, that changed, but even with 10%, think of it this way, if you handed the, gave the bank 10 a hundred dollars, right? Let's say 10 people gave the bank a hundred dollars, right? They gave out 900 of that thousand dollars. Of the 10 people's a hundred dollars, which leaves them with one $100 bill. The other 900 they gave away to other people in the hopes of making interest in the future. So when two people, just two people go to the bank at the same time and say, I want my a hundred dollars. give me all of my $100 that I gave you. That is $200 that they're asking for. One of those people is not getting any of their money, or at least both of them are getting half of it. They don't have it. They don't even have it for two people, let alone the full 10 people that gave 'em a hundred dollars. Right? If just two people went and asked the bank for this money back, they would not be able to do it, right? 20% in this case. Now what we realize, it is far, far worse than that. In the real world scenario. What we realize, excuse me. What we realized is that in 2020 it was changed from 10%. Just 10% of the money in your banks had to be held onto by the, by the reserves, by the bank, just 10%. In 2020. During Covid, they changed that percentage. To 0%. None of it did they have to hold onto none of it in reserves. 0%. Not 1%, not 2%. 0% of your money has to be held by the bank in reserves. 0%. That is astonishing. There is no federal regulations at all now that say that the bank has to hold any of your money for withdraws. Right. What they are dependent on is if everything collapses, then the F D I C, the Federal Something Insurance Commission, will basically has insured each each value of each customer up to $250,000, which again, we'll find out, is a complete farce. What a terrible word. Farce is a terrible word. It's like, I don't even like to say it. It's like saying fart farce. I don't know. Anyways, FARs is a complete, FARs is bullshit. There's nothing there for you to take in. So, so when two of those people in that scenario that I gave you, go to the bank and ask for their money back, and somebody's going to walk away with no money, so, so one person gets their a hundred dollars out, the second person goes and asks for 10 of it, just 10 of it. Now that person realizes that the bank does not have their money. They start talking to their friends, you know who their friends are. The other eight people in this scenario who gave the bank a hundred dollars. Now you have all other eight people, nine people in total going to the bank saying, I want my money back. But the bank has none of it. They don't have to hold onto any of it. And the scenario is actually far worse than that in today's world. After 2020 and that legislation changed. The scenario is now anybody goes to the bank and starts to ask them for that money back. They don't have to hold onto any of it. That my friends is fractional banking. And it scares the shit outta me, and it's not even fractional anymore. There's no fraction. The fraction's gone. It's fictitious banking. That's what it is. It's no longer even fractional, which was horrible. It's far, far worse. Okay. Do you wanna know how fragile our entire banking system is here in the United States? Here is the most terrifying thing that you will hear today. Okay. Chat, G P t concluded that if 2% of Americans, 2% of Americans decided to withdraw their money from the bank, at the same time, it could have a high potential of causing a collapse of the entire banking system that as we know it today, the entire banking system as we know it today, just 2%, two out of a hundred people, two out of a hundred people went to their bank right now. This concluded and calculated. The entire banking system could collapse. So again, it's far worse than that scenario that I gave you and let me walk you through how it got to that. Okay. Chat. G p T said we can try to make a rough estimation based on some data points. Okay. Now I had to do some finagling to give, actually give me this cuz I didn't wanna gimme this answer. It says, first it's essential to understand that the reserve requirement being 0% means that banks are not required to hold a specific percentage of their deposits as reserved. However, it doesn't mean the banks hold no reserves at all, right? They still maintain some reserves. Doesn't give you an amount cause it can't, to manage day-to-day transactions and withdrawals day to day, not week to week, not month to month, day-to-day. The amount of their reserves varies by bank. It depends on the bank size, number of clients, and other factors. To estimate the percentage of people required to cause a nationwide banking collapse, we need to consider the amount of money held in deposits and the amount of reserves held by banks. According to the Federal Reserve, as of September, 2021, the total amount of money in the deposits in the US banks was around 17 trillion. Okay. Assuming that these banks still maintain some reserves, assuming that they maintain some reserves, it says, let's calculate, based on 2% of their deposits are held as reserves. This would amount to approximately 342 billion in reserves. If depositors were to withdraw their money in such a way that bank reserves were insufficient to cover the withdrawals, it could potentially trigger a banking collapse, right? That's the other eight people, nine people going to the bank and saying, I want my money, because the other, the second person went there to ask for it, and it wasn't there to find the percentage of people who would neither withdraw their funds to cause a banking collapse. We can use the following formula. Reserves divided by deposits times 100 equals the percentage of people. Okay, so we take that 342 billion, right of the 2% seven. Divide that by the 17.1 trillion. Multiply that by 100, it gives you 2%. It says, based on this rough estimation, if around 2% of people in the United States simultaneously withdrew their their money from the banks, it could potentially cause a nationwide banking collapse. Says, however, this is a highly simplified calculation. Does not take into account many factors such as the variation in reserve levels among the banks, the distribution of deposits, and the possibility of banks borrowing money from other sources to cover withdrawals. Additionally, the Federal Reserve Act as a lender of last resort and can provide emergency funds to banks facing a liquidity prices which could prevent a collapse. Okay? Now what it goes on to say is that in summary, it's difficult to provide a precise percentage of people required to cause a nationwide banking collapse due to 0% fractional reserve requirements. However, based on this rough estimation of 2% of people with through their funds, it could cause a banking crisis. Um, it says that reme to remember that the Federal Reserve could intervene to prevent a collapse. Oh, don't, don't worry about anything. The Federal Reserve is here to save you. It's not gonna collapse when the Federal Reserve is here. What is the government's got our back. Hmm. Is the Federal Reserve a part of the government? No, it is not. It's a mixture being overseen in some way, shape, or form by Congress. But we even find out that that's not true. But it was, and you can read all about this in the Creature from JE Island, but we're gonna get into it now. Okay. The Federal Reserve has absolutely nothing, was not founded by the government. You want to know who the, the Federal Reserve was founded by? The Federal Reserve was founded by bankers, the very bankers that you know the name of, and you can probably take a guess as to who people from the Rockefeller family. Aldrich family, JP Morgan Chase. Seven men secretly met on an island in Georgia, concealing their identities, changing their names. They met on a private train cart to discuss how they were going to essentially take over the world's banking systems, starting with the United States. These seven men's wealth, seven men's wealth equated to one fourth of the Total World's wealth at the time, and all they wanted to do was figure out how they could take over the other three fourths. It's pretty simple. When you get seven guys in the room, why wouldn't you do that? Right? So let's unmask the architects of the Federal Reserve. And talk about why every single American should be outraged at this historical account. And here it is. As you go about your daily life, there's a creature lurking behind the scenes polling the strings of our economy. This seemingly innocuous entity is none other than the Federal Reserve and its origin story is as chilling as any horror tale when you realize the truth In the eye-opening book, the Creature from Jekyll Island by Edward Griffin, it unveils the clandestine beginnings of the Fed in the dangers it poses to our society. The secret birth of the Federal Reserve in 1910, a group of influential bankers in 1910 and politicians gathered in secrecy on JE Island in Georgia to hatch a plan that would forever change the course of American history. Their mission. To create a centralized banking system that would benefit their own, their own interests, while consolidating power and control over the nation's finances. This figurative meeting laid the groundwork for the creation of the Federal Reserve. In 1913, our entire structural financial system was built less than 111 years ago. An institution that now, now holds immense power and sway over our economy basically dictates all of it. The key architects or the Federal Reserve were no ordinary individuals. They were powerful cabal of bankers and politicians, including Paul Warberg, Nelson Aldrich, JP Morgan, among others. Their goal was to establish a banking cartel that would protect their interests while simultaneously controlling the country's monetary policy. By doing so, they could manipulate the economy to their advantage. Profiting from booms and bus while leaving ordinary Americans to bear the consequences. The Federal Reserve's very existence poses a threat to our society. Its power to  create money out of thin air and manipulate interest rates, allows it to control the value of our currency, often leading to inflation and devaluation. Moreover, the Fed's unelected the Fed's unelected officials operate with minimal transparency, making decisions that affect millions and millions of people without any public oversight whatsoever. Furthermore, the Federal Reserve's ability to bail out large financial institutions in times of crisis promotes moral hazard. Big banks take on excessive risks knowing that the Federal Reserve will rescue them if things go south, which is exactly what we saw happened with S V B. This reckless. This reckless behavior can lead to financial crisises with ordinary citizens left to foot the bill, which is exactly what I talked about earlier, right? When they can create money out of thin air, it's not out of thin air, it's out of future comfortability for the American people. It causes inflation, and that's where we're gonna see the result when they created trillions of dollars during covid so that they could pay people not to work, so they could shut down the economy for their own agenda to cause you to get vaccinated so Pfizer could profit off of it. Now, the Federal Reserve born from a secretive gathering of powerful elites wields enormous power over our economy. Its actions can lead to inflation, devaluation, financial crisises, all while operating with minimal transparency. It says, as Americans, we must be aware of the Fed's origins and inherent risk opposes to our society. We should demand greater transparency, oversight, de, and democratic control over this powerful institution. It's time for us to stand up and fight against the creature that has taken a hold of our economy before it's too late. And I personally believe that it might already be too late. Okay. It is so crazy to see how this came together and what, what this entire financial system is built on. Like I said, it's a house of cards. Okay. Let's go ahead and let's watch a little bit of this clip. And this is by the author  

How do you put a price tag on a blue whale? According to Ralph Chami, Assistant Director for the International Monetary Fund, it's worth around $2 million, if not more. But how does that translate to real-world economics, with wide-reaching implications for business success? In this episode, he explains how an unusual encounter motivated him to explore the nexus of sustainability and profit in the hopes of creating a “nature-based” economy. He tells us how businesses can spearhead the creation of markets that serve nature and its restoration in ways that solve for the climate crisis. And what the future of business can look like so humanity and nature work together to reward investors and stewards of the planet alike. Lead With We is Produced by Goal 17 Media - https://goal17media.com Ralph Chami: Ralph Chami is an Assistant Director at the IMF. He is currently on sabbatical from the IMF working on tackling the two risks to humanity–climate change and biodiversity loss. He has developed a model for valuing natural capital, including blue and green nature as well as flora and fauna, and a framework for developing the natural capital markets for ecosystem services. He has co-founded two entities working on bringing this new paradigm to life–Rebalance Earth and Blue Green Future that are engaged in realizing the value of the natural world to our well-being and integrating it into our economic system. He has co-authored a number of peer-reviewed publications that value the carbon sequestration service of keystone species such as the Great Whales and Elephants. His work on valuing natural capital has been featured at TED 2022, TEDEx2022 Fiesole, UN, and in National Geographic, Financial Times, Washington Post, WEF, among others. During his 24-year career at the IMF, he has been known as an expert on fragile states and low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). He oversaw surveillance for 32 countries in MENA and Central Asia, and program work in Egypt, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, and Yemen, and was Mission Chief for Libya and Somalia. Prior to joining the IMF, he was on the faculty of finance at the Mendoza School of Business, University of Notre Dame, IN, USA. Ralph has PhD in Economics from the Johns Hopkins University, MBA from University of Kansas, and BS from the American University of Beirut.   Resources: Learn more about International Monetary Fund at: https://www.imf.org/en/Home Connect with Ralph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ralph-chami-63785313/ Visit leadwithwe.com to learn more about Simon's new book or search for "Lead With We" on Amazon, Google Books, or Barnes & Noble. 

Debt is central to the modern economy and it has long been so. The idea of debt has long been loaded with as much morality as financial meaning. Anne McElvoy explores our ideas about debt, what it is and how it works. Decisions about borrowing or paying down debt are currently being faced the world over. They're informed by political beliefs and a whole history of ideas behind that. So, how have our ideas changed over time and what can or should be done about it? Professor Kenneth Rogoff is Maurits C. Boas Chair of International Economics at Harvard University, a former Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund and the author of This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. Vicky Pryce is an economist and a former Joint Head of the United Kingdom's Government Economic Service. New Generation Thinker Philip Roscoe is a Reader in the School of Management at the University of St Andrews and the author of How to Build a Stock Exchange: On the past, present and future of finance. And, New Generation Thinker, Dafydd Mills Daniel is a lecturer in Divinity at the University of St Andrews who looks at the history of philosophy and religious thought. Producer: Ruth Watts

In this episode: I am joined by a cool lad from England, Chris from the Stereo app. His handle on Stereo - @chris-mcd As the US tailspins out of control, many are asking “is this the end of empire”? With the infrastructure crumbling and in dire need of repair, our government seems more concerned with funding a proxy war with Russia than taking care of the people here at home. We discuss the often-unspoken truth about Sadam Husein and Muammar Gaddafi and the fact that Gaddafi was about to lift all of Africa out of poverty. He had decided to move to the gold standard and minted a gold coin called the gold dinar for the use of all African nations. Africa is the world's most resource rich continent and this play by Gaddafi would have changed the balance of world power. The powers that be would not stand for that, so he was killed. We are losing our liberties under the guise of “security” with developments like The Department of Homeland Security, The Patriot Act, and Domestic Spying programs as pointed out by Edward Snowden The average US citizen cannot afford a $400 emergency and is 2 paychecks away from homelessness. Homelessness has reached epidemic proportions with an estimated 500,000 people sleeping outside each night. While healthcare costs are the leading cause of bankruptcy here in the US, our government didn't even offer us Universal Healthcare in the midst of a worldwide pandemic. It seems we have a new mass shooting every week, yet still our politicians do not push for healthcare reform in order to offer mental healthcare to every citizen. Even with children being shot at school, our government still sides with healthcare profiteers over its own citizens. Every member of the government receives the benefit of subsidized Healthcare for their whole family for which they only have to pay 28%, the rest is subsidized by the US taxpayer. It appears the US is being bled dry by its corporate rulers who have no love of nation and no loyalty to anything. There is a plan underway by the world's most powerful people to keep the serfs of the world in check. The World Economic Forum, The Bilderberg Group, The Trilateral Commission, The Council on Foreign Relations, The Carlisle Group, The International Monetary Fund. Thank you for tuning in! Please follow and share, it would really help me grow. Reviews on Spotify and Apple Podcasts are GREATLY appreciated. Message me on IG @andanotherthingwithdave Dave Smith (@andanotherthingwithdave) • Instagram photos and videos Follow me and find More of My Content with link below. https://1drv.ms/w/s!An39_-tw4s0djCxLyA7PQIjWQeRp?e=4X6dDT Thank you to my listeners throughout the world. Now heard in 65 countries. According to Spotify my podcast is in the top 20% of podcasts shared internationally. Listener locations: 69% USA 7% UK 6% India 6% Canada 2% Germany 2% Romania 1% Russia less than 1% in 50 plus countries THANK YOU all !!! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/andanotherthingwithdave/message

Pakistan continues to face economic uncertainty after talks with the International Monetary Fund fail to come to a resolution. It comes as another car manufacturer in Pakistan stops production because it can't obtain the parts and raw materials it needs. China is likely to continue its economic and defensive co-operation with Moscow, despite pressure from western nations. We examine what this means for the Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Rising rents are fuelling a cost of living crisis in Australia. Demand for affordable accommodation far exceeds the available supply of properties and its causing something called rental stress where households spend more than 30 per cent of their gross income on rent.

Representation of women in the fintech industry is scarce. So scarce that women make up less than 10 percent of fintech founders or executive board members, according to a recent paper from the International Monetary Fund. But Sofiat Abdulrazaaq is changing the game for women of color in fintech. Abdulrazaaq is the co-founder of Goodfynd, a platform that began as a way to help consumers find nearby food vendors/trucks and facilitate ordering and delivery where available.  Goodfynd also has a B2B application. Abdulrazaaq identified the need for all mobile vendors — food or otherwise — to have an accessible and affordable one-stop shop to run their business. This “business in a box” model is meant to reach the under-served community of first generation and immigrant mobile vendors, allowing them to include what they need from the Goodfynd platform — without extra bells and whistles. What started off as an organic quest to find food trucks before the pandemic morphed into B2C and a scalable B2B model. Pivoting from a stint in privacy law (she got her JD then decided to become an entrepreneur), Abdulrazaaq shows resilience in the face of hardship as a woman of color in a male-dominated world.  Listen to Abdulrazaaq discuss raising capital and launching Goodfynd, on this episode of SheVentures. 1:45 Abdulrazaaq discusses her career pivots. 4:20 How did the idea for Goodfynd emerge?  10:15 Abdulrazaaq reflects how a grant from Lighthouse Labs helped her and her co-founders create a proof of concept.  19:05 Will Goodfynd expand its business model to all mobile businesses?  22:12 What does being an “impact-first executive” mean to Abdulrazaaq?  25:22 Abdulrazaaq shares her experience as a woman of color raising capital.  33:55 What are her three tips for women pursuing entrepreneurship?  38:06 Where can listeners learn more about Goodfynd?

The Economics of Sustainable Food: Smart Policies for Health and the Planet! Author of The Economics of Sustainable Food: Smart Policies for Health and the Planet. Nicoletta Batini is the Lead Evaluator of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Independent Evaluation Office. Prior to the IMF, she was Advisor of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, Professor of Economics at the University of Surrey, and Director of the International Economics and Policy Office of the Treasury in Italy. She holds a Ph.D. in international finance (S.S.S.U.P. S. Anna) and a Ph.D. in monetary economics (University of Oxford). Today her research focuses on the economics of energy and land and sea use transitions for climate mitigation. Her new book “The Economics of Sustainable Food: Smart Policies for People and the Planet” was just published by Island Press and the International Monetary Fund.

Tom welcomes back Jeffrey Christian Managing Partner of CPM Group. Jeffrey is an expert on the gold and silver markets. Jeff explains that in 2000, they issued a buy recommendation on gold at around $285, due to the political and economic environment that was going to last for decades. He then outlines the different drivers for gold and silver in different market environments, as well as the optimal level of metals in a portfolio. He examines the idea that China holds 40,000 tons of gold in its reserves, and why China does not want to have the reserve currency of the world. Mr. Christian also explains why the mining industry has a lower beta compared to the price of the underlying metal. He states that due to a lack of investor interest in the sector, along with the rise of stock index funds and ETFs, institutional investors have been cutting costs and reducing their involvement in individual stock trading. This has caused a contraction in the stock market, reducing the buy side's ability to support research. He also explains the red, green, blue bubble chart that takes into account many different factors that CPM puts together, as well as the potential for hydrogen engines in the future and the importance of specialty metals, such as tantalum, in the electronics industry. Time Stamp References:0:00 - Introduction0:40 - Commodity Research5:24 - Factors Driving Metals10:07 - Gold & Silver Differences11:44 - An Optimal Portfolio14:03 - Bad Data & Conjecture?20:09 - Gold & China24:56 - Gold Reserves & Sources36:15 - China & Reserve Currency39:00 - BRICS Effects & Dollars44:40 - Mining Equities & Beta49:30 - Inflation & the Media55:18 - CPM Recession Outlook57:37 - CPM RGB Bubble Chart59:01 - A Year of Transition1:02:27 - Metals & Energy Scenarios1:05:10 - Fossil Fuel Future1:07:16 - Platinum & ICE's1:10:14 - Tantalum Uses & Supply1:12:36 - Wrap Up Talking Points From This Episode The drivers of gold and silver in the commodities market, as well as the optimal level of metals in a portfolio.The asymmetry of the gold and silver markets, and how bad data and misinformation can lead to incorrect decisions.China's gold industry and why they don't want to be the reserve currency of the world.Uses for the specialty metal tantalum and the importance of Australia becoming clean source of the metal. Guest LinksTwitter: https://twitter.com/CPMGroupLLCWebsite: https://www.cpmgroup.com/Questions Email: info@cpmgroup.comYouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/c/CPMGroup/videos Jeffrey Christian is the Managing Partner of the CPM Group. He is considered one of the most knowledgeable experts on precious metals markets, commodities in general, and financial engineering, using options for hedging and investing purposes. He is the author of Commodities Rising 2006. Jeffrey Christian has been a prominent analyst and advisor on precious metals and commodities markets since the 1970s, with work spanning precious metals, energy markets, base metals, agricultural markets, and economic analysis. The company was founded in 1986, spinning off the Commodities Research Group from Goldman, Sachs & Co and its commodities trading arm, J. Aron & Company. He has advised many of the world's largest corporations and institutional investors on managing their commodities price and market exposures and providing advisory services to the World Bank, United Nations, International Monetary Fund, and numerous governments.

Marylyn King is the Founder and CEO of The Expert of Choice LLC and is known as the Chief Message Maker. Marylyn has been a director, mentor and communicator for experts for over 30 years, covering topics as varied as personal photography and global aviation.She has also worked with solo entrepreneurs, experts in technology firms and at prestigious organizations, including the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, to communicate their knowledge for others to understand.Marylyn believes that marketing can become a natural expression of what you love about your business. Her signature approach, Natural Expression Marketing™, defines your personal brand and communicates it through your messaging strategy. With Marylyn's expertise, you'll develop a marketing message that expresses who you are and why you do what you do.Connect with Marlyn King: www.theexpertofchoice.comDr. Virginia LeBlanc “DocV”, The Pivot MaestroDr. Virginia LeBlanc (DocV) is a highly sought multi‐disciplinary expert and global thought leader delivering value across industries world‐wide sharing key ingredients to successfully pivot through transition gaps, earning her the nickname “THE Pivot Maestro.”Her work leading major change initiative with Joint Forces commands at the Pentagon, Department of the Navy, Booz Allen Hamilton, Indiana University, and the National Pan‐Hellenic Council birthed her passion in personal wellness and transformation through transition founding Defining Paths (DP)—not only a company but a heart‐centered, socially conscious movement and network for thought leaders, change makers, legacy builders, and purposed entrepreneurs—healing, rebuilding, and transforming lives and businesses from the inside out.A Holistic Coach, particularly serving retiring military and women leaders in career‐life transition, DocV specializes in putting YOU back in business guiding clients through next steps facing fears, connecting the dots, and thinking without a box while to live inspired with a “be your own boss” mind‐set.Dr. LeBlanc is the international bestselling author of Love the Skin YOU'RE In: How to Conquer Life Through Divergent Thinking, her autobiographical love‐letter to “Society” on socio‐cultural conditioning and how she overcame to define her path.Learn more at https://linktr.ee/definingpaths.Define Your Pathhttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/define-your-path/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/ep-41-marylyn-king-define-your-path-with-dr-virginia-leblanc-docv-the-pivot-maestro

Dr. Krishna Srinivasan, Director of the Asia and Pacific Department, International Monetary Fund, breaks down the prospects for the region. We begin by talking about the coverage of the department, which is 37 countries, making up of half the world's population. We then dive into the 2023 balance of risks, which the IMF sees still tilted to the downside, but with a welcome decline in adverse risks. On the upside, Krishna expresses optimism about post-pandemic re-opening helping demand, while headline inflation softens at a pace faster than previously envisaged. On the downside, concerns remain about Russia's war in Ukraine, tighter global financing costs, various distortions posed by forces of deglobalisation, and lingering uncertainties around inflation. We then do a tour of Asia, starting with the two countries that are under IMF programs, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Krishna explains that state of macroeconomic affairs and the lending facilities being deployed in both cases. In this context, he also elaborates on the IMF's new Resilience and Sustainability Trust. After this, we take on, one by one, the challenges and promises of Japan, China, India, Indonesia, and Singapore. We cover it all--inflation, debt, monetary policy, property markets, corporate governance, human capital, and deglobalisation. A thorough macro health-check of Asia.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jordanian political economist Laith Al-Ajlouni joins the podcast to discuss the Hashemite Kingdom's ties with the International Monetary Fund. He addresses the IMF's priorities in Jordan along with the reasons pushing Amman to first work with the Washington DC-based organization in 1989. Al-Ajlouni also explains why some Jordanians cited the IMF as one of their grievances during the Arab Spring protests. Finally, the Amman-based analyst notes whether the Jordanian government will soon wean itself off of the IMF after working with the organization for nearly 30 years.

Brazil is currently the 9th largest economy in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund. This means that if the nation does make the jump from developing to developed, it could rival economic superpowers like Germany, Japan, or the United Kingdom. And as crazy as it may sound, it may become an economy that rivals the USA or China.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif was hoping to finalise a deal with the International Monetary Fund to prevent an economic meltdown. A team from the IMF have been in Pakistan since the beginning of this month, but details of the discussions are still yet to be published.

Pakistan is running out of foreign cash. They are in crisis talks with the International Monetary Fund after they failed to unlock $1.1bn in crucial funds aimed at preventing the country from going bankrupt. South Africa is having to impose power cuts every single day which has badly affected homes and businesses. It is now so bad that the countries President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared it a state of disaster. We hear from businesses in Pakistan and South Africa about how they are surviving. We also take a look at China because they are worried about the impact their declining population will have on its financial prospects. A senior health official in Beijing has told local governments to take “bold steps” to encourage people to have more babies.

Immediately after Russia invaded Ukraine last year, the United States led a coalition of countries to try to impose stiff economic punishments on Moscow. These sanctions have hurt Russia's economy in all kinds of ways—but not enough to stop the war. In fact, a new International Monetary Fund report projects that the Russian economy is expected to grow in 2023. This raises the question: Are sanctions an effective diplomatic tool? Or do we just expect too much of them? This week, FP's editor in chief, Ravi Agrawal, is joined by Agathe Demarais, author of Backfire: How Sanctions Reshape the World Against U.S. Interests, and Nicholas Mulder, author of The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War. Foreign Policy subscribers can watch these interviews live and submit questions and suggestions by going to https://foreignpolicy.com/live/. 

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates at the fastest pace in decades in 2022. But despite the rapid shift in borrowing costs, not much in the financial system actually 'broke.' Stocks and other risk assets went down, but aside from a few issues like the gilt market drama in October, we didn't see a big systemic event. On this episode of Odd Lots, which was recorded live at the Credit Market Structure Alliance conference in New York, we speak with Fabio Natalucci about how he's thinking of financial risk right now. Fabio is the Deputy Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department at the International Monetary Fund and he writes the IMF's annual financial stability report. He walks us through the key risks he sees as still lurking in the system, as well as what's changed since 2008.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Low-income countries are falling behind on their debt payments. Countries like Zambia, Chad and Sri Lanka have already defaulted, and others could be on the brink. Today, we examine the escalating debt crisis in the global economy and how the International Monetary Fund says it's going to help.For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

The International Monetary Fund says the UK will be the only major economy to shrink in size this year. We ask how much faith we should put in the IMF's forecasts and look at some of the big economic challenges facing the UK. Also why the headline number of job vacancies in the NHS in England doesn't tell the whole story of staff shortages. And why has there been such a dramatic change in whether people describe themselves as British or English?

High inflation, rising interest rates, sweeping tech layoffs, a crypto meltdown. The recent economic news has been less than encouraging, leading the International Monetary Fund to warn of “storm clouds” descending on the global economy. At the same time, GDP in the United States grew to more than $20 trillion in 2022. The Bay Area, largely thanks to tech, had the fastest growing economy in the United States, with GDP increasing 4.8 percent. The United States is at or near full employment. What does it all mean for workers, investors, and Americans' pocketbooks? What impact are the Fed's actions having? Michael Boskin of Stanford's Hoover Institution, former chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, will share his insights into the U.S. economy, productivity, the evolution of work and impact of tech, and whether we will tip into a recession. UC Berkeley's Maurice Obstfeld, former chief economist at the IMF, will assess the ongoing impact of the war in Ukraine, China's COVID woes, and other trends shaping the global economy. Join us for The Commonwealth Club's annual Walter E. Hoadley Bank of America economic forecast.This event is underwritten by Bank of America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This panel, co-organised with Hamad Bin Khalifa University, was the launch of 'Tunisia's Economic Development: Why Better than Most of the Middle East but not East Asia' co-authored by Mustapha K. Nabil and Jeffrey B. Nugent. Recently published as part of the Routledge Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa Series edited by Hassan Hakimian, 'Tunisia's Economic Development' provides useful insights into the factors that have enabled Tunisia's initial economic success, and suggests opportunities for improving the management of economic development in the country, drawing wider lessons for the MENA region. Find out more here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/middle-east-centre/events/2023/tunisia-economic-development. Mustapha K. Nabli has been Professor of Economics at the University of Tunis, Chairman of the Tunis Stock Exchange, Minister of Planning, Regional and Economic Development in the Government of Tunisia, Chief Economist and Director of the Social and Economic Development Department for the Middle East and North Africa Region at the World Bank, and Governor of the Central Bank of Tunisia. Jeffrey B. Nugent is Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California, USA. He has worked on and in various countries of both the MENA and East Asian regions including for the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Leila Baghdadi is Professor of Economics at ESSECT, University of Tunis, where she holds the World Trade Organization Chair. She is an executive board member of the Central Bank of Tunisia since August 2019. Mohamed Ali Marouani is Associate Professor in Economics at the Sorbonne Institute of Development Studies and currently on leave as Resident Representative of the Institute of Research for Development (IRD) in Tunisia. Hassan Hakimian is Professor of Economics and Director of the Middle Eastern Studies Department (MESD) at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. During 2010-19, he was Director of the London Middle East Institute (LMEI) and Reader in the Economics Department at SOAS University of London.

Consumers in the U.S. would likely suffer economic pain if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, warned International Monetary Fund head Kristalina Georgieva. If it happens, she warned that people could be stuck paying higher interest rates on things like mortgages, car loans and credit cards. Amid Netflix customers’ ire at the coming crackdown on password sharing, new research shows that consumers are frustrated by the high number of different streaming services on offer. And, a trip to the Maryland Zoo, which is having to spend millions to update structures constructed in a different time with different sensibilities about animals.

With the International Monetary Fund out this week with new projections on the global economy, Lesley Stahl interviews IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva. Former Manhattan special assistant DA Mark Pomerantz speaks after he abruptly resigned a year ago. He says DA Alvin Bragg halted the grand jury probe of former President Donald Trump on the case Pomerantz developed. Bill Whitaker reports. Jon Wertheim sits down with all four members of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, currently on their biggest tour ever.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Consumers in the U.S. would likely suffer economic pain if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, warned International Monetary Fund head Kristalina Georgieva. If it happens, she warned that people could be stuck paying higher interest rates on things like mortgages, car loans and credit cards. Amid Netflix customers’ ire at the coming crackdown on password sharing, new research shows that consumers are frustrated by the high number of different streaming services on offer. And, a trip to the Maryland Zoo, which is having to spend millions to update structures constructed in a different time with different sensibilities about animals.

Part 2 of 2 Matthew McLennan will assess the investment climate in international markets and tell us where he is finding world-class companies selling at substantial discounts to their U.S. peers. The global economic outlook for 2023 is uncertain with the World Bank cutting its growth forecast to 1.7% from 3% and stating the "global economy is perilously close to a recession". The International Monetary Fund slightly raised its growth estimate to 2.9% due to China's reopening and slowing inflation. Central banks, especially in developed countries, are tightening to fight inflation, which may hinder future growth. The European Central Bank and the Fed have both raised short-term rates and signaled more increases in the future. A recent survey of 1200 CEOs shows 98% expect a global recession, with more than half fearing a recession worse than the 2008 financial crisis. In Part 1, we discussed the risks and opportunities in the U.S. markets with McLennan. WEALTHTRACK episode 1932 broadcast on February 03, 2023 More Info: https://wealthtrack.com/world-class-international-companies-selling-at-substantial-discounts-to-their-us-peers/ Listen to Part 1: https://wealthtrack.com/leading-global-value-manager-matt-mcclennan-on-companies-that-thrive-despite --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wealthtrack/support

The European Central Bank and the Bank of England have raised interest rates again, one day after a similar move by the US Federal Reserve. But amid those big players, Britain seems in particular trouble, with the International Monetary Fund warning it will be the only major economy to shrink in 2023. In the UK, the pain and anger poured into the streets on Wednesday when the country saw its biggest strikes in a decade, with as many as half a million workers walking out, from transport to teachers. There's little light at the end of the tunnel, with a cost-of-living crisis forcing around four million children into poverty. Correspondent Nada Bashir was there on "walkout Wednesday."  Also on today's show: Shevaun Haviland, Director General, British Chambers of Commerce; Stephanie Flanders, Senior Executive Editor, Bloomberg; Gina Prince-Bythewood; Director, “The Woman King”; Yascha Mounk; Author, “The Great Experiment” To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily Newsbrief for Wednesday, February 1st, 2023. Ladies and gentleman, did you know that you can sign up for our Fight Laugh Feast Conference, happening at the Ark Encounter this year? Well now you can! Head on over to fightlaughfeast.com, and you can sign up today! That’s fightlaughfeast.com. https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-surgeon-general-warns-13-years-old-is-too-young-to-join-social-media U.S. Surgeon General Warns 13-Years-Old Is Too Young To Join Social Media U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy believes children 13 years old are too young to join social media platforms, citing kids are still “developing their identity,” and such engagement can create a distorted sense of themselves. Murthy, who has served as surgeon general under the Obama and the Biden administrations, signaled the warning in an interview with CNN, noting adolescents should only be allowed to access the platforms until they were 16 years old at the earliest. “It’s a time, you know, early adolescence, where kids are developing their identity, their sense of self,” Murthy said. “It’s a time where it’s really important for us to be thoughtful about what’s going into how they think about their own self-worth and their relationships, and the skewed and often distorted environment of social media often does a disservice to many of those children.” Social media giant platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter require a minimum age of 13 to join. Murthy further noted the issue with addictive algorithms, which pits youth against Big Tech. “You have some of the best designers and product developers in the world who have designed these products to make sure people are maximizing the amount of time they spend on these platforms,” he said. “And if we tell a child, use the force of your willpower to control how much time you’re spending, you’re pitting a child against the world’s greatest product designers.” “And that’s just not a fair fight,” he added. “And so that’s why I think our kids need help.” The Journal of the American Medical Association published a study earlier this month which sampled 178 12-year-olds from three public middle schools in North Carolina and reviewed how often the minors check social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Researchers found individuals with habitual checking behaviors showed initial hypoactivation but increasing sensitivity to potential social cues over time. Nonhabitual individuals, however, showed initial hyperactivation and decreasing sensitivity. Dr. Adriana Stacey told CNN using social media releases a “dopamine dump” and compared the addictiveness of smartphones to cocaine. Surgeon General Murthy called on parents to band together to prevent their children from logging on to social media platforms until they’re at least 16 years old. Seattle Public School District officials filed a lawsuit earlier this month against several social media platform owners, including Facebook and TikTok, for allegedly intentionally cultivating and creating a mental health crisis among the youth and have caused a public nuisance affecting Seattle Public Schools. President Joe Biden drew attention to social media platforms in his 2022 State of the Union Address, alleging the harm social media has wrought on American youth should implore all to “hold social media platforms accountable for the national experiment they’re conducting on our children for profit.” The Biden administration & General Murthy took fire howewver, due to what appears to be inconscistencies in their rules. He told "CNN Newsroom" host Pamela Brown that parents should look to push back the age at which their children begin using social media platforms to make sure kids "don't get exposed to harm early." Last March, Murthy addressed a directive from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, R., effectively cutting gender-affirming care for minors in his state, taking to Twitter to write, "Yesterday afternoon in Austin, I met with transgender youth and their parents to hear how they are coping in light of the state's recent directive equating gender-affirming care to child abuse." "The pain and fear in their voices was heartbreaking. Parents and kids are terrified about being separated. They described repeated attacks on their families at traumatic… LGBTQ+ youth were already at increased risk of suicide and other mental health struggles. We should be seeking to provide them with support and medical care…. "Forcing parents to choose between following medical advice for their child and risking an investigation from the state is simply not right. The government shouldn't be interfering with decisions between doctors and patients," he continued. https://www.theepochtimes.com/border-patrol-agents-told-to-not-chase-all-vehicles-that-flee_5022784.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=BonginoReport Border Patrol Agents Told to Not Chase All Vehicles That Flee Texas—Border Patrol agents will soon be limited in chasing vehicles that flee from them, under new rules unveiled in January and set to take effect in May. Agents must determine that vehicular pursuits are “necessary and objectively reasonable” under the rules, and can terminate a pursuit at any time without fear of questioning from superiors. Agents are being told that they must consider factors such as “the seriousness of the reason” for a pursuit and weather conditions when deciding whether to chase a fleeing vehicle that failed to stop at a checkpoint or port of entry—the official places to enter the United States from Mexico and Canada. “A Vehicular Pursuit is considered Necessary when an Authorized Officer/Agent concludes there is an immediate need to apprehend a subject as part of their enforcement duties based on the totality of the known facts and circumstances,” the rules state. A pursuit meets the “objectively reasonable” standard when the government’s interest in apprehending the persons or people in the fleeing vehicle “clearly outweighs the Foreseeability of Risk to the public, officers/agents, other law enforcement, and vehicle occupants,” the rules state. Agents must evaluate the interest and the potential risk when choosing whether to pursue a fleeing vehicle and continue the evaluation during the chase. They must also alert a supervisor “as soon as feasible” during a pursuit and immediately terminate the chase if the supervisor does not authorize it to continue, or orders it stopped. If a chase is terminated, agents must pull their vehicle over to signal to the public and the fleeing driver that the chase has ended, according to the rules. They must alert superiors. They can then start driving again in the last known direction of the fleeing vehicle to check for “crashes, potential flight on foot, to determine if the Subject Vehicle was abandoned, or for any other incident.” The rules also suggest alternatives to vehicular pursuits, such as tracking with airplanes. Troy Miller, who became acting Customs and Border Protection commissioner in late 2022 after the ouster of Chris Magnus, said that vehicular pursuits “pose inherent risks—to members of the public, officers and agents, and vehicle occupants” and that the new policy “acknowledges these risks and shifts our Agency’s overall approach to a risk-based model when it comes to pursuits.” Magnus stressed that the policy does not bar vehicular pursuits but “provides a clear framework” for weighing the risks associated with pursuits against the benefits. https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2023/01/30/florida-taking-the-first-steps-to-become-26th-constitutional-carry-state-n527375 Florida taking the first steps to become 26th constitutional carry state The speaker of the Florida House announced lawmakers had filed the bill this morning. Florida lawmakers’ promise to introduce legislation allowing permitless concealed carry of firearms, called “Constitutional Carry” by proponents, has been met. At a Monday morning press briefing, House Speaker Paul Renner (R-Palm Coast) and other gathered lawmakers announced House Bill 543, which would allow weapons and firearms without a license for concealment. The proposed bill was written by Rep. Chuck Brannan (R-Lake City), with state Sen. Jay Collins (R-Tampa) writing the companion legislation for the Florida Senate. Gov. Ron DeSantis said in December that he was committed to the legislation passing and urged state lawmakers to propose it. Under the proposed bill, Floridians would no longer need to apply for a license for concealed carry. The state of Florida already allows firearm purchases for those 21 and older without need of state application, aside from federal requirements for background checks. Should the bill pass, the regulation of concealed carry permits, handled by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, would end. Gov. DeSantis voices support for Constitutional Carry in Florida-Play Video https://thepostmillennial.com/new-york-hotel-mobbed-by-illegal-migrants-who-refuse-to-leave?utm_campaign=64487 New York hotel mobbed by illegal migrants who refuse to leave Illegal aliens standing outside of the Watson Hotel in New York's Hell's Kitchen district on Sunday night refused to leave for a new shelter, causing police to mobilize. More than 50 migrants were outside of the hotel, along with activists who were handing out food and water. City officials said that single men were supposed to be brought to a new shelter at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal that would provide the same services that they were receiving at the hotel. The city bus arrived, but only a small number of migrants hopped on the bus. Most decided to stay outside the hotel on West 57th Street. Activists claimed that migrants were being relocated from the hotel. One activist was quoted telling the New York Post that they were prepared to stay overnight. A dozen police were originally stationed at the Watson hotel, with police remaining on-scene until around midnight as migrants were still surrounding the entrance of the hotel. The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal is a new mega shelter that can house as many as 1,000 single adult men, Mayor Eric Adams said last week. https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/crime-pmn/suicide-bomber-breaches-high-security-in-pakistan-mosque-kills-59 And now in world news… Suicide bomber breaches high security in Pakistan mosque, kills 59 A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a crowded mosque in a highly fortified security compound in Pakistan on Monday, killing 59 people, the latest attack by resurgent Islamist militants targeting police. The attacker appeared to have passed through several barricades manned by security forces to get into the “Red Zone” compound that houses police and counter-terrorism offices in the volatile northwestern city of Peshawar, police said. Many of the 170 wounded people were in critical condition. The death toll rose to 59 after several people succumbed to their wounds, hospital official Mohammad Asim said in a statement. The bombing happened a day before an International Monetary Fund mission to Islamabad to initiate talks on unlocking funding for the South Asian country’s economy, which is enduring a balance of payments crisis. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack. The bomber detonated his load at the moment hundreds of people lined up to say their prayers, officials said. “We have found traces of explosives,” Khan told reporters, adding that a security lapse had clearly occurred as the bomber had slipped through the most secured area of the compound. An inquiry was under way into how the attacker breached such an elite security cordon and whether there was any inside help. Story Real Estate: Home. It’s where you build your legacy. Where traditions are started, seeds are planted, meals are shared, and stories are told. Home is where you prepare to go out into the world. Finding the home that’s perfect for your family is a big job. Story Real Estate is Moscow’s top real estate team. They give people real estate advice all over the country. Family homes, investments, land, new construction, or commercial— they know real estate. If you’ve thought about a move to Moscow or anywhere in the country, reach out to get connected with a Story Real Estate agent. Wherever you’re going, they can help guide you Home. Visit storyrealestate.com. And now it’s time for my favorite topic.. Sports! The superbowl is all set ladies and gentleman… The Eagles started proceedings as they took on the San Francisco 49ers: San Francisco 49ers vs. Philadelphia Eagles | 2023 NFC Conference Championship Game Highlights Play 5:45-5:56 Play 6:45-6:58 Play 8:57-9:09 The Philadelphia Eagles demolished the San Francisco 49ers 31-7, as they’re headed back to the Superbowl… The AFC Championship game between the Bengals & Chiefs was much closer, and had a lot of drama…Cincinatti Bengals vs. Kansas City Chiefs | 2023 AFC Championship Game Highlights Cincinatti Bengals vs. Kansas City Chiefs | 2023 AFC Championship Game Highlights Play 5:20-5:33 Play 14:47-15:09 Play 15:33-16:33 Man do I love sports…

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily Newsbrief for Wednesday, February 1st, 2023. Ladies and gentleman, did you know that you can sign up for our Fight Laugh Feast Conference, happening at the Ark Encounter this year? Well now you can! Head on over to fightlaughfeast.com, and you can sign up today! That’s fightlaughfeast.com. https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-surgeon-general-warns-13-years-old-is-too-young-to-join-social-media U.S. Surgeon General Warns 13-Years-Old Is Too Young To Join Social Media U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy believes children 13 years old are too young to join social media platforms, citing kids are still “developing their identity,” and such engagement can create a distorted sense of themselves. Murthy, who has served as surgeon general under the Obama and the Biden administrations, signaled the warning in an interview with CNN, noting adolescents should only be allowed to access the platforms until they were 16 years old at the earliest. “It’s a time, you know, early adolescence, where kids are developing their identity, their sense of self,” Murthy said. “It’s a time where it’s really important for us to be thoughtful about what’s going into how they think about their own self-worth and their relationships, and the skewed and often distorted environment of social media often does a disservice to many of those children.” Social media giant platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter require a minimum age of 13 to join. Murthy further noted the issue with addictive algorithms, which pits youth against Big Tech. “You have some of the best designers and product developers in the world who have designed these products to make sure people are maximizing the amount of time they spend on these platforms,” he said. “And if we tell a child, use the force of your willpower to control how much time you’re spending, you’re pitting a child against the world’s greatest product designers.” “And that’s just not a fair fight,” he added. “And so that’s why I think our kids need help.” The Journal of the American Medical Association published a study earlier this month which sampled 178 12-year-olds from three public middle schools in North Carolina and reviewed how often the minors check social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Researchers found individuals with habitual checking behaviors showed initial hypoactivation but increasing sensitivity to potential social cues over time. Nonhabitual individuals, however, showed initial hyperactivation and decreasing sensitivity. Dr. Adriana Stacey told CNN using social media releases a “dopamine dump” and compared the addictiveness of smartphones to cocaine. Surgeon General Murthy called on parents to band together to prevent their children from logging on to social media platforms until they’re at least 16 years old. Seattle Public School District officials filed a lawsuit earlier this month against several social media platform owners, including Facebook and TikTok, for allegedly intentionally cultivating and creating a mental health crisis among the youth and have caused a public nuisance affecting Seattle Public Schools. President Joe Biden drew attention to social media platforms in his 2022 State of the Union Address, alleging the harm social media has wrought on American youth should implore all to “hold social media platforms accountable for the national experiment they’re conducting on our children for profit.” The Biden administration & General Murthy took fire howewver, due to what appears to be inconscistencies in their rules. He told "CNN Newsroom" host Pamela Brown that parents should look to push back the age at which their children begin using social media platforms to make sure kids "don't get exposed to harm early." Last March, Murthy addressed a directive from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, R., effectively cutting gender-affirming care for minors in his state, taking to Twitter to write, "Yesterday afternoon in Austin, I met with transgender youth and their parents to hear how they are coping in light of the state's recent directive equating gender-affirming care to child abuse." "The pain and fear in their voices was heartbreaking. Parents and kids are terrified about being separated. They described repeated attacks on their families at traumatic… LGBTQ+ youth were already at increased risk of suicide and other mental health struggles. We should be seeking to provide them with support and medical care…. "Forcing parents to choose between following medical advice for their child and risking an investigation from the state is simply not right. The government shouldn't be interfering with decisions between doctors and patients," he continued. https://www.theepochtimes.com/border-patrol-agents-told-to-not-chase-all-vehicles-that-flee_5022784.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=BonginoReport Border Patrol Agents Told to Not Chase All Vehicles That Flee Texas—Border Patrol agents will soon be limited in chasing vehicles that flee from them, under new rules unveiled in January and set to take effect in May. Agents must determine that vehicular pursuits are “necessary and objectively reasonable” under the rules, and can terminate a pursuit at any time without fear of questioning from superiors. Agents are being told that they must consider factors such as “the seriousness of the reason” for a pursuit and weather conditions when deciding whether to chase a fleeing vehicle that failed to stop at a checkpoint or port of entry—the official places to enter the United States from Mexico and Canada. “A Vehicular Pursuit is considered Necessary when an Authorized Officer/Agent concludes there is an immediate need to apprehend a subject as part of their enforcement duties based on the totality of the known facts and circumstances,” the rules state. A pursuit meets the “objectively reasonable” standard when the government’s interest in apprehending the persons or people in the fleeing vehicle “clearly outweighs the Foreseeability of Risk to the public, officers/agents, other law enforcement, and vehicle occupants,” the rules state. Agents must evaluate the interest and the potential risk when choosing whether to pursue a fleeing vehicle and continue the evaluation during the chase. They must also alert a supervisor “as soon as feasible” during a pursuit and immediately terminate the chase if the supervisor does not authorize it to continue, or orders it stopped. If a chase is terminated, agents must pull their vehicle over to signal to the public and the fleeing driver that the chase has ended, according to the rules. They must alert superiors. They can then start driving again in the last known direction of the fleeing vehicle to check for “crashes, potential flight on foot, to determine if the Subject Vehicle was abandoned, or for any other incident.” The rules also suggest alternatives to vehicular pursuits, such as tracking with airplanes. Troy Miller, who became acting Customs and Border Protection commissioner in late 2022 after the ouster of Chris Magnus, said that vehicular pursuits “pose inherent risks—to members of the public, officers and agents, and vehicle occupants” and that the new policy “acknowledges these risks and shifts our Agency’s overall approach to a risk-based model when it comes to pursuits.” Magnus stressed that the policy does not bar vehicular pursuits but “provides a clear framework” for weighing the risks associated with pursuits against the benefits. https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2023/01/30/florida-taking-the-first-steps-to-become-26th-constitutional-carry-state-n527375 Florida taking the first steps to become 26th constitutional carry state The speaker of the Florida House announced lawmakers had filed the bill this morning. Florida lawmakers’ promise to introduce legislation allowing permitless concealed carry of firearms, called “Constitutional Carry” by proponents, has been met. At a Monday morning press briefing, House Speaker Paul Renner (R-Palm Coast) and other gathered lawmakers announced House Bill 543, which would allow weapons and firearms without a license for concealment. The proposed bill was written by Rep. Chuck Brannan (R-Lake City), with state Sen. Jay Collins (R-Tampa) writing the companion legislation for the Florida Senate. Gov. Ron DeSantis said in December that he was committed to the legislation passing and urged state lawmakers to propose it. Under the proposed bill, Floridians would no longer need to apply for a license for concealed carry. The state of Florida already allows firearm purchases for those 21 and older without need of state application, aside from federal requirements for background checks. Should the bill pass, the regulation of concealed carry permits, handled by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, would end. Gov. DeSantis voices support for Constitutional Carry in Florida-Play Video https://thepostmillennial.com/new-york-hotel-mobbed-by-illegal-migrants-who-refuse-to-leave?utm_campaign=64487 New York hotel mobbed by illegal migrants who refuse to leave Illegal aliens standing outside of the Watson Hotel in New York's Hell's Kitchen district on Sunday night refused to leave for a new shelter, causing police to mobilize. More than 50 migrants were outside of the hotel, along with activists who were handing out food and water. City officials said that single men were supposed to be brought to a new shelter at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal that would provide the same services that they were receiving at the hotel. The city bus arrived, but only a small number of migrants hopped on the bus. Most decided to stay outside the hotel on West 57th Street. Activists claimed that migrants were being relocated from the hotel. One activist was quoted telling the New York Post that they were prepared to stay overnight. A dozen police were originally stationed at the Watson hotel, with police remaining on-scene until around midnight as migrants were still surrounding the entrance of the hotel. The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal is a new mega shelter that can house as many as 1,000 single adult men, Mayor Eric Adams said last week. https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/crime-pmn/suicide-bomber-breaches-high-security-in-pakistan-mosque-kills-59 And now in world news… Suicide bomber breaches high security in Pakistan mosque, kills 59 A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a crowded mosque in a highly fortified security compound in Pakistan on Monday, killing 59 people, the latest attack by resurgent Islamist militants targeting police. The attacker appeared to have passed through several barricades manned by security forces to get into the “Red Zone” compound that houses police and counter-terrorism offices in the volatile northwestern city of Peshawar, police said. Many of the 170 wounded people were in critical condition. The death toll rose to 59 after several people succumbed to their wounds, hospital official Mohammad Asim said in a statement. The bombing happened a day before an International Monetary Fund mission to Islamabad to initiate talks on unlocking funding for the South Asian country’s economy, which is enduring a balance of payments crisis. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack. The bomber detonated his load at the moment hundreds of people lined up to say their prayers, officials said. “We have found traces of explosives,” Khan told reporters, adding that a security lapse had clearly occurred as the bomber had slipped through the most secured area of the compound. An inquiry was under way into how the attacker breached such an elite security cordon and whether there was any inside help. Story Real Estate: Home. It’s where you build your legacy. Where traditions are started, seeds are planted, meals are shared, and stories are told. Home is where you prepare to go out into the world. Finding the home that’s perfect for your family is a big job. Story Real Estate is Moscow’s top real estate team. They give people real estate advice all over the country. Family homes, investments, land, new construction, or commercial— they know real estate. If you’ve thought about a move to Moscow or anywhere in the country, reach out to get connected with a Story Real Estate agent. Wherever you’re going, they can help guide you Home. Visit storyrealestate.com. And now it’s time for my favorite topic.. Sports! The superbowl is all set ladies and gentleman… The Eagles started proceedings as they took on the San Francisco 49ers: San Francisco 49ers vs. Philadelphia Eagles | 2023 NFC Conference Championship Game Highlights Play 5:45-5:56 Play 6:45-6:58 Play 8:57-9:09 The Philadelphia Eagles demolished the San Francisco 49ers 31-7, as they’re headed back to the Superbowl… The AFC Championship game between the Bengals & Chiefs was much closer, and had a lot of drama…Cincinatti Bengals vs. Kansas City Chiefs | 2023 AFC Championship Game Highlights Cincinatti Bengals vs. Kansas City Chiefs | 2023 AFC Championship Game Highlights Play 5:20-5:33 Play 14:47-15:09 Play 15:33-16:33 Man do I love sports…

FASKIANOS: Thank you, and welcome to today's session of the Winter/Spring 2023 CFR Academic Webinar series. I'm Irina Faskianos, vice president of the National Program and Outreach at CFR. Today's discussion is on the record and the video and transcript will be available on our website CFR.org/Academic if you would like to share it with your colleagues or classmates. As always, CFR takes no institutional positions on matters of policy. We're delighted to have Arunabha Ghosh with us to discuss climate compensation and cooperation. Dr. Ghosh is an internationally recognized public policy expert, author, columnist, and institution builder. He's the founder and CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water. He previously worked at Princeton University, the University of Oxford, the UN Development Program, and the World Trade Organization. He's also contributed to the creation of the International Solar Alliance and was a founding board member of the Clean Energy Access Network, and he currently serves on the government of India's G20 Finance Track Advisory Group, has co-chaired the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Clean Air, and is a member of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group and on the board of directors of the ClimateWorks Foundation. And he is joining us—it is, I think, after 11:00 p.m. where he is, so we appreciate your doing this so late your time. So, Dr. Ghosh, thank you very much for being with us today. We saw in November a historic climate compensation fund approved at the UN climate talks. It would be great if you could give an overview of what it means to compensate developing countries for losses and damages caused by climate change, as well as share your recommendations for how countries can more effectively cooperate on such efforts and maybe the interplay between mitigation, adaptation, and compensation—how are we attacking all of these things. So over to you. GHOSH: Well, good day to everyone out there. It's good evening at my end. It's nearing up on midnight. But thank you, Irina, for having me as part of this conversation and thank you to the Council on Foreign Relations. I think the way you framed it right at the end is really the way to start—how does mitigation, adaptation, and compensation all come together? Before I dive into the specific issue of loss and damage I want to just up front state for those listening in that I see climate change and the responses to climate change as not one market failure but at least three market failures that we are simultaneously trying to solve for. The first market failure is that climate risks are nonlinear in nature and, therefore, we don't have the normal approaches to insuring ourselves against climate risks. You can predict the probability of an earthquake of a certain intensity in a particular region without predicting an exact time of an earthquake but you can actually insure it by looking at the averages. But you can't do that with climate risk because the risks that we face today is less than the risks that you will face in 2030 and then it will exponentially rise in 2050. So your normal approaches towards insurance don't work. That's market failure number one. Market failure number two is, put very simply, money does not flow where the sun shines the most. We have a severe problem of climate-related investment in absolute terms not being sufficient globally and in relative terms significantly insufficient, especially in the regions where you actually have very good natural resources, particularly sunshine, for solar power, and the very same regions where sustainable infrastructure needs to be built between the tropics where countries continue to be developing and need to raise their per capita incomes. The third market failure is that even as we move towards or at least expend efforts towards moving to a more sustainable planet, we haven't really cracked the code on how do we narrow the technology gap rather than widen it. And this matters because, ultimately, the response to climate change, while it's a global collective action problem, because it is nationally situated it does raise concerns about national competitiveness, about industrial development, about access to technology and, of course, the rules that will—that would embed our moves towards a more free and more sustainable marketplace at a global level. And if we cannot crack the code on how technologies are developed and technologies are diffused and disseminated then it will continue to serve as a hindrance towards doubling down on developing the clean-tech technologies of tomorrow. So it's against this backdrop of multiple market failures that we have to understand where this whole loss and damage story comes through. Loss and damage has been discussed for decades, actually, in the climate negotiations. It was put formally on the agenda in 2007. But it was only at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt that there was finally an agreement amongst all the negotiating parties that a loss and damage financing facility would be set up. Now, what is loss and damage itself? Is it the same as adaptation? Clearly, not. It refers to the adverse impacts that vulnerable communities and countries face as a result of a changing climate including the increase in incidence and intensity of natural disasters and extreme weather events, as well as the slow onset of temperature increase, sea level rise, and desertification. So it's not just the hurricane that comes and slams on the coast. It's also repeated rounds of drought which might be impacting smallholder farmers in another part of the world. Now, adapting to a changing climate is different from compensating for the damages that you're facing and that is why there was this call for a separate financing facility for loss and damage. Now, this is the agreement thus far but it's not—it's not a done deal yet. What the decision did was basically said there will be now a transition committee developed dedicated to loss and damage with equal representation for rich and poor countries, and so on and so forth, but that transition committee would then have to figure out the funding arrangements, the institutional arrangements, where would this money sit, figure out how alternative sources of funding would come through only through existing mechanisms and ensure that it all gets delivered by COP28, which will be held in the UAE later this year. Now, my belief is that a political decision, while it's a strong signal, it's only, you know, just—you're just getting off the blocks and several other building blocks will be needed to make this work properly. Number one, we will need a much more granular understanding of hyperlocal climate risk. Today, if you wanted to buy a house in Florida, for instance, there's a high chance that there will be a neighborhood by neighborhood understanding of flooding risk, hurricane risk, et cetera, which is then priced into the insurance premiums that you had to pay for purchasing that property. But in many other parts of the world, when you look at climate models they treat entire countries as single pixels, which is not good enough. My own organization, CEEW, has trying to develop the first high-resolution climate risk atlas for India, a country of a billion and a half people. We now have a district-level vulnerability index looking at exposure to natural disasters sensitivity based on the economic configuration of that district and the adaptive capacity of the local communities and the administration. Based on that then we can say where do you need to double down on your efforts to build resilience. But that kind of effort is needed across the developing world in order to actually understand what it means to climate-proof communities and what it means to actually understand the scale of the problem that loss and damage financing facility will have to address. The second thing that has to happen is more development of attribution science. What is attribution science? Basically, a bad thing happens and then you figure out using the latest science how much of that bad thing happened because of the changed climate. Now, here's the problem. Only about—about less than 4 percent of global climate research spending is dedicated, for instance, to Africa but nearly 80 percent of that spending is actually spent in Europe and North America. So what I'm trying to say is that even as we try to build out attribution science we need a lot more capacity that has to be built in the Global South to understand not just global climate models but be able to downscale them in a way that we're able to understand what the next hurricane, the next flooding event, the next cyclone means in terms of the impacts of climate change. The third thing that has to happen is something called Early Warning Systems Initiative. Basically, the idea—it was unveiled at COP27—is to ensure that every person is protected by early warning systems within the next five years or so. So the next time a tsunami is coming you're not reacting after the fact but you're able to actually send out information well in advance. I'll give you an example. In 1999 a big cyclone—super cyclone—hit an eastern state of India, Odisha, and about ten thousand lives were lost. A huge effort was put in for early warning systems subsequently along with building storm shelters, et cetera. So twenty years later when a similar sized cyclone hit the same state in 2019 less than a hundred lives were lost. Ten thousand versus a hundred. So this is the scale of impact that properly designed early warning systems can do to save lives and save livelihoods. And, finally, of course, we have to build more resilient infrastructure. So the next bridge that is being built, the next airport that is being built, the next bridge that is being built, or a highway that's being built, all of that is going to get impacted by rising climate risks. So how do you bring in more resilient infrastructure? There's something called the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure that India has promoted. It has about thirty-five countries as members already and many multilateral institutions. It itself has started a program on infrastructure for resilient island states—for the small island states. So what I'm trying to tell you here is that the loss and damage—when we talk about compensation it's not just the monetary resources that are needed. There's a lot of technical resources needed to do the hyperlocal climate risk assessment, the infrastructure that is needed to do early warning initiatives, the scientific capability that is needed for attribution science, and the sort of organizational administration capability at a district level but also all the way at an international level. If all of that comes together then maybe we have a better architecture rather than just an announcement around compensation. But that just solves or begins to solve the first market failure. Let me maybe pause there and we can use the rest of the hour to talk about this and the other market failures I highlighted. FASKIANOS: Fantastic. Thank you so much. It really is daunting what needs to happen for sure in all the three market failures. We want to go now to all of you for your questions. You all should know how to do this. You can click the “Raise Hand” icon on your screen to ask a question. On an iPad or a Tablet click the “More” button to access the raise hand feature and when you're called upon accept the unmute prompt and state your name and affiliation and your question. Please keep it brief. And you can also write a written question in the Q&A box and, please, you can vote for questions that you like but if you do write a question it would be great if you could include your affiliation along with your name so that it gives us context. So the first question I'm going to take we'll go to Morton Holbrook. Morton, please identify yourself. Q: Hi. I'm Morton Holbrook at Kentucky Wesleyan College in Owensboro, Kentucky. Thanks, Dr. Ghosh, for your presentation. I confess I haven't paid enough attention to COP27. Can you enlighten me as to what the United States committed to and, more importantly, whether the Democratic bill—the bill passed in Congress in December was able to add—actually commit funds to the loss and damage project? GHOSH: Should I answer that, Irina, or are you taking a bunch of questions at a time? FASKIANOS: No, I think it's better to take one at a time— GHOSH: One at a time? OK. FASKIANOS: —so we can have more in-depth— GHOSH: Sure. Sure. Thank you, Morton. Well, the decision on loss and damage was agreed to by all the member states negotiating at COP27. But, as I said earlier, this only suggests the setting up of a financing facility. How it's going to be funded is yet to be determined. Will this be a reallocation of overseas development assistance that is redirected towards loss and damage or is this new money that's put on the table? All of that has to be decided. In fact, the developed countries did take a position that some of the larger developing countries that are big emitters should also contribute towards this loss and damage financing facility. Of course, on the other side the argument is that these are also the countries that are continuing to be vulnerable. So there is a difference now that is coming up in the conversation around loss and damage around vulnerability versus developing in the sense that even emerging economies could be vulnerable to climate change, whereas developing countries might be poorer than emerging economies that are also vulnerable to climate change but in some cases might not be as vulnerable. So the focus is actually on vulnerability in terms of the exposure to climate risks and, as I said earlier, the sensitivity of the communities and the economic systems. Now, with regards to the U.S. legislation, I am not sure of the legislation you're referring to for December. The one I'm aware of is the Inflation Reduction Act that was passed prior to COP27. But if there is something specifically that you're referring to that was passed through Congress in December then I'm not aware of it. FASKIANOS: OK. Let's go to Clemente Abrokwaa. Q: Thank you. Can you hear me? FASKIANOS: We can. Q: Oh, good. Thank you, Dr. Ghosh. Very interesting your explanation or discussion. I'm from Penn State University and I have two short questions for you. One is base compensation. How would you monitor that? If you give a bunch of money or a lot of money to a country, especially those in the third world societies, third world countries, how would you monitor where it goes? Who controls the funding or the money? And I have a reason for—reasons for asking that question. And the second is I was a little surprised about the—what you said about the 80 percent of the money given to Africa is spent in Europe, unless I got you wrong. Yeah, so those—why should that be if that's true? GHOSH: So let me answer the second question first. That is, I was referring to climate—global climate research spending that happens. Of all the global climate research spending that happens less than 4 percent is dedicated to climate research on Africa. But that climate research 80 percent of that less than 4 percent is actually spent in research institutions in Europe and North America. So it wasn't about money going to Africa for climate. It's about the climate modeling research that goes on. So the point I was trying to make there was that we need to build up more climate research capacity in the Global South, not just in Africa and Asia and South America and so forth, in order to become better at that attribution science when it's related to the extreme weather events but also to understand in a more localized way the pathways for more climate-friendly economic development pathways. For instance, my institution CEEW, when we did net zero modeling for India we were looking at multiple different scenarios for economic development, for industrial development, for emissions, for equity, for jobs impact, et cetera, because we were able to contextualize the model for what it meant for a country like India, and now we're doing similar—we've downscaled our model now to a state level because India is a continent-sized country. So that's the point I was trying to make there. With regards to how to monitor the compensation, now, I want to make two points here. Number one is that, of course, if any money is delivered it should be monitored, I mean, in the sense that it's—transparency leads to better policy and better actions as a principle. But we should be careful not to conflate compensation for damages caused with development assistance. Let me give an analogy. Suppose there is—someone inadvertently rams their car into my garage and damages my house. Now, I will get a compensation from that person. Now, whether I go and repair my garage or whether I go on a holiday as such should not matter because what matters is that the damage was caused and I was due compensation. That's different from my neighbor coming and saying, I see that your garage, perhaps, needs some repair. Let me be a good neighbor and give you some money and help you rebuild your garage. In that case, it would be unethical for me to take that money and go on holiday. So there is a difference between compensation for loss and damage and money delivered for development assistance. However, I want to reiterate that once that money reaches any—whether it's a developing country government or a subnational government there should be—there should be mechanisms put in place for transparently monitoring where that money is going. That should be reported whether it's in a—I have often argued for climate risk assessments to be—annually reported at a national level. So the expenditure on all of this should also be reported. That should be tabled in a country's parliament. So I think it's important to use democratic processes to ensure that monies are deployed for where they are meant to be. But it should not be a reason that if I cause you damage, I will not pay you unless I think you are good enough to receive my money. No, I caused you damage. I owe you money. That is the basic principle of loss and damage. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to go next to Lindsey McCormack, raised hand. Q: Hi. I would love to hear your thoughts on lessons from the successful response to Cyclone Fani in 2019. I believe you mentioned it was over a million people were evacuated in India and Bangladesh, saving many lives. You know, I am a student at Baruch College in New York and you probably saw that terrible blizzard upstate. People were stranded and died. And I was just comparing their response capacity and the preparedness in that situation versus in the cyclone where you have over a million people moved out of harm's way. I'm really interested to hear what goes behind making that kind of preparation possible. GHOSH: Well, thanks for the question, Lindsey. This is extremely important. I think what happened—before I talk about Cyclone Fani let me go back again twenty years. There was the super cyclone in 1999 and then just a few years later there was also the tsunami in 2004 and, of course, there have been natural disasters from time to time. In fact, between 1990 and 2005 there were about 200-odd extreme weather events that we faced in India. But since 2005, we've already faced well over three hundred. The frequency of extreme cyclones has gone up 3X between the 1980s and now. So there is this constant need, obviously, to upgrade your systems but that investment that was put in in early warning systems at a sort of regional scale using satellites, using ground sensors in the sea, et cetera, help to monitor and help to predict when—the movement of cyclones' landfall and so forth. Along with that is—has been a lot of local administration capacity building of how do you then get this word out and how do you work with local communities. So there are, for instance, again, Odisha women run self-help groups who have become managers of storm shelters so when the community voices are telling people to get out of harm's way it has, perhaps, more social capital attached to it. In another part of the country in a hilly state in Uttar Pradesh—Uttarakhand, I'm sorry—there is a community-run radio station that sends out information about forest fires and things like that. The third thing has been around the rebuilding. So saving of lives is one thing but saving livelihoods is another critical issue and that's why it's not just getting people out of harm's way but often, for—the early warning helps to get livestock out of harm's way as well because, you know, for a small marginal farmer losing their cattle itself becomes a major loss of livelihood. So these are ways in which there have been attempts to ensure that the scientific or the technical capacity building is married with the social capital and the local administrative capital. But that does not mean that this is consistently done all the time. It's all work in progress and a lot more needs to be done in terms of the coverage of—and that's why this Early Warning Systems Initiative that was talked about in COP27 is important because you've got to—I mean, we, again, are working with some private sector entities that provide early warning systems for hundreds of millions of people. So how do their—how do our ground-level data and their sort of AI-based kind of modeling capacity marry together to offer those services to much larger numbers of people, literally, in the hundreds of millions. So it's very important that this becomes—and since the title of this conversation is about climate compensation and cooperation I would argue that this is a no regrets approach towards bridging the North and the South. 2022 has demonstrated that a long-held assumption that the rich would escape and the poor would somehow adapt is kind of gone. You know, we've all been slammed with extreme events and I think, of course, there will be positions on which the North and the South and the East and the West will be on different sides of the table. But building a resilience against nonlinear climate risk is a no regrets approach on which we could certainly be cooperating. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take a written question from Caden Hicks, who is at Lewis University. Of the 197 nations involved in these annual conferences of the parties when wealthy and powerful nations such as the United States and China do not meet their pledges are there any consequences for them? If they decide to drop their participation in this council how would they—what would the consequences be? GHOSH: This is at the heart of the climate problem. I talked about three market failures and there is one political failure, which is that we don't have an accountability mechanism, so to speak, that can hold everyone to account, the largest polluters but also everybody else. And that's why the climate regime is different from the trade regime, which has a dispute settlement mechanism, or the international financial regime where you have annual surveillance of what you're doing in managing your fiscal deficit, for instance. So when it comes to holding actors to account, I see that we need to make efforts both within the FCCC framework and with outside. Within the FCCC framework, the Article Fifteen of the Paris Agreement is something that can be leveraged more to ensure that the Compliance Committee has greater powers, that those that are not compliant are able to then—for instance, in Article Six, which has yet to be operationalized in terms of internationally trading of carbon credits, if you are not compliant with your domestic nationally determined contributions, then Article Thirteen compliance should demand that you have to buy more carbon credits than otherwise would have been possible. That's one idea. The second is that the—and I've written about this recently—that we need to stop making the COPs just platforms for announcing new initiatives, that every alternate COP should be designed as an accountability COP, which means that we come there and we report not just on what we are emitting and automating in terms of the biannual update reviews, but have a genuine peer review conversation as it happens in many other international regimes. Right now no one asks tough questions and no one answers tough questions. So it's—I mean, I said this quite publicly at—in Sharm el-Sheikh that, unfortunately, the COPs have become mutual admiration societies. Every year we come and make announcements. We form some initiatives. We say something will happen on methane, something will happen on finance, something will happen on agriculture and forests. And the next year we come and make new announcements. We never really ask what happened to the announcement you made twelve months ago. So how do we shift from being mutual admiration societies to mutual accountability societies? But beyond the COP process I think there are two other ways in which parties can be held to account. Number one is domestic legislatures and domestic courts. It's important that the pledges that are being made are legislated upon at a national level so that parliaments can hold executives to account, and if that is not happening then you can go to court and hold your governments to account. But, equally, it's not just about state parties. There are the nonstate actors. And last year I also served on the UN secretary-general's high-level expert group on net-zero commitments of nonstate entities, which means the corporations that are promising to get to net zero, or the cities and the states and the regions that are promising to get to net zero, and we laid out some clear principles on what it would mean to claim that you're headed towards net zero. Where are your plans? Where are your interim targets? Where are your financing strategies? How is this linked to your consumer base so you're not just looking at scope one or scope two but also scope three emissions. So there are ways in which then the shareholders and the consumers of products and services of corporations can hold them to account. It's a much more complicated world. But in the absence of the FCCC haven't been able to deliver genuine compliance. We've got to get creative in other ways. FASKIANOS: I'm going to go next to Stephen Kass, who has raised his hand. Also wrote a question but I think it'd be better if you just shared it yourself. Q: I'm an adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law School and at NYU Center on Global Affairs. As you know, COP27 included these remarkable but belated obligations to make payments but without any enforceable mechanism or a specific set of commitments. Some years ago the New York City Bar Association proposed an international financial transaction tax on all transfers of money globally with the proceeds dedicated to climate adaptation. This would not be intended to replace the COP27 obligations but I wonder how you feel about that proposal. GHOSH: This is, again, a very interesting question, Stephen, because the need to be creative of—about different sources of money that can capitalize a loss and damage financing facility or an adaptation financing facility is absolutely essential because governments—I mean, we recognize that governments have limited fiscal resources and it has become harder and harder to get any money—real money—put on the table when it comes to the pledges that have been made. So I have recently been appointed to a group of economists that are looking at this issue. There is this approach, of course, of taxing financial transactions. There is another idea around taxing barrels of oil. Even a single dollar on a barrel of oil can capitalize a huge amount of fund. There are other ways, taxing aviation or the heavy kind of—heavy industries that—you know, shipping, aviation, et cetera. Then there are approaches towards leveraging the special drawing rights (SDRs) on the International Monetary Fund, which are basically a basket of currencies that can then be used to capitalize a—what I've called a global resilience reserve fund. So you don't make any payout right now from your treasuries but you do use the SDRs to build up the balance sheet of a resilience fund, which then pays out when disasters above a certain threshold hit. So these are certainly different ways in which we have to be thinking about finding the additional resources. See, when it comes to mitigation—this goes back to Irina's very first point—when it comes to mitigation there is—at least it's claimed there are tens of trillions of dollars of private investment just waiting to be deployed and that brings me to that second market failure that I referred to, that despite those tens of trillions of dollars waiting to be deployed, money does not flow where the sun shines the most. But when you pair it with, say, adaptation, let me give you an example. India has the largest deployment of solar-based irrigation pumps and it plans to deploy millions of solar-based irrigation pumps so you're not using diesel or coal-based electricity to pump water for agriculture. Now, is a solar-based irrigation pump a mitigation tool or is it an adaptation tool or is it a resilience tool? I would say it's all of the above. But if we can define that through the International Solar Alliance, it's actually trying to also fund the deployment of solar-based irrigation in sub-Saharan Africa as well. So the point I'm trying to make here is if we can find ways to aggregate projects, aggregate demand, and reduce that delta between perceived risk and real risk, we can lower the cost of finance and drive private investment into mitigation-cum-adaptation projects. But when it comes to pure compensation, the kind that we are talking about when it comes to loss and damage, disaster relief, et cetera—especially when climate shocks have compounding effects—that you're not just doing an after the event, you know, pitching a tent to house the displaced population, but we're building in real resilience against even the slow onset of the climate crisis, in some aspects. Then we have to get a lot more creative about the resources because private resources are not flowing there and traditional kind of vanilla-style public resources don't seem to be available. So your idea is very much one of those that should be considered. FASKIANOS: So I'm going to take a written question from Allan Victor Cortes, who's an undergrad at Lewis University: To what extent do you believe that small motivated groups can truly make a global impact on the climate scene? What incentivizes larger bodies, be it states or multinational corporations, to listen to these collaborations of small governments or firms and their proposed environmental solutions? GHOSH: This is a very interesting question because it has a normative dimension to it and an instrumental dimension to it. The normative dimension—I was having another public event just yesterday where we were talking about this—is what is the value—when you're faced with a planetary crisis what is the value of individual or small group action? The value, of course, is that there is agency because when we talk about, say, lifestyle changes, and India announced this national mission called Mission LiFE in October in the presence of the UN secretary-general—Lifestyle for Environment—the idea was how do you nudge behavior, to nudge behavior towards sustainable practices, sustainable consumption, sustainable mobility, sustainable food. You can think about creating awareness. You can think about giving more access to those products and services and, of course, it has to be affordable. But there is a fourth A, which is that it only works when individuals and communities take ownership or have agency over trying to solve the problem. But that is one part of the story. But there is an instrumental dimension to it, which is what I call the enabling of markets beyond just the nudging of individual or small group behavior. So, again, let me give an example of—from India but which is applicable in many other parts of the world. It is the use of distributed renewable energy. Now, distributed renewable energy is smaller in scale, smaller in investment size, even less on the radar of large institutional investors, and yet has many other benefits. It makes your energy system more resilient. It actually creates many more jobs. We calculate that you create—you get seven times more jobs per megawatt hour of distributed renewables or rooftop solar compared to large-scale solar, which creates more jobs than natural gas, which creates more jobs than coal, and it is able to drive local livelihoods. So we mapped this out across India of how distributed renewables could drive livelihoods in rural areas whether it's on-farm applications or off-farm applications, small food processing units, textile units, milk chilling and cold chain units, and so on and so forth, and we were baffled when we realized or we calculated that the market potential is more than $50 billion. In sub-Saharan Africa the market potential of solar-based irrigation is more—about $12 billion. So then suddenly what seems like really small individual efforts actually scales up to something much larger. Now, if we can figure out ways to warehouse or aggregate these projects and de-risk them by spreading those risks across a larger portfolio, are able to funnel institutional capital into a—through that warehousing facility into a large—a portfolio of a number of small projects, if we are able to use that money to then enable consumer finance as has been announced in today's national budget in India, then many things that originally seemed small suddenly begin to gain scale. So we, as a think tank, decided to put our own hypothesis to the test. So we evaluated more than one hundred startups, selected six of them, paired up with the largest social enterprise incubator in the country, and are now giving capital and technical assistance to six startups using distributed renewables for livelihoods. Within two and a half years we've had more than thirteen thousand technology deployments, 80 percent of the beneficiaries have been women who have gone on to become micro entrepreneurs, and India is the first country in the world that's come out with a national policy on the use of distributed renewables for livelihood activities. So the normative value is certainly there about agency. But the instrumental value of converting that agency into aggregated action is also something that we should tap into. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to go next to Tombong Jawo, if you could ask your question—it also got an up vote—and identify yourself, please. Let's see. You have to unmute yourself. You're still muted. OK. We're working on that. I'm going to take a quick question from Mark Bucknam, who's the chair of Department of Security Studies at the National War College. What is the best source for statistics on how much money is being spent on climate research? GHOSH: There are multiple sources depending on where you—I mean, the study I was referring to came from a journal paper that was written by Indra Overland, “Funding Flows for Climate Change Research.” This was in the journal Climate and Development. But I would think that the IPCC—the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—would probably have some estimates aggregated in terms of this and you could check there. But let me also check with my modeling teams to see if they have better sources and get back to you on this. FASKIANOS: Fantastic, and we will be sending out a link to this webinar—to the video and transcripts—so we can include sources in that follow-up. So since Tombong could not unmute I will ask the question. Tombong is an undergraduate student at Cavendish University Uganda. Climate compensation and cooperation is undoubtedly a step in the right direction if all stakeholders adhere to the laid down rules and regulations. However, what mechanisms are put in place to ensure that it gets to the people who matter the most and not diverted for political gains by politicians? GHOSH: I mean, this is similar to the question that Clemente asked earlier, and I understand and I think it's important now that we start thinking about what are the national-level efforts that would be needed to build in the monitoring of where the funds go and what kind of infrastructure is built. So you can do this at multiple levels and this, again, goes back to the first thing I said about loss and damage, that we need this hyperlocal assessment. Let's say a hundred thousand dollars have been given to a small country for resilience. Now, how you deploy that needs to be a conversation that first begins with the science. Now, where are you going to be impacted the most? What is the kind of climate risk that you're going to be impacted by? Is it a flooding risk? Is it coastal degradation? Is it crop loss? Is it water stress? Accordingly, the monies should be then apportioned. Once it's apportioned that way it should immediately get down to a much local-level kind of monitoring. That requires itself a combination of state-level reporting but I would argue also nonstate reporting. So, again, we spend a lot of our efforts as a nonprofit institution tracking not just emissions but also tracking how moneys are deployed, the scale of projects, where the projects are coming up. We do a lot of ground surveys ourselves. We do the largest survey in the world on energy access, that data that helps to inform the rollout of energy access interventions. We've now paired up with the largest rural livelihood missions in two of our largest states to ensure that this work around distributed energy and livelihoods and climate resilience is tied up with what the rural livelihood missions are promising at a state legislature level. So I think that it is very important that the science dictates the apportionment of the funds but that there is a combination of government reporting and nongovernment assessment to track the progress of these projects. Of course, with advanced technology—and, I mean, some have proposed blockchain and so forth—can also track individual transactions, whether it's reaching the person who was intended to be reached, and so on and so forth, and those kinds of mechanisms need to be developed regardless of this loss and damage financing facility. If we talk about offsets, all the activity in voluntary carbon markets that are going on, the level of rigor that is needed for when, so you're trying to offset your flight and saying, well, a tree is going to be planted in Indonesia for this long-haul flight that you're taking, how do you know that that tree truly was planted? And also if trust is broken then it's very hard to rebuild and that's why, again, I said earlier in answer to a different question that transparency has its own value in addition to improving the trust of the market. But it has its own value because it guides policy development and policy action and individual action in a far better way. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to go next to Charles Fraser, who has raised his hand. Q: You can hear me? FASKIANOS: We can now. Thank you. But identify yourself. I know you also wrote your question. So— Q: Sure. I'm a graduate student at the Princeton School of International Public Affairs. My question is about access to finance issues. The UNFCCC has produced—has decreed other climate funds in the past, the Green Climate Fund and the Adaptation Fund for example, and often beyond issues of how much money is mobilized to those funds issues about how recipients can access the funds is a prominent thing that's discussed. How do you think that the—this new fund on loss and damage can be set up to address those issues and, perhaps, demonstrate ways to get around those problems? GHOSH: Firstly, in the case of the loss and damage financing facility we should make sure that it is not designed as a development assistance fund because, as soon as you do that, then you get into all those other questions about is this—is this going to be spam, should we really send it there, are they really ready to receive the money, and then so on and so forth. It has to be a parameterized one in the sense that if certain shocks are hitting vulnerable communities and countries above a certain threshold it should be able to pay out and that's why that hyperlocal climate science and the attribution science is absolutely critical. On top of that it has to—you know, this is not an investment fund in the sense that this is not a fund manager that has to then see where do I get best returns, and is the project application good enough for me to invest in this, whether it's a mitigation project or adaptation project. No. This is a payout fund. So most of the effort for loss and damage financing facility, in my opinion—I don't sit on the—that technical steering committee that is designing it—but in my opinion most of the effort has to go in figuring out what was the vulnerability, what was the baseline, and how much about that baseline did the—was the damage caused and therefore how much has to be paid out. That is really where a lot of the effort has to go, and the second effort that has to go goes back to what Stephen Kass was suggesting in terms of alternative ways to capitalize this, because with rising climate risks we will quickly run out of money even if we were able to capitalize it with some amount of money today. So these two will have to be the basis and the governing board has to basically decide that is the science that is guiding our understanding of a particular event robust enough for us to make the payout. It should not be contingent and that's—it's the same as one, say, an investigator from an insurance company does before a payout is made for a house that's burned down. But if you keep the victim running around from pillar to post asking for the money that they deserve as compensation, then it will quickly lose legitimacy like many of the other funding schemes that have come out of the climate regime thus far. FASKIANOS: I'm going to take the last question from Connor Butler, who's at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater. In the near future do you see wealthy developed countries collaborating with poorer lesser-developed countries in order to build a resilience toward and combat climate change, or do you think that the North will always work together without involving the South? GHOSH: Connor, thank you for this question because this gives me a segue into my third market failure, which is should we build or are we building a sustainable planet which widens rather than narrows the technology divide. I analyzed about three dozen so-called technology-related initiatives emerging in the climate and energy space over the last decade and a half and there were only four that did any kind of real technology transfer and that to—none at scale. Basically, what happens is when you talk about technology, when you talk about cooperation on new technologies, usually these initiatives get stopped at, you know, organizing a conference and you talk about it. Sometimes you put in a—there's a joint research project that begins. Very few times there's a pilot project that actually you can physically see on the ground, and almost never does it get used at scale. So I have been increasingly arguing for technology co-development rather than technology transfer, because it's a fool's errand to hope that the technology will be transferred. Now, why is technology co-development important not just from the point of view of Global South? It's important from the point of view of Global North as well. Let's take something like green hydrogen. It is a major new thrust in many economies. The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act provides a $3 subsidy for production of green hydrogen. India has just announced the largest green hydrogen mission in the world aiming to produce 5 million tons of green algae by 2030. But green hydrogen is not just—it's not easy to just take water and split it. You need a lot of energy. To make that—to split the water you need electrolyzers. For that, you need critical minerals. You need membranes that are developed in certain places. You need manufacturing capabilities that can build this out at scale. I mean, India alone will need 40 (gigawatts) to 60 gigawatts of electrolyzers by the end of the decade. So, ultimately, if we have to build a cleaner energy system and a cleaner economic system we will actually have to move away from islands of regulation towards a more interdependent resilient supply chain around clean energy and climate-friendly technologies. So rather than think of this as a handout to the Global South, I think it makes more sense—and I can talk about batteries, critical minerals, solar panels, wind turbines, green hydrogen, electric vehicles—and you will see again and again we are actually mapping economy by economy where strengths, weaknesses lie and how the complementarities come together. We can see that this technology co-development can become a new paradigm for bridging the North and the South rather than technology transfer being a chasm between the North and the South. FASKIANOS: I think that's a good place to conclude, especially since it is so late there. This was a fantastic conversation. We really appreciate your being with us, Dr. Ghosh, and for all the questions. I apologize to all of you. We could not get to them all. We'll just have to have you back. And I want to commend Dr. Ghosh's website. It is CEEW.in. So that is the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water website and you can find, I believe, a lot of the studies that you're talking about and your papers there. So if people want to dig in even further they should go there, also follow you on Twitter at—oh, my goodness. I need—I need—I think it's midnight here. GHOSH: So ghosharunabha. It's my last name and my first name—at @ghosharunabha FASKIANOS: Exactly. Right. So thank you again for doing this. We really appreciate it. The next Academic Webinar will be on Wednesday, February 15, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time with Margaret O'Mara, who is at the University of Washington, and we will be talking about big tech and global order. So, again, thank you, and if you want to learn about CFR paid internships for students and fellowships you don't have to be in New York or Washington. We do have virtual internships as well. You should please reach out to us, and we also have fellowships for professors. You can go to CFR.org/Careers and do follow us at @CFR_Academic and come to CFR.org, ForeignAffairs.com, and ThinkGlobalHealth.org for research and analysis on global issues. So, again, Dr. Ghosh, thank you very much for today's conversation and to all of you for joining us. GHOSH: Thank you, Irina. Thank you, CFR. Thank you very much. (END)

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily Newsbrief for Wednesday, February 1st, 2023. Ladies and gentleman, did you know that you can sign up for our Fight Laugh Feast Conference, happening at the Ark Encounter this year? Well now you can! Head on over to fightlaughfeast.com, and you can sign up today! That’s fightlaughfeast.com. https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-surgeon-general-warns-13-years-old-is-too-young-to-join-social-media U.S. Surgeon General Warns 13-Years-Old Is Too Young To Join Social Media U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy believes children 13 years old are too young to join social media platforms, citing kids are still “developing their identity,” and such engagement can create a distorted sense of themselves. Murthy, who has served as surgeon general under the Obama and the Biden administrations, signaled the warning in an interview with CNN, noting adolescents should only be allowed to access the platforms until they were 16 years old at the earliest. “It’s a time, you know, early adolescence, where kids are developing their identity, their sense of self,” Murthy said. “It’s a time where it’s really important for us to be thoughtful about what’s going into how they think about their own self-worth and their relationships, and the skewed and often distorted environment of social media often does a disservice to many of those children.” Social media giant platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter require a minimum age of 13 to join. Murthy further noted the issue with addictive algorithms, which pits youth against Big Tech. “You have some of the best designers and product developers in the world who have designed these products to make sure people are maximizing the amount of time they spend on these platforms,” he said. “And if we tell a child, use the force of your willpower to control how much time you’re spending, you’re pitting a child against the world’s greatest product designers.” “And that’s just not a fair fight,” he added. “And so that’s why I think our kids need help.” The Journal of the American Medical Association published a study earlier this month which sampled 178 12-year-olds from three public middle schools in North Carolina and reviewed how often the minors check social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Researchers found individuals with habitual checking behaviors showed initial hypoactivation but increasing sensitivity to potential social cues over time. Nonhabitual individuals, however, showed initial hyperactivation and decreasing sensitivity. Dr. Adriana Stacey told CNN using social media releases a “dopamine dump” and compared the addictiveness of smartphones to cocaine. Surgeon General Murthy called on parents to band together to prevent their children from logging on to social media platforms until they’re at least 16 years old. Seattle Public School District officials filed a lawsuit earlier this month against several social media platform owners, including Facebook and TikTok, for allegedly intentionally cultivating and creating a mental health crisis among the youth and have caused a public nuisance affecting Seattle Public Schools. President Joe Biden drew attention to social media platforms in his 2022 State of the Union Address, alleging the harm social media has wrought on American youth should implore all to “hold social media platforms accountable for the national experiment they’re conducting on our children for profit.” The Biden administration & General Murthy took fire howewver, due to what appears to be inconscistencies in their rules. He told "CNN Newsroom" host Pamela Brown that parents should look to push back the age at which their children begin using social media platforms to make sure kids "don't get exposed to harm early." Last March, Murthy addressed a directive from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, R., effectively cutting gender-affirming care for minors in his state, taking to Twitter to write, "Yesterday afternoon in Austin, I met with transgender youth and their parents to hear how they are coping in light of the state's recent directive equating gender-affirming care to child abuse." "The pain and fear in their voices was heartbreaking. Parents and kids are terrified about being separated. They described repeated attacks on their families at traumatic… LGBTQ+ youth were already at increased risk of suicide and other mental health struggles. We should be seeking to provide them with support and medical care…. "Forcing parents to choose between following medical advice for their child and risking an investigation from the state is simply not right. The government shouldn't be interfering with decisions between doctors and patients," he continued. https://www.theepochtimes.com/border-patrol-agents-told-to-not-chase-all-vehicles-that-flee_5022784.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=BonginoReport Border Patrol Agents Told to Not Chase All Vehicles That Flee Texas—Border Patrol agents will soon be limited in chasing vehicles that flee from them, under new rules unveiled in January and set to take effect in May. Agents must determine that vehicular pursuits are “necessary and objectively reasonable” under the rules, and can terminate a pursuit at any time without fear of questioning from superiors. Agents are being told that they must consider factors such as “the seriousness of the reason” for a pursuit and weather conditions when deciding whether to chase a fleeing vehicle that failed to stop at a checkpoint or port of entry—the official places to enter the United States from Mexico and Canada. “A Vehicular Pursuit is considered Necessary when an Authorized Officer/Agent concludes there is an immediate need to apprehend a subject as part of their enforcement duties based on the totality of the known facts and circumstances,” the rules state. A pursuit meets the “objectively reasonable” standard when the government’s interest in apprehending the persons or people in the fleeing vehicle “clearly outweighs the Foreseeability of Risk to the public, officers/agents, other law enforcement, and vehicle occupants,” the rules state. Agents must evaluate the interest and the potential risk when choosing whether to pursue a fleeing vehicle and continue the evaluation during the chase. They must also alert a supervisor “as soon as feasible” during a pursuit and immediately terminate the chase if the supervisor does not authorize it to continue, or orders it stopped. If a chase is terminated, agents must pull their vehicle over to signal to the public and the fleeing driver that the chase has ended, according to the rules. They must alert superiors. They can then start driving again in the last known direction of the fleeing vehicle to check for “crashes, potential flight on foot, to determine if the Subject Vehicle was abandoned, or for any other incident.” The rules also suggest alternatives to vehicular pursuits, such as tracking with airplanes. Troy Miller, who became acting Customs and Border Protection commissioner in late 2022 after the ouster of Chris Magnus, said that vehicular pursuits “pose inherent risks—to members of the public, officers and agents, and vehicle occupants” and that the new policy “acknowledges these risks and shifts our Agency’s overall approach to a risk-based model when it comes to pursuits.” Magnus stressed that the policy does not bar vehicular pursuits but “provides a clear framework” for weighing the risks associated with pursuits against the benefits. https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2023/01/30/florida-taking-the-first-steps-to-become-26th-constitutional-carry-state-n527375 Florida taking the first steps to become 26th constitutional carry state The speaker of the Florida House announced lawmakers had filed the bill this morning. Florida lawmakers’ promise to introduce legislation allowing permitless concealed carry of firearms, called “Constitutional Carry” by proponents, has been met. At a Monday morning press briefing, House Speaker Paul Renner (R-Palm Coast) and other gathered lawmakers announced House Bill 543, which would allow weapons and firearms without a license for concealment. The proposed bill was written by Rep. Chuck Brannan (R-Lake City), with state Sen. Jay Collins (R-Tampa) writing the companion legislation for the Florida Senate. Gov. Ron DeSantis said in December that he was committed to the legislation passing and urged state lawmakers to propose it. Under the proposed bill, Floridians would no longer need to apply for a license for concealed carry. The state of Florida already allows firearm purchases for those 21 and older without need of state application, aside from federal requirements for background checks. Should the bill pass, the regulation of concealed carry permits, handled by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, would end. Gov. DeSantis voices support for Constitutional Carry in Florida-Play Video https://thepostmillennial.com/new-york-hotel-mobbed-by-illegal-migrants-who-refuse-to-leave?utm_campaign=64487 New York hotel mobbed by illegal migrants who refuse to leave Illegal aliens standing outside of the Watson Hotel in New York's Hell's Kitchen district on Sunday night refused to leave for a new shelter, causing police to mobilize. More than 50 migrants were outside of the hotel, along with activists who were handing out food and water. City officials said that single men were supposed to be brought to a new shelter at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal that would provide the same services that they were receiving at the hotel. The city bus arrived, but only a small number of migrants hopped on the bus. Most decided to stay outside the hotel on West 57th Street. Activists claimed that migrants were being relocated from the hotel. One activist was quoted telling the New York Post that they were prepared to stay overnight. A dozen police were originally stationed at the Watson hotel, with police remaining on-scene until around midnight as migrants were still surrounding the entrance of the hotel. The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal is a new mega shelter that can house as many as 1,000 single adult men, Mayor Eric Adams said last week. https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/crime-pmn/suicide-bomber-breaches-high-security-in-pakistan-mosque-kills-59 And now in world news… Suicide bomber breaches high security in Pakistan mosque, kills 59 A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a crowded mosque in a highly fortified security compound in Pakistan on Monday, killing 59 people, the latest attack by resurgent Islamist militants targeting police. The attacker appeared to have passed through several barricades manned by security forces to get into the “Red Zone” compound that houses police and counter-terrorism offices in the volatile northwestern city of Peshawar, police said. Many of the 170 wounded people were in critical condition. The death toll rose to 59 after several people succumbed to their wounds, hospital official Mohammad Asim said in a statement. The bombing happened a day before an International Monetary Fund mission to Islamabad to initiate talks on unlocking funding for the South Asian country’s economy, which is enduring a balance of payments crisis. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack. The bomber detonated his load at the moment hundreds of people lined up to say their prayers, officials said. “We have found traces of explosives,” Khan told reporters, adding that a security lapse had clearly occurred as the bomber had slipped through the most secured area of the compound. An inquiry was under way into how the attacker breached such an elite security cordon and whether there was any inside help. Story Real Estate: Home. It’s where you build your legacy. Where traditions are started, seeds are planted, meals are shared, and stories are told. Home is where you prepare to go out into the world. Finding the home that’s perfect for your family is a big job. Story Real Estate is Moscow’s top real estate team. They give people real estate advice all over the country. Family homes, investments, land, new construction, or commercial— they know real estate. If you’ve thought about a move to Moscow or anywhere in the country, reach out to get connected with a Story Real Estate agent. Wherever you’re going, they can help guide you Home. Visit storyrealestate.com. And now it’s time for my favorite topic.. Sports! The superbowl is all set ladies and gentleman… The Eagles started proceedings as they took on the San Francisco 49ers: San Francisco 49ers vs. Philadelphia Eagles | 2023 NFC Conference Championship Game Highlights Play 5:45-5:56 Play 6:45-6:58 Play 8:57-9:09 The Philadelphia Eagles demolished the San Francisco 49ers 31-7, as they’re headed back to the Superbowl… The AFC Championship game between the Bengals & Chiefs was much closer, and had a lot of drama…Cincinatti Bengals vs. Kansas City Chiefs | 2023 AFC Championship Game Highlights Cincinatti Bengals vs. Kansas City Chiefs | 2023 AFC Championship Game Highlights Play 5:20-5:33 Play 14:47-15:09 Play 15:33-16:33 Man do I love sports…

A new CTP announced - the first one for 2023. There is a new buzzword and it moves stocks pretty substantially. Big week ahead, earnings and the FED - coming at us at full speed. PLUS we are now on Spotify and Amazon Music/Podcasts! Click HERE for Show Notes and Links DHUnplugged is now streaming live - with listener chat. Click on link on the right sidebar. Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter Warm Up - Superbowl teams are set - Eagles and Kansas City - Big week for Earnings (big boys) and Fed rate decision (Wednesday) - People perplexed - why are multiples staying so strong with all the info at hand? - Expectations for Friday's employment report? Market Update - January ends on a good note. NAZ up about 10%, DJIA +2%, Long Bond ETF +7%, Bitcoin up 39%, Gold up 5.6% - On Above -> yields down , dollar down (exact opposite of most of 2022) - Car Companies - charging up the EV race - EuroZone surprise ECO - Interesting study on stock performance after earnings  Fed decision? -- Odds are leaning to a 0.25% increase - Thoughts? Earnings Stats - So far this earnings season, companies in the S&P 500 that MISS estimates are outperforming the S&P by 1.4% - On the flip side, those companies that have beat expectations have slightly underperformaed the S&P 500 - Per Goldman, stocks that have missed Q4 earnings estimates thus far are outperforming the S&P 500 by 140 bps the following session, performing better than stocks beating EPS, first time this has happened with data going back to 2006 - Theories? More Earnings - FVCBankcorp (FVCB) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.27 per share, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.48 per share. This compares to earnings of $0.45 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. - This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of -43.75%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this company would post earnings of $0.47 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.48, delivering a surprise of 2.13%. - Stock smoked on the news.... GM Earnings - General Motors (GM +8%) is trading higher after the automotive giant reported Q4 results this morning. GM reported big upside for both EPS and revenue. GM also guided FY23 EPS to $6.00-7.00, which was better than analyst estimates, and to FY23 adjusted EBIT of $10.5-12.5 bln. - GM also announced it will make an equity investment of up to $650 mln in Lithium Americas (LAC). The two companies will jointly invest to develop the Thacker Pass mine in Nevada, which is the largest known source of lithium in the US and the third largest in the world. Cardboard - Cardboard box demand drops to lowest level since 2008 -- Bad for Amazon? - Meanwhile International Paper (IP) up 8% SURPRISE!! The euro zone grew 0.1% in the last quarter of 2022, according to preliminary Eurostat data released Tuesday. - Expectations were for a -0.1% .... so not that far off and potential that revisions could take it down - The region has been under significant pressure in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as high food and energy costs compounded long-standing supply chain bottlenecks. - Germany was the worst in the grouping - GDP down -0.2% in 4th quarter AND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - The International Monetary Fund on Monday revised upward its global growth projections for the year, but warned that higher interest rates and Russia's invasion of Ukraine would likely still weigh on activity. - 2.9% is the updated outlook, a 0.2% increase. DOWN fro 3.4% expected back in 2022 - Much of the upgrade is probably due to CHINA reopening. Follow Up - Robo Lawyer - Last week DoNotPay CEO Joshua Browder announced that the company's AI chatbot would represent a defendant in a U.S. court, marking the first use of artificial intelligence for this purpose.

The International Monetary Fund's new projections for 2023 show GDP for the world economy growing by 3.2 percent, compared to a 1.9 percent expansion last year. The improved forecast is aided by China's scrapping of its zero-Covid policy and the fall in gas prices. Also on the programme, we report from Niger, where telecom operators have been forced to cancel a price hike after popular anger. Finally, we bid farewell to the iconic Boeing 747. 

The International Monetary Fund has projected that China's economy will grow by 5.2 percent this year.