Federal Investigators Demanded Banks Search Private Transactions for Words Like ‘MAGA,’ ‘Trump’

Cabelas Store

On Wednesday, the Republican majority on the House Judiciary Committee revealed even more drastic examples of government surveillance and breaches of privacy in the aftermath of the protest on January 6th, including the searching of Americans’ private bank transactions.

According to Fox News, the Judiciary Committee and the subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government described their latest findings in a letter obtained by Fox. The letter states that investigators ordered banks to search through their customers’ private transactions for key terms such as “MAGA” and “Trump,” while also claiming that the purchasing of “religious texts” were a sign of “extremism.”

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Banks Are Making Easy Money Off Crisis Government Program Designed to Bail Them Out

Federal Reserve

Banks are leveraging current interest rate projections to make a profit off of a program created last year designed to give access to funds for the sector amid a banking crisis, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Federal Reserve created the bank term funding program in the midst of a banking crisis started by a bank run at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in March due to fears that SVB’s collapse would spread to the rest of the industry, according to the WSJ. Struggling banks can take depreciated bonds at face value and exchange those with the Fed for one-year loans in an effort to bolster liquidity, but since the loans are tied to future interest rate expectations and interest rates are increasingly expected to drop in the near future, banks can turn a profit on the difference.

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Banks Filed at Least Six Suspicious Activity Reports Flagging Joe Biden’s Home Address, Senator Says

Banks filed at least six reports concerning Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings that flagged President Joe Biden’s home address in Delaware and raised concerns about possible criminal activity involving money laundering or human trafficking, according to a U.S. Senator who investigated the first family’s finances for years.

Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, told the Just the News, No Noise television show Thursday night that the Suspicious Activity Reports (SARS) chronicled about $12 million in transactions over several years, some of which passed through Joe Biden’s Wilmington, Del., home where he had allowed his son to stay.

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Another Major Credit Agency Downgrades Several U.S. Banks

A major U.S. credit agency cut the ratings of multiple banks following a string of credit rating cuts due to factors like higher interest rates, according to an announcement from S&P Global.

S&P Global, one of the three major U.S. credit agencies, revised its ratings down for five regional U.S. banks after reviewing their risks related to funding, liquidity and asset quality, according to a S&P Global announcement. Moody’s, another top credit agency cut its ratings for ten U.S. banks earlier this month, according to Reuters.

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Commentary: Recession Looms as Banks Collapse and the Economy Slows

The unemployment rate still remains at historic lows of 3.4 percent in April, according to the latest data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, amid other worrying signs for the U.S. economy including a continued collapse of job openings, a string of bank failure and an overall slowing Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In the survey, as the population increased by 171,000, those not in the labor force increased by 214,000 as labor participation dipped slightly by 43,000. Those who said they had a job increased by 139,000 after a 577,000 increase in March. As a result, the unemployment rate has actually ticked downward for two consecutive months from 3.6 percent in February, to 3.5 percent in March and now 3.4 percent in April.

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Russian’s Financial Markets Remain Closed, as Punitive Ukraine Sanctions Go into Effect

Russia’s financial markets remain closed Wednesday for the third day in a row as the country’s economy continues to take massive hits caused by Ukraine-related sanctions from Western countries.

The closure of the Russian exchanges is the longest since since 1998, according to Bloomberg News.

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State Department Partners with Refugee Coalition Groups Supporting Organizations with Alleged Terror Ties

Stephen Heintz and George Soros

The U.S. State Department joined an initiative to welcome Afghan refugees into the country that is sponsored by organizations supporting groups with possible ties to Palestinian terrorist organizations, a Daily Caller News Foundation review found.

Welcome.US is part of the Office of American Possibilities initiative, a project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, according to its website. The initiative’s main co-chairs include former President Barack Obama, former First Lady Michelle Obama, former President George W. Bush, former First Lady Laura Bush, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The initiative also formed a coalition composed of nonprofit leaders and organizations, former government officials, corporate leaders and public figures. Businesses, including Starbucks, Uber, Facebook, Microsoft, Walmart and Airbnb, also support the effort.

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Commentary: A $10K Bank-Snooping Threshold Would Intrude on Many Millions

Man standing at an ATM

Bowing to pressure from banks and taxpayers concerned about a proposal to require financial institutions to report to the IRS gross inflows and outflows for just about every account in the country, Democrats have attempted to quell concerns by raising the threshold. Unfortunately, even the raised threshold is still laughably low to accomplish Democrats’ stated purpose of cracking down on wealthy tax cheats.

The original proposal would have required financial institutions to report on any account (be it a checking account, savings account, stock portfolio, etc.) which handled more than $600 in inflows and outflows in a given year. Obviously, that’s just about every account.

But the new proposal isn’t much better. This time, the threshold would be set at $10,000, and exempt payroll deposits. In other words, if a given taxpayer received $20,000 in payroll deposits, they would only exceed the threshold were other deposits and spending, taken together, to exceed $30,000.

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Federal Reserve Governor Thinks Regulators Need to Tell Banks How to Deal with Climate Change

Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard believes financial regulators should tell banks how to tackle climate change as a way to monitor threats to the overall financial system, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Brainard outlined in a speech how the central bank should prepare for climate change events like flooding and wildfires, which she thinks could deliver a shock to the markets and economy.

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