Unmanned, solar-powered US space plane back after 908 days

Sat, November 12, 2022 



CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An unmanned U.S. military space plane landed early Saturday after spending a record 908 days in orbit for its sixth mission and conducting science experiments.

The solar-powered vehicle, which looks like a miniature space shuttle, landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Its previous mission lasted 780 days.

“Since the X-37B’s first launch in 2010, it has shattered records and provided our nation with an unrivaled capability to rapidly test and integrate new space technologies,” said Jim Chilton, a senior vice president for Boeing, its developer.

For the first time, the space plane hosted a service module that carried experiments for the Naval Research Laboratory, U.S. Air Force Academy and others. The module separated from the vehicle before de-orbiting to ensure a safe landing.

Among the experiments was a satellite dubbed the FalconSat-8 that was designed and built by academy cadets in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory. It was deployed in October 2021 and still remains in orbit.

Another experiment evaluated the effects of long-duration space exposure on seeds.

“This mission highlights the Space Force’s focus on collaboration in space exploration and expanding low-cost access to space for our partners, within and outside of the Department of the Air Force,” said Gen. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations.

The X-37Be has now flown over 1.3 billion miles and spent a total of 3,774 days in space.

The Associated Press

Sonic boom rips across Florida as Space Force plane X-37B returns 

OLIVIA GEORGE TAMPA BAY TIMES UPDATED NOVEMBER 13, 2022 

It was just after 5 a.m. when her house rumbled awake. Her hens squawked. Her cats scattered. Her dogs hid under the covers.

 And Nancy Planeta sat straight up in bed, wondering: What was that sound?

 People across Florida were awoken early Saturday morning to the sound of the X-37B returning to Earth after a record-breaking 908 days in orbit. 

Reports of a sonic boom were widespread, from Titusville to Tampa, as the U.S. Space Force autonomous vehicle touched down at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Brevard County at 5:22 a.m.

 Planeta, who is 52 and lives in northern Pasco County, scoured Facebook and local news sites for answers in an early morning haze. Garbage dumpster collection? Gunshots? Exercises at MacDill? Her father worked with the Air Force, she said, so once she had recovered from the initial shock, she was quick to recognize the boom as sonic. Her animals took longer to gather themselves. “They’re used to calm country life,” she said Sunday morning.

 In a statement, Boeing, which built the X-37B, said the craft has now flown more than 1.3 billion miles, spending 3,774 days in space while conducting experiments for the government and its partners. 

One experiment, in partnership with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, involved converting solar power into microwave energy. Another aimed to test the durability of certain materials exposed to space conditions to ultimately improve the precision of space environment models. 

“This mission highlights the Space Force’s focus on collaboration in space exploration and expanding low-cost access to space for our partners, within and outside of the Department of the Air Force,” U.S Space Force General and Chief of Space Operations Chance Saltzman said in a statement. 

The X-37B was developed by NASA as a test-bed for future spacecraft. Today, it is jointly operated by the Space Force and the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. The U.S. Space Force is thought to own two X-37B vehicles, which measure 29 feet from nose to tail, falling somewhere between a pickup truck and a school bus in length. 

The X-37B launched into orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on May 17, 2020, when Donald Trump was president — about two months after the World Heath Organization had declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

 Its sixth mission was four months longer than any previous X-37B flight. “This return further underscores the capabilities of Space Florida’s Launch and Landing Facility that are ideal for both Department of Defense and commercial missions alike,” Frank DiBello, president and CEO of Space Florida, the state’s aerospace finance and development authority, said in a statement. 

In Bithlo, located in Orange County about 30 miles west of the Kennedy Space Center, Carlos and Johana Alfonso captured the boom on their doorbell camera. “The walls shook, the glass shook, the whole house shook,” said Johana, 55. They ventured outside after being jolted awake and said a strange, sulfur-smelling fog hung in the air. 

On the Gulf Coast, Peter Anderson also woke to the strange sound rumbling through the still-dark sky. “Was I imagining it?” the 37-year-old Sarasota resident recalled thinking. Unable to fall back asleep, he said he pulled out his phone, opened Twitter and scrolled through online chatter about the X-37B. He follows space developments loosely, so had heard of the plane, but had no idea its nearly 30-month-long orbit was coming to a close. “It would be nice if we were made aware of these things,” he said

 ©2022 Tampa Bay Times. Visit tampabay.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

'The Metaverse will be our slow death': Meta employees hit out at Mark Zuckerberg in Blind reviews


Jyoti Mann
Sat, November 12, 2022 

Mark Zuckerberg apologized on Wednesday for making 11,000 job cuts.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Meta employees are posting negative comments about Mark Zuckerberg on anonymous forum Blind.


A software developer said Meta's CEO will "single-handedly kill" the company with the metaverse.


The reviews were posted on the day that Meta axed 13% of its workforce and on the following day.

Meta employees are taking aim at Mark Zuckerberg in employee reviews on Blind, the anonymous forum.

Some reviews, posted on Wednesday – the day Meta laid off 13% of its workforce – are negative, although others are more positive. One user likened the layoffs to the "hunger games" and another said the Facebook owner had an "uncertain future."

Insider surveyed the workplace community app, where staff can air their grievances in posts and reviews, to see what was being said about Meta and its CEO. Some 44 employee reviews of Meta were posted on Blind on Wednesday and Thursday this week.

"The Metaverse will be our slow death," one user, who called themselves a senior software developer, posted on Wednesday. They added: "Mark Zuckerberg will single-handedly kill a company with the meta-verse."

Zuckerberg apologized to staff for the need to cut 11,000 jobs, admitting that he "got this wrong".

Blind users must provide their work email email address, job title and employer when joining the platform so the company can "gauge the professional status" of posters, according to its website.

A user's employment is not officially verified, however. Blind said it occasionally sent prompts to users to "re-verify" their accounts.

Rick Chen, head of public relations at Blind, told Insider: "Nearly all of the reviews posted have been written by current employees of the respective companies at the time of writing, as people generally cannot access Blind after they are laid off or resign."

He added: "The loss of access after an employment change is not immediate."

Meta employees have posted almost 6,000 reviews of the company on Blind since 2020 and it has a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.

A self-described engineer, who gave the company five stars, listed "extremely smart and talented coworkers" as well as "great culture" in a list of "pros". Posting on the day the layoffs were made, they added that "Zuck is leading this company in the wrong direction" in their list of "cons".

A user who says they are a data scientist said Meta is in "need of layoffs in executive level," adding: "Leadership is having no clue, they mistake motion for a progress."

One person, who said they worked in talent acquisition, gave Meta a four-star rating on Wednesday. They said it was an "overall great place to experience" adding that "Mark is not afraid to take risks (which is a good and bad thing)."

A poster, who says they are a senior technical program manager, wrote on Thursday: "Poor leadership is on track to sink this ship." They went on to list "good pay" perks, benefits and talented peers as "pros". The "cons" included: "No accountability at and above Director level. VPs and Directors are here to just milk the company without adding any value."

They added: "I thought it was a data-driven company but actually it is one man's gut feeling and emotions-driven. Nobody can overwrite his decision."

Not all Meta employees share the negative view of Zuckerberg, however. One former staff member who was laid off Wednesday told Insider that they felt the CEO handled the layoffs "with humanity".

Another engineer gave the company just one star on Wednesday and described the mass cuts as the "worst layoff in history." They said: "With the layoff, I wouldn't recommend anyone to work there until the stock price fully recovers."

Meta did not respond to a request for comment from Insider.

The $24 Trillion Treasury World Suddenly Looks Less Dangerous

Liz Capo McCormick and Anchalee Worrachate
Sat, November 12, 2022 

(Bloomberg) -- The historic bond selloff has wreaked havoc across global markets all year, while fueling a crisis of confidence in everything from the 60-40 portfolio complex to the world of Big Tech investing.

Now, heading into a possible economic downturn, the near-$24 trillion Treasury market is looking less dangerous all of a sudden.

The latest US consumer price data suggest inflation may be cooling at long last, driving investors back to the asset class in droves on Thursday as traders pared bets on the Federal Reserve’s hawkishness. Another reason why this once-reliable safe haven appears safer than it has in a while: Even rising interest rates have less power to crush bond portfolios like they have over the past two years.

Just look at duration, which measures the sensitivity of bond prices to changes in yields. It’s a tried-and-tested gauge of risk and reward that guides all flavors of fixed-income investing -- and it’s fallen sharply this year.

With the Fed’s aggressive policy-tightening campaign this year pushing Treasury yields to around decade-highs, the margin of safety for anyone buying US debt right now has improved notably compared with the low-rate era, before the bull market collapsed in the inflationary aftermath of the pandemic.

Thanks to higher yields and coupon payments, simple bond math shows duration risk is lower, meaning a fresh selloff from here would inflict less pain for money managers. That’s a merciful prospect after two years of gut-wrenching losses on a scale largely unseen in the modern Wall Street era.

“Bonds are getting a bit less risky,” said Christian Mueller-Glissmann, head of asset allocation strategy at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., who shifted from underweight positions in bonds to neutral at the end of September. “The total volatility of bonds is likely to fall because you don’t have the same amount of duration, and that’s healthy. Net-net, bonds are becoming more investible.”

Consider the two-year Treasury note. Its yield would need to rise a whopping 233 basis points from before holders would actually incur a total-return loss over the coming year, primarily thanks to the cushion provided by beefy interest payments, according to analysis conducted by Bloomberg Intelligence strategist Ira Jersey.

With higher yields, the amount an investor is compensated for each unit of duration risk has risen. And it’s increased the bar before a further rise in yields creates a capital loss. Higher coupon payments and shorter maturities can also serve to reduce interest-rate risk.

“The simple bond math of yields going up brings duration down,” said Dave Plecha, global head of fixed income at Dimensional Fund Advisors.

And take the Sherman ratio, an alternative measure of interest-rate risk named after DoubleLine Capital Deputy Chief Investment Officer Jeffrey Sherman. On the Bloomberg USAgg Index, it’s increased from 0.25 a year ago to 0.76 today. That means it would take an 76 basis-point rise in interest rates over one year to offset the yield of a bond. A year ago it would have taken just 25 basis points -- equivalent to a single regular-sized hike from the Fed.

All told a key measure of duration on the Bloomberg US Treasury index, which tracks roughly $10 trillion, has fallen from a record 7.4 to 6.1. That’s the least since around 2019. While a 50 basis-point rise in yields inflicted a more than $350 billion loss at the end of last year, today that same hit is a more modest $300 billion.

That’s far from the all-clear, but it does reduce the downside risk for those wading back into Treasuries attracted to the income -- and the prospect that lower inflation or slowing growth will increase bond prices ahead.

After all, cooling US consumer prices for October offer hope that the biggest inflation shock in decades is easing, in what would be a welcome prospect for the US central bank when it meets next month to deliver a likely 50 basis-point increase in benchmark rates.

Two-year Treasury yields surged this month to as high as 4.8% -- the most since 2007 -- yet plunged 25 basis points Thursday on the CPI report. The 10-year note yield, which now hovers around 3.81%, up from 1.51% at the end of 2021, also slid 35 basis points over the past week, which was shortened due to Friday’s Veteran’s Day holiday.

The counterpoint is that buying bonds is far from a slam-dunk trade given the continued uncertainty over the inflation trajectory while the Fed is threatening further aggressive rate increases. But the math does suggests investors are now somewhat better compensated for the risks across the curve. That, along with the darkening economic backdrop, is giving some managers the conviction to slowly rebuild their exposures from multi-year lows.

“We’ve been covering duration underweights,” said Iain Stealey, CIO for fixed income at JPMorgan Asset Management. “I don’t think we are completely out of the woods yet, but we are definitely closer to the peak in yields. We are significantly less underweight than we were.”

And of course the recent rally suggests an asset class that’s fallen sharply out of favor over the past two years is finally turning the corner.

The defining narrative of 2023 will be “a worsening labor market, a low growth environment and moderating wages,” BMO strategist Benjamin Jeffery said on the firm’s Macro Horizons podcast. “All of that will reinforce this safe-haven dip-buying that we argue has started to materialize over the past few weeks.” 

Global debt levels rose 'substantially' in 2021 - World Bank's Malpass

Andrea Shalal
Sat, November 12, 2022

World Bank President David Malpass holds a news conference at the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Debt levels among low- and middle-income countries rose sharply in 2021, with China accounting for 66% of lending by official bilateral creditors, World Bank President David Malpass said, underscoring the need to reduce the debt of poorer countries.

The World Bank's annual report on global debt statistics, due out next month, makes clear that private sector creditors also needed to participate in debt reductions, Malpass told Reuters in an interview on Friday.

The Group of 20 major economies and the Paris Club of official creditors created a common framework for debt treatments in late 2020 to help countries weather the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, but its implementation has been halting.

The creditors of Chad reached the first agreement negotiated under the framework this week, but it leaves the country's longer-term debt sustainability in question because it does not include actual debt reduction, Malpass warned on Friday.

The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and Western officials have become increasingly vocal about their frustration with China, now the world's biggest official bilateral creditor, and private sector lenders for not moving forward more quickly.

Preliminary data released by the World Bank in June showed the external debt stock of low- and middle-income countries rose, on average, 6.9% in 2021 to $9.3 trillion, outpacing the 5.3% growth seen in 2020.

Malpass said the bank's forthcoming International Debt Statistics report was troubling, but gave no specific numbers.

"It shows that the amount of debt grew substantially ... and the amount owed to China is some 66% of the total for the official bilateral creditors," he said, adding that Chinese entities were also big commercial creditors.

"The report makes clear that debt reduction needs to extend broadly to include the private sector and China," Malpass said, adding that the overall debt issue would be a big topic at the upcoming meeting of G20 leaders.

"There will be a recognition of the severity of the problem," Malpass said, although he said there had been "little uptake" of his push for an immediate freeze in debt payments when countries sought relief under the G20 common framework and other reforms aimed at speeding up debt restructuring efforts.

IMF and World Bank officials say 25% of emerging market and developing economies are in or near debt distress, and the number rises to 60% for low- and middle-income countries. Climate shocks, interest rate increases and inflation had heightened pressures on economies still recovering from COVID.

Malpass said China had been a reluctant player in the slow-moving process to date. "They're mostly an observer," he said.

Malpass also called for faster work on a debt restructuring for Zambia, which first requested help under the common framework in early 2021.

"There's an urgency to getting it done so that the debt reduction can occur and Zambia can begin attracting the new investment that's needed," he said.

For both Chad and Zambia, it was critical to speed up the process and enact real debt reductions, he said. "The longer the process goes on, the harder it is for the for the country and the people in the country to get back on their feet."

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Editing by Franklin Paul)

CRIMINAL CRYPTO CAPITALI$M
EXPLAINER: What's happening at bankrupt crypto exchange FTX?


Sun, November 13, 2022 

The imploding cryptocurrency trading firm FTX is now short billions of dollars after experiencing the crypto equivalent of a bank run.

The exchange, formerly one of the world's largest, sought bankruptcy protection last week, and its CEO and founder resigned. Hours later, the trading firm said there had been “unauthorized access” and that funds had disappeared. Analysts say hundreds of millions of dollars may have vanished.

The unraveling of the once-giant exchange is sending shockwaves through the industry. Here's a look at the company's collapse so far:

WHY DID FTX GO BANKRUPT?

Customers fled the exchange over fears about whether FTX had sufficient capital, and it agreed to sell itself to rival crypto exchange Binance. But the deal fell through pending Binance’s due diligence on FTX’s balance sheet.

FTX had valued its assets between $10 billion to $50 billion, and listed more than 130 affiliated companies around the world, according to its bankruptcy filing.

FTX and dozens of affiliated companies — including CEO Sam Bankman-Fried's hedge fund, Alameda Research — filed the bankruptcy petition in Delaware on Friday.

This week’s developments marked a shocking turn of events for Bankman-Fried, who was hailed as somewhat of a savior earlier this year when he helped shore up a number of cryptocurrency companies that ran into financial trouble. He was recently estimated to be worth $23 billion and has been a prominent political donor to Democrats.

WAS IT HACKED, TOO?

FTX confirmed Saturday there had been unauthorized access to its accounts, hours after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

A debate formed on social media about whether the exchange was hacked or a company insider had stolen funds — a possibility that cryptocurrency analysts couldn’t rule out.

Exactly how much money is involved is unclear, but analytics firm Elliptic estimated Saturday that $477 million was missing from the exchange. FTX's new CEO John Ray III said it was switching off the ability to trade or withdraw funds and taking steps to secure customers’ assets.

IS FTX UNDER INVESTIGATION?

The Royal Bahamas Police Force said Sunday it is investigating FTX, adding to the company’s woes. The police force said in a statement Sunday it was working with Bahamas securities regulators to “investigate if any criminal misconduct occurred” involving the exchange, which had moved its headquarters to the Caribbean country last year.

IS ANYONE ELSE INVESTIGATING?

Even before the bankruptcy filing and missing funds, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission began examining FTX to determine whether any criminal activity or securities offenses were committed, according to a person familiar with matter who spoke to The Associated Press last week on condition of anonymity because they could not discuss details of the investigations publicly.

WHAT ARE THE REPERCUSSIONS?

Companies that backed FTX are writing down investments, and the prices of bitcoin and other digital currencies have been falling. Politicians and regulators are calling for stricter oversight of the unwieldy industry. FTX said Saturday that it was moving as many digital assets as can be identified to a new “cold wallet custodian,” which is essentially a way of storing assets offline without allowing remote control.

The Associated Press

FTX saga unravels more after the crypto exchange's bankruptcy filing

FTX collapse is ‘slow-motion train wreck running into a dumpster fire full of black swans’: Analyst

David Hollerith
·Senior Reporter
Sun, November 13, 2022 

The bankruptcy filing of crypto exchange FTX on Friday did not stop the chaos surrounding the once prominent and trusted crypto trading venue.

Since the filing that included 135 affiliated companies, millions of dollars in crypto have been stolen from the company, which is facing a shortfall between $6 billion and $10 billion. Bahamian officials are also probing the matter.

“I don’t think it's an understatement to predict that the FTX bankruptcy will be the most complex in U.S. history," Caitlin Long, founder and CEO of Custodia Bank, told Yahoo Finance Live. "These were leveraged players who were just rolling the dice. This was a casino. Good riddance to them."

From Friday to Sunday, the global market capitalization for crypto assets is down 3% from $856 billion to $831 billion. Since November 1, it has fallen by 18% from a little over $1 trillion, according to Coinmarketcap.

Here's what's unfolded over the weekend.

FTX logo with crypto coins with 100 Dollar bill are displayed for illustration. FTX has filed for bankruptcy in the US, seeking court protection as it looks for a way to return money to users. 

(Photo illustration by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Friday’s FTX heist

On Friday night, approximately $663 million in crypto mysteriously flowed out of wallets linked to the now bankrupt exchange.

John Jay Ray III, the new chief restructuring officer and CEO who was appointed less than 24 hours before, said in a statement Saturday morning: “Unauthorized access to certain assets has occurred.”

Of the total outflow, about $477 million is estimated to have been stolen, while the remaining has been moved to cold storage by FTX for safeguarding, according to blockchain analytics firm, Elliptic.

“Process was expedited this evening - to mitigate damage upon observing unauthorized transactions,” FTX US's general counsel, Ryne Miller, said on Twitter.

FTX declined to comment further on the matter.



Meanwhile, the thief has been identified trying to transfer and sell funds through U.S.-based crypto exchange Kraken, the company’s chief security officer said Saturday.

“We are committed to working with law enforcement to ensure they have everything they need to sufficiently investigate this matter,” Kraken said.

How much of those stolen funds will be returned matter. The Financial Times reported that FTX held approximately $900 million in liquid crypto and $5.4 in illiquid venture capital investments against $9 billion in liabilities the day before it filed for bankruptcy.

FTX in the Bahamas

The Bahamas security regulator froze assets of FTX Digital Markets Thursday. On Saturday, the regulator announced FTX had begun processing withdrawals of Bahamian funds for which had not been authorized.

On Sunday, the Bahamian police have also gave a statement declaring they are working with the country's securities regulator to probe FTX for criminal misconduct.

A person familiar with the matter confirmed with Yahoo Finance that Bahamian law enforcement "are forcing [Sam Bankman-Fried] to stay in the Bahamas" as of Saturday night. This followed speculation that Bankman-Fried and the company's other top executives — chief technology officer Gary Wang and head of engineering Nishad Singh — were attempting to flee.

Under Chapter 11

FTX will deal with the same “big legal question” as crypto lenders Celsius Network and Voyager, Greg Plotko, a legal partner with Crowell & Moring, told Yahoo Finance. That's whether crypto held in customer accounts belongs to the customers themselves or the bankruptcy estate.

Unlike Celsius and Voyager, where the line of ownership was less clear, the terms of service on FTX.com states to customers that “none of the Digital Assets in your Account are the property of, or shall or may be loaned to, FTX Trading.”

“There’s also almost certainly massive amounts of criminal fraud that led to this scenario and as a result, we can expect this will be a very messy public trial that will lead to bad publicity and regulatory backlash for the [crypto] industry,” Haseeb Quershi, a managing partner with venture firm, DragonFly Capital, told Yahoo Finance.

Like Quershi's firm Dragonfly, several larger name crypto hedge funds and market makers have assets trapped on FTX, including Galaxy Digital, Multicoin Capital, Jump Trading, Wintermute, and Galois Capital.

"When you have these situations, there are a lot of institutions that want to exit their positions. They don't want to be stuck in a bankruptcy for two years, waiting for payouts," Plotko said. There's already a lot of holes as to where all the money went. Institutions and individuals may want to sell out."

FTX's bid for Voyager Digital's assets is over

In September, bankrupt crypto lender Voyager announced that FTX through its U.S. subsidiary (FTX US) had made the winning bid for its assets. But that "$1.4 billion offer to buy customer accounts of Voyager Digital is now in serious jeopardy," Jason DiBattista, head of legal analysis with LevFin Insights, told Yahoo Finance.

Voyager Digital has reopened the bidding process for its assets, according to a press release Friday from its unsecured creditors committee.

At the time of FTX’s bankruptcy filing, Voyager held approximately $3 million worth of crypto tokens it is unable to withdraw.
BlockFi?

Crypto lender BlockFi has also gone silent since officially announcing a freeze on customer withdrawals Thursday night. Since then, a number of customers have noted their BlockFi credit cards no longer work.

While BlockFi isn't included in the FTX Chapter 11 filing, the firm is expected to be a major creditor after it took an emergency $400 million line of credit from FTX in late June.

As recently as Monday, BlockFi attempted to relaunch its yield product. On Tuesday, COO Flori Marquez announced the firm was "fully operational." BlockFi did not respond to comments on its status through the weekend.

FTX Faces Criminal Misconduct Probe by Bahamas Authorities

Katanga Johnson
Sun, November 13, 2022



(Bloomberg) -- The Bahamian police said they’re working with the Bahamas Securities Commission to investigate whether there was any criminal misconduct in the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX.

“In light of the collapse of FTX globally and the provisional liquidation of FTX Digital Markets Ltd., a team of financial investigators from the Financial Crimes Investigation Branch are working closely with the Bahamas Securities Commission to investigate if any criminal misconduct occurred,” a police spokesperson said in a statement Sunday. FTX is registered in the Bahamas.

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried was interviewed by Bahamian police and regulators on Saturday, according to a person familiar with the matter. In the Bahamas, law-enforcement inquiries don’t necessarily mean someone will be arrested or charged with a crime.

On Friday, more than 130 entities tied to FTX.com, FTX US and trading firm Alameda Research Ltd. were listed in bankruptcy filings at federal court in Delaware. Bankman-Fried resigned as chief executive officer of FTX Group as part of the filing.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Bankman-Fried for potential violations of securities rules as the regulator deepens its probe into his crumbling FTX crypto empire, a person familiar with the matter said last week. The Justice Department is also looking into the situation.

Funds vanish at bankrupt crypto exchange FTX; probe underway

Sat, November 12, 2022 



NEW YORK (AP) — Collapsed cryptocurrency trading firm FTX confirmed there was “unauthorized access” to its accounts, hours after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Friday.

The embattled company’s new CEO John Ray III said Saturday that FTX is switching off the ability to trade or withdraw funds and taking steps to secure customers’ assets, according to a tweet by FTX’s general counsel Ryne Miller. FTX is also coordinating with law enforcement and regulators, the company said.

Exactly how much money is involved is unclear, but analytics firm Elliptic estimated Saturday that $477 million was missing from the exchange. Another $186 million was moved out of FTX’s accounts, but that may have been FTX moving assets to storage, said Elliptic’s co-founder and chief scientist Tom Robinson.

A debate formed on social media about whether the exchange was hacked or a company insider had stolen funds, a possibility that cryptocurrency analysts couldn’t rule out.

Until recently, FTX was one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. It was already short billions of dollars when it sought bankruptcy protection Friday and its former CEO and founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, resigned.

The company had valued its assets between $10 billion to $50 billion, and listed more than 130 affiliated companies around the world, according to its bankruptcy filing.

The unraveling of the once-giant exchange is sending shockwaves through the industry, with companies that backed FTX writing down investments and the prices of bitcoin and other digital currencies falling. Politicians and regulators are calling for stricter oversight of the unwieldy industry. Experts say the saga is still unfolding.

“We’ll have to wait and see what the fallout is, but I think we are going to see more dominoes falling and an awful lot of people stand to lose their money and their savings,” said Frances Coppola, an independent financial and economic commentator. “And that is just tragic, really.”

The timing and the extent of access that the assumed hacker appeared to achieve, siphoning money from multiple parts of the company, led Coppola and other analysts to theorize that it could have been an inside job.

FTX said Saturday that it’s moving as many digital assets as can be identified to a new “cold wallet custodian,” which is essentially a way of storing assets offline without allowing remote control.

“It does look as if the liquidators didn’t act fast enough to stop some kind of siphoning off of funds from FTX after it filed for bankruptcy, and that’s bad, but it just shows how complex this thing is,” Coppola said.

Initially, some people were hoping that perhaps all the missing funds were liquidators or bankruptcy administrators trying to move assets to a more secure spot. But it would be unusual for that to happen on a Friday night, said Molly White, cryptocurrency researcher and fellow with the Library Innovation Lab at Harvard University.

“It looked very different from what a liquidator might do if they were trying to secure the funds,” she said.

White also said there are signs of possible insider involvement. “It seems unlikely that someone who is not an insider could have pulled off such a massive hack with so much access to FTX systems.”

The collapse of FTX highlights the need for cryptocurrency to be regulated more like traditional finance, Coppola said.

“Cyrpto isn’t in the very early stages anymore,” she said. “We’ve got ordinary people putting their life savings into it.”

Cathy Bussewitz, The Associated Press

Bankman-Fried: From Crypto King to King of Tech Bubble’s Losers

Emily Nicolle and Katie Greifeld
Sat, November 12, 2022 





(Bloomberg) -- Few could have anticipated the sudden collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s multibillion-dollar crypto empire.

Yet for all the twists, revelations and anguished Twitter threads, it’s a fall from grace with an unmistakable ring of familiarity.

A week that began with two crypto CEOs tweeting barbs ended with the bankruptcy of FTX, one of the largest and most prominent crypto exchanges, along with around 130 other companies that it owned. The business had been trying to cover a shortfall of as much as $8 billion, with the specifics of its failure -- now subject to multiple investigations -- yet to be revealed.

This much is clear: an intoxicating brew of easy money, wishful thinking and hyped innovation contributed to an implosion that while spectacular was also nothing new when considered next to scandals like Enron, WorldCom and Lehman Brothers before it. The particulars differ, but common to each were hubris, regulatory weakness and the realities of an economic cycle with plenty of precedent.

“We’ve had an industry that was really built primarily on FOMO and easy money, and now that governments around the world are raising interest rates and that restricts easy money, you’re just surviving on FOMO,” said Hilary Allen, a law professor at American University in Washington. “It’s not as appealing anymore.”

While blame is in no short supply, the arc of the FTX’s fortunes can also be seen as a garden-variety consequence of Federal Reserve policy. FTX, along with crypto itself and a host of other market gimmicks, from meme stocks to stay-at-home tech fads and special purpose acquisition companies, flourished as the Covid-19 pandemic spurred the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates to zero and leave them there for two years.

Now, up against the Fed’s most aggressive tightening cycle in four decades, shaky empires are evaporating as fast as the liquidity that propped them up. FTX’s demise is a calamity, to be sure, unique in many respects, in which billions of dollars in paper wealth and trading profits are likely to be torched. But the failure of FTX is far less extraordinary when considered next to 11 months of wreckage in technology stocks and centuries of asset-bubble history.

FTX’s scandal has notable parallels with what befell Enron. Both were led by messianic figures in Bankman-Fried and Jeff Skilling who dazzled faithful with feats of technical wizardry. Both bathed in near-universal adoration from the press and the financial establishment. Both also seem to have made basic financial mistakes in trying to keep the party going. The crypto empire reportedly allowed its balance sheet to rest precariously on a token tied to its own fortunes, hearkening to Enron’s use of its own stock to prop up its financing structures.

In the end, a doomed hope that rising markets would hide mismanagement or outright fraud became the epitaph of a once-flourishing enterprise. When Bankman-Fried stepped down from his position as CEO of FTX.com Friday, his replacement was John J. Ray III -- the former chairman and president of Enron left to pick up the pieces of its bust in the early 2000s.

The boom-overbuild-bust cycle looks familiar to Bokeh Capital Partners Chief Investment Officer Kim Forrest. It’s happening in the whole economy at the moment, but the tech industry is the posterchild, she said. Where is crypto in that metaphor? “Ground zero.”

“I was a software engineer in the late 90s, I saw the excesses, ‘wow they’re hiring way too many people,’” Forrest said. “These companies had not been productive in hiring too much, not getting enough output and not showing the return of capital.”

For its own part, FTX had raised around $4 billion in funding across its network of affiliated companies, which included Alameda Research, a trading house co-founded by Bankman-Fried, FTX Ventures and a separate exchange for American investors.

While more spectacular, FTX’s collapse shares storylines with much that has gone amiss in markets and the technology space in the pandemic era. Besides its obvious resemblance to fellow crypto casualties Three Arrows Capital, the Terra ecosystem and Celsius Network, its demise was fueled by complacency and belief in its own genius that bears hallmarks of the crises afflicting Meta Inc. and Twitter Inc. at present.

As far as bubbles go, few were as enthusiastically foretold as this one. Along with meme stocks, the crypto craze has been ridiculed by securities industry veterans almost since the moment it began, with the pitch of the critique growing along with the price of Bitcoin in 2020. Charlie Munger once said he admired the Chinese for banning it, while Black Swan author Nassim Nicholas Taleb likened Bitcoin to a “tumor.”

They came off as cranks then. Now those predictions are coming true as the Fed tightens the screws. Meme stocks are little more than a sideshow, save for the occasional pop in the likes of AMC Entertainment Holdings and GameStop Corp. Highly speculative growth shares have crumbled, dragging Cathie Wood’s Ark Innovation exchange-traded fund -- one of the highest-fliers of the pandemic era -- to its lowest level since 2020.

A bull market masks a lot of sins, only to be laid bare by a turn of the cycle. History is littered with such examples, perhaps none more famous than the demise of Bernard Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme, which hummed along for at least 15 years before plunging equity markets in 2008 led clients to seek more withdrawals than he could accommodate.

“You need to have a degree of volatility in financial markets because that will prevent overlevering and taking advantage of the system,” said Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at Jonestrading. “Madoff was only exposed because of the global financial crisis.”

Even with regulation seemingly on the horizon for the crypto industry, the off-shore location of many crypto firms (FTX included) has left authorities like the Securities and Exchange Commission with their hands tied. Hester M. Peirce, an SEC Commissioner, said that questions around lack of jurisdictional clarity are “partly our fault” given investors and businesses had asked the watchdog “time and time again to provide more clarity about where our jurisdiction lies and we’ve not done so.”

As a result, the financial playground that is crypto has been allowed to flourish with limited oversight. “There isn’t a holistic digital asset regime that is accepted globally, and that that creates massive opportunities,” said Jay Wilson, investment director at London-based venture capital firm AlbionVC.

The cost is clear to Bokeh’s Forrest: this will happen again. The players and details will be different, she said, but human psychology will be the same.

“People don’t change. People just don’t change,” Forrest said. “As much as we’d like to think we learn from the past -- we may learn not to invest in WorldCom, but we don’t know to not look for another one.”

Crypto Markets Take a Breather as FTX Heist Unfurls


Emily Nicolle
Sat, November 12, 2022 




(Bloomberg) -- Prices across cryptoassets were broadly flat on Saturday, as traders weighed their next move following a market selloff in the wake of failed crypto exchange FTX.com’s plunge into bankruptcy.

The two largest tokens by value, Bitcoin and Ether, were largely unchanged at 5 p.m. New York time at around $16,800 and $1,260, respectively, after steep declines during the week. One standout on the upside was Dogecoin, which jumped more than 10% after Tesla boss Elon Musk touted the coin on a Twitter Spaces conversation.

Among losers, Solana and Serum -- two coins tied to the Solana blockchain, which was backed by Bankman-Fried -- sagged 5% and 9%, respectively, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and CoinMarketCap. The Financial Times reported Saturday that the biggest asset on FTX’s balance sheet just before it filed for bankruptcy was $2.2 billion worth of Serum, a token used on the decentralized derivatives exchange of the same name, which was co-founded by Bankman-Fried and runs on Solana.

Notably, the crypto market’s convulsions have largely been contained within the digital-asset realm. Even Bitcoin has managed to hold up better than some analysts might have expected given the circumstances.

“Bitcoin’s price has been illogically stable in recent weeks given volatility in other markets,” said analysts at Morgan Stanley in a note on Friday. “We are in the midst of another deleveraging event in the crypto ecosystem and it is so far having limited spillover to broader equity markets beyond sentiment, as crypto institutions lent to each other.”

FTX, one of the industry’s largest crypto trading platforms, filed for bankruptcy on Friday after a week of rescue talks, token turmoil and the launch of several US investigations. The exchange appeared to suffer a heist in the early hours of Saturday, in which $473 million in tokens were stolen and others moved for safekeeping.

Altcoin Solana, an ecosystem partly backed by FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, was down almost 3%, continuing its steady decline following his empire’s collapse. The token made up a significant amount of holdings by Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research, according to Riyad Carey, a research analyst at Kaiko.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley pointed to $12,500 as the next support level for Bitcoin, marking it as the token’s high in the third quarter of 2020.

Stablecoins maintained their 1-to-1 values with the US dollar, despite a brief de-peg for Tether’s USDT on Thursday. Trading was halted for GeminiUSD, a stablecoin issued by crypto exchange Gemini, on Coinbase on Saturday morning following an outsize move that pushed its price as high as $1.68 on that exchange alone. A statement by Coinbase on its status page said teams were investigating the issue.

FTX Latest: Dim Picture for Customers; Criminal Probe Possible

Sunil Jagtiani and Joanna Ossinger
Sun, November 13, 2022 

FTX Latest: Dim Picture for Customers; Criminal Probe Possible


(Bloomberg) -- For customers of FTX, there appears to be little chance of recovering much of their deposits from the collapsed crypto exchange.

The value of FTX’s key crypto assets has plummeted since Sam Bankman-Fried’s exchange filed for bankruptcy, while an estimated $477 million vanished in unauthorized withdrawals, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.

FTX Trading International held just $900 million in liquid assets on Thursday -- the day before it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy -- against $9 billion of liabilities, according to sources familiar with the matter who viewed a limited version of a balance sheet. The sheet also referenced a negative $8 billion of a “hidden, poorly internally labeled” fiat currency account and noted $5 billion of withdrawals by users last week.

The Bahamian police are working with the Bahamas Securities Commission to investigate whether there was any criminal misconduct in FTX’s collapse. Bankman-Fried was questioned by Bahamian police and regulators Saturday, according to a person familiar with the matter.

(All time references are New York)

FTX’s Serum Project Is in Distress (1:05 p.m.)

Tokens issued by Serum, a liquidity infrastructure hub built by FTX and used by market makers and lending protocols on Solana, tumbled more than 23% on Sunday alone, pricing data from CoinGecko showed. FTX owned more than $2.2 billion worth of the token as of Thursday, the Financial Times reported, citing investor materials.

Developers attached to Serum split off the project’s code in a so-called fork amid concern that an upgrade key controlling the program could be compromised, a Solana spokesperson said.

Galois Confirms $40 Million Exposure (12:26 p.m.)

Crypto hedge fund Galois Capital is the latest company to confirm its exposure to the collapsed FTX cryptocurrency exchange. In a direct message to Bloomberg News, Galois said its exposure was between $40 million to $45 million. On Friday, Galois said on Twitter that it had “significant” funds in FTX. Galois was an early critic of the now failed Terra blockchain and its TerraUSD algorithmic stablecoin.

Bahamian Police Look Into Criminal Probe (11:53 a.m.)

A team from the Financial Crimes Investigation Branch is working with the Bahamas Securities Commission to investigate if any criminal misconduct occurred in the collapse of FTX.

Solana Slide Deepens; Bitcoin and Ether Stable (8:30 a.m.)

A three-day decline for crypto altcoin Solana deepened on Sunday, as developers considered spinning off one of the blockchain network’s most prominent and FTX-affiliated project. Solana fell as much as 14% to $12.86 as of 1:30 p.m. in London. Crypto bellwethers Bitcoin and Ether have lost a little over 1% each in the last 24 hours.

Other altcoins including Polkadot, Avalanche and Tron, typically more volatile than larger cryptocurrencies due to lower liquidity levels, lost between 1.7% and 5.4%.

Binance Stops Deposits of FTX’s Token FTT (3:30 a.m. Sunday)

Binance halted deposits of FTT, FTX’s token, “to prevent potential of questionable additional supplies affecting the market,” Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said on Twitter. Zhao said that he would encourage other exchanges to do the same thing. Justin Sun said Huobi Global would echo Zhao’s advice.

Zhao added that FTT contract deployers moved all remaining FTT supplies worth $400 million, “which should be unlocked in batches.” Binance followed up to say it had noticed a “suspicious movement” of a large amount of FTT by the token’s contract deployers.

Matrixport Says 79 Clients Affected by FTX, ‘No Risk of Insolvency’ (11:38 p.m. Saturday)

Crypto financial-services platform Matrixport “continues to operate normally and the company has no risk of insolvency with respect to the developments at FTX and Alameda,” according to Ross Gan, head of public relations.

Matrixport had 79 clients that incurred losses via exposure to three products on its platform that were linked to FTX, Gan said.

Kraken Freezes Accounts Possibly Related to FTX (11:33 p.m.)

Crypto exchange Kraken said it has frozen Kraken account access to certain funds it suspects to be associated with “fraud, negligence or misconduct” related to FTX. Kraken said in a tweet it’s in contact with law enforcement and plans to resolve each account on a case-by-case basis.

Bankman-Fried Interviewed by Police in Bahamas (9:42 p.m.)

Former crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried was interviewed by Bahamian police and regulators on Saturday, according to a person familiar with the matter. Bankman-Fried didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The inquiries from Bahamian authorities add to the mounting legal pressure that Bankman-Fried is facing since his FTX empire crumbled over the past week. In the US, he is facing scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission over whether he broke securities rules.

Bahamas Says it Didn’t Authorize Local Withdrawals by FTX Exchange (9 p.m.)

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX’s move to allow withdrawals in the Bahamas was questioned by the nation’s securities regulator.

The Securities Commission of the Bahamas in a statement Saturday said that it hadn’t “directed, authorized or suggested” the prioritization of local withdrawals to FTX Digital Markets Ltd.

It added that such withdrawals could be clawed back.

Jump Crypto Says It Remains Well Capitalized After FTX Exposure (5:59 p.m.)

Jump Crypto, a cryptocurrency trading firm, told customers on Saturday it remains “well capitalized” after exposure to FTX. In a series of tweets, Jump said its exposure was “managed in accordance with our risk framework.” The company did not specify the exact nature of its exposure.

FTX to Seek Enforcement Aid on Unauthorized Withdrawals (1:46 p.m.)

FTX is launching an investigation with law enforcement into unauthorized withdrawals from some of its crypto wallets, a company executive said. The company, which filed for bankruptcy this week, said it is cooperating and coordinating with “law enforcement and relevant regulators.”

Liabilities Dwarfed Liquid Assets: FT (1:13 p.m.)

FTX Trading held $900 million in liquid assets against $9 billion of liabilities the day before the bankruptcy filing, the Financial Times reported, citing investment materials and a spreadsheet the newspaper had seen. Most of the recorded assets are either illiquid venture capital investments or crypto tokens that are not widely traded. The biggest asset as of Thursday was listed as $2.2 billion worth of a cryptocurrency called Serum.

(Recasts top with balance sheet)

Cocoa farmers fear climate change lowering crop production


Sun, November 13, 2022 



KOREAGUI, Ivory Coast (AP) — For more than 40 years, Jean Baptiste Saleyo has farmed cocoa on several acres of his family's land in Ivory Coast, a West African nation that produces almost half the world's supply of the raw ingredient used in chocolate bars.

But this year Saleyo says the rains have become unpredictable, and he fears his crop could be yet another victim of climate change.

“When it should have rained, it didn’t, it didn’t rain," Saleyo said as he inspected the ripeness of one of his cocoa pods. "It’s raining now, but its already too late.”

Cocoa farming employs nearly 600,000 farmers here in Ivory Coast, ultimately supporting nearly a quarter of the country's population — about 6 million people, according to the Coffee-Cocoa Council.

And it makes up about 15% of Ivory Coast's national GDP, according to official figures.

National production remains on track because the amount of land being cultivated is on the rise. But experts say small-scale farmers are hurting this year. For the cocoa tree to fruit well, rains need to come at the right times in the growing cycle. Coming at the wrong times risks crop disease.

Some who are used to producing 500 kilograms are looking at only 200 kilograms this year, said Jean Yao Brou, secretary-general of the Anouanze cooperative, which helps farmers bring their crops to markets.

“Our producers have big worries with the production,” he said.

Hilaire Zon, The Associated Press

Exclusive Satellite Images Show Methane Cloud Near Pakistan Landfill


Aaron Clark
Sat, November 12, 2022 











(Bloomberg) -- Scientists say reducing emissions of methane, which has 84 times the warming power of carbon dioxide during its first two decades in the atmosphere, is one of the fastest and cheapest ways to cool the planet. Throughout COP27, Bloomberg Green will exclusively publish new satellite images of methane releases around the world, in collaboration with emissions monitoring firm GHGSat Inc.

Near Lahore, Pakistan, Nov. 10, 1:35 pm local time

The growth of South Asian megacities has spawned regional methane hotspots linked to landfills. GHGSat attributed the latest observation, outside of Lahore, to the waste sector and estimated the plume’s emissions rate at 1,403 kilograms per hour.

The source of emissions in South Asia observed by satellite are different from major emitters such as the US or Russia, where the lion’s share of releases are linked to oil, gas and coal operations. Last year, more than half of all methane emissions measured globally from landfills by GHGSat were in Asia.

Piles of garbage generate the potent greenhouse gas when organic material such as food scraps break down in the absence of oxygen. Landfills and wastewater are responsible for about 20% of the methane emissions generated from human activity, and failing to curb releases from the sector could derail global climate goals.

The Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency didn’t immediately respond to an email sent outside normal business hours over the weekend. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Climate Change acknowledged a WhatsApp message seeking comment but did not immediately provide one. Diverting food scraps and other organics before they enter a landfill is crucial to limiting future emissions. The impact of legacy dumps can be mitigated through aerating piles of trash and gas capture systems.

Eastern Turkmenistan, Nov. 10, 2:21 pm local time

A large methane cloud has been observed in the Central Asian country of Turkmenistan, a global hotspot for the potent greenhouse gas. GHGSat attributed the plume to the nation’s oil and gas sector and estimated the emissions rate at about 8,501 kilograms per hour.

Turkmenistan has the world’s fourth largest natural gas reserves and offers one of the biggest global opportunities to cut back on leaks of methane. Earlier this year, researchers identified 29 pieces of oil and gas equipment spewing enough methane each year to rival the annual emissions from all the cars in Alabama. The report found that the releases were mostly the result of poorly maintained or leaky equipment — and largely avoidable.

Read more: Asia's Secretive Gas Dictatorship Hides a Climate Catastrophe

The country’s fossil fuel production is dominated by two state-owned companies, Turkmennebit and Turkmengaz. Neither company, nor its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, immediately responded to emails requesting comment outside of normal business hours over the weekend.

Methane emissions are routinely observed in Turkmenistan’s western Caspian basin leaking from old Soviet infrastructure, and in the nation’s east, which is home to the large Galkynysh gas field, and where China National Petroleum Corp. has built new infrastructure to ship the fossil gas to the world’s most populous country.

Methane is the primary component of natural gas and responsible for about 30% of the Earth’s warming. Turkmenistan has so far declined to join the Global Methane Pledgee, a group of more than 120 countries that are aiming to cut releases of the gas 30% by the end of this decade from 2020 levels.

Quebec, Canada, Nov. 9, 1:36 pm local time

A cloud of methane was observed near a suburb of Montreal that GHGSat attributed to the waste sector. The satellite company estimated an emissions rate for the plume of 1,185 kilograms per hour.

Environment and Climate Change Canada spokesperson Cecelia Parsons acknowledged a Bloomberg email asking if the agency was doing anything about the release and said she was looking into it. A spokesperson for Quebec’s ministry of environment also acknowledged a request for comment.

The release offers yet another disconnect between Canada’s climate ambitions and its emissions. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pitched the country as a global environmental leader but the nation’s methane and carbon dioxide releases have climbed more than any other G-7 country, relative to a 1990 baseline, according to European Commission data through early 2021.

Last month Bloomberg News reported on a methane plume near oil and gas production and pipelines that Canadian regulators said they were unaware of. Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has said the country is on track to cut methane emissions more than 40% by 2025, relative to a 2012 baseline.

Read more: A Methane Cloud Highlights Cracks in Canada’s Climate Ambitions

Diverting food scraps and other organics before they enter a landfill is crucial to limiting future emissions. The impact of legacy dumps can be mitigated through aerating piles of trash and gas capture systems.

Pszczyna County, Poland, Nov. 8, 1:25 pm local time

Two distinct methane plumes were observed in southern Poland near the border with the Czech Republic by a GHGSat satellite on Nov. 8. The emissions monitoring firm attributed the concentrations of methane to the coal sector and estimated the combined rate for the two plumes at 3,410 kilograms per hour.

Poland’s Ministry of Climate and Environment didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment sent outside normal business hours.

Methane can leak from coal mines when sedimentary rocks are crushed or coal seams are exposed. Miners often attempt to drain methane from coal seams before mining the fossil fuel to reduce the risk of explosions and fires. The sector is responsible for about 30% of the total emissions of the potent greenhouse gas coming from the energy sector. Halting intentional venting of methane and accidental leaks from coal mines and oil and gas infrastructure is viewed by scientists as some of the lowest hanging fruit in the fight against climate change.

Both plumes were near Poland’s KWK Pniówek coal mine, according to Global Energy Monitor, a San Francisco-based non-profit that catalogs global fossil fuel infrastructure. Vents for large underground mines can be several kilometers from where coal is coming is coming out of the ground.

The KWK Pniówek mine was highlighted in a 2015 report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of its Coalbed Methane Outreach Program that works with mines in the U.S. and internationally to encourage the economic use of coal mine methane that is otherwise vented to the atmosphere.

Poland remains heavily reliant on coal for home heating and the country is home to 40 of the 100 cities with the worst air quality in the European Union. The nation has one of the continent’s highest prevalence of premature deaths linked to contaminated air.

Fars Province, Iran, Nov. 6, 9:25 am local time

A GHGSat satellite observed methane emissions near fossil fuel facilities Nov. 6 in a remote corner of Fars Province, in southern Iran. The emissions monitoring company attributed the plume to the oil and gas sector and estimated methane was spewing at a rate of 795 kilograms an hour at the time of the observation.

Officials with the National Iranian Oil Co., the country’s government-owned oil and natural gas producer, didn’t immediately respond to an email sent outside normal business hours.

The emissions occurred near the Arsanjan-Kheirgoo Gas Compressor Station. The site’s three compressors help ship as much as 110 million cubic meters of gas a day from the South Pars field 1,050 kilometers (650 miles) north to Tehran and were designed to increase transmission capacity during the winter heating season, according to a promotional video from the site's operating subsidiary Sekafco.

National Iranian Oil spews more methane than any other global energy producer, according to a report by Global Energy Monitor. The non-profit group found that that just 30 fossil fuel companies account for nearly half of the sector’s emissions of the potent greenhouse gas.

Methane is the primary component of natural gas and responsible for about 30% of the Earth’s warming. Leaks can occur during extraction and transport of the fossil fuel.

The potent greenhouse gas, which has 84 times the warming power of carbon dioxide during its first two decades in the atmosphere, is also routinely generated as a byproduct of oil or coal production and if operators don’t have infrastructure to get the gas to market they may release it into the atmosphere. The International Energy Agency has called for oil and gas operators to halt all non-emergency methane venting.

Near Kirtland, New Mexico, USA, Nov. 6, 1:48 pm local time

A GHGSat satellite observed methane emissions near a coal mine Nov. 6 in New Mexico that the emissions monitoring firm said was coming from a mine vent. The company estimated the release was spewing at a rate of 440.4 kilograms per hour.

Operational coal mines often vent methane to reduce the risk of explosion. Closed or abandoned coal mines can leak methane for years if they aren't properly sealed.

GHGSat said they first detected emissions from the site through a demonstrator satellite in 2016. An official with the New Mexico Environment Department said Westmoreland Mining LLC is the operator of the facility near the plume. An official at Westmoreland didn't immediately respond to a request for comment after normal business hours.Matthew Maez, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Environment Department said that fugitive emissions from coal mines are not subject to the department’s air quality rules.

Near Lucknow, India, Nov. 5, 1:28 pm local time

The satellite image was taken on Nov. 5 and shows a plume of methane that GHGSat attributed to a landfill in India. The estimated emissions rate was 1,328 kilograms per hour of methane. Landfills tend to be persistent emitters, according to the Montreal-based company.

The detection highlights how waste is triggering some of the world’s strongest and most persistent methane emissions.

In India, more than 60% of waste is composed of organics that often originate from markets where vegetables, meat and poultry and other food are sold, according to the non-profit group Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, known as GAIA. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Clean India campaign aims to spend 41.52 billion rupees ($519 million) to clean up legacy waste at landfills in more than 600 cities by 2026.

Near Daqing, China, Nov. 4 at 1:15pm local time

On Nov. 4 a satellite identified six methane releases in northeast China near the Daqing oilfield, according to GHGSat. Estimated emissions rates ranged between 446 and 884 kilograms per hour and the cumulative rate was 4,477 kilograms an hour. If the releases lasted for an hour at that rate they would have the same short-term climate impact as the annual emissions from about 81 US cars.

• Read more: Countries Set to Bolster Global Methane Pledge at Climate Summit

The detections highlight the rapidly expanding ability of satellites to identify and track methane almost anywhere in the world that is driving a new era of climate transparency in which greenhouse gases will be quantified and attributed in near real-time to individual assets and companies.

More companies and institutions are launching multi-spectral satellites that can detect methane’s unique signature. GHGSat has six satellites in orbit now dedicated to monitoring industrial methane and aims to launch another five by the end of next year. US non-profit Environmental Defense Fund plans to launch its MethaneSAT in 2023 and a consortium including Carbon Mapper, the state of California, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Planet Labs expects to launch two satellites next year.

In 2021, concentrations of methane in the atmosphere had the biggest year-on-year jump since measurements began four decades ago, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

--With assistance from Golnar Motevalli.

(This story updates through Nov. 18 with new satellite images of methane releases around the world.)

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

After $5 Trillion Stimulus A Significant Economic Downturn Is Inevitable in 2023

Max Marvelous - 

An economic downturn is inevitable in 2023. Thanks to rising inflation and very few pay raises to match it, as well as skyrocketing interest rates and other contributing factors, Americans need to be prepared for the worst in the coming year.


After $5 Trillion Stimulus A Significant Economic Downturn Is Inevitable in 2023

© Provided by Wealth of Geeks

Stimulus Only Goes So Far

The United States government gave around $5 trillion in stimulus checks to help Americans in the thick of the pandemic. And as a result of the pandemic, lending programs with low-interest rates were created to further assist Americans.

The economy was seemingly moving in a forward direction again. The world began to open up, and it seemed like the economy was recovering fully. It was obviously too soon for celebration, though, because soon after, things seemed to be settling, inflation rates began to skyrocket, and the economy started back into a downward spiral.

Americans have been left wondering how bad the economy will get in the future and how they will be affected by it long term.

Making Ends Meet

Many Americans are still struggling to pay for basic needs like rent and food, and with rising interest rates, anyone without a fixed mortgage is suffering from increasing monthly payments.

With inflation seeping into every industry, most notably food and gas, the future of the economy is looking bleak, and many are not sure they are prepared for what is ahead.

Related video: U.S. economy returned to growth in third quarter despite surging inflation   Duration 6:21   View on Watch

No More Pay Raises

Employers are also having to prepare for the potential consequences of an economic downturn. Many companies are already slowing or have completely halted the hiring process. The labor market did peak at one point, which benefited everyone, as people's incomes were able to counteract the effects of inflation.

With the inevitable economic downturn, companies have stopped increasing pay at such significant rates in order to prepare themselves for the coming crisis.

Bye Bye Savings

Many Americans were able to bolster their savings during the pandemic. With no travel plans or any need to drive anywhere, money that may have been put towards vacation or gas was able to be redirected into savings. Unfortunately, many of those savings accounts have dried up as people's incomes can no longer compete with rising inflation rates.

Despite the high rates, however, American spending has remained healthy, with many people living on their savings and giving up their safety nets. These spending habits could put Americans in an even worse spot when the downturn inevitably hits.

An Underperforming Economy

The economy failed to meet the protections that economists set for 2022, making an economic downturn a sure thing. Experts are projecting even higher interest rates going into the holidays and new year as well as an even more aggressive increase in inflation.

2023 will be a tough year for Americans, and everyone should begin preparing for this economic downturn because everyone will feel the effects when it hits.

Here’s How Stimulus Checks Helped Americans and Different Parts of the Economy


BackyardProduction / Getty Images/iStockphoto

The pandemic triggered the largest flood of federal dollars into the American economy in the country’s history — $5 trillion in combined stimulus payments. The money poured into local governments, hospitals, small businesses, airlines, the healthcare system and directly into American households. According to The New York Times, most economists credit the stimulus with speeding up the economy’s recovery, helping countless businesses stay open and preventing millions of people from losing their credit ratings, being evicted and going hungry.


Here’s a look at how that $5 trillion was spread around and who it helped the most.

The Lion’s Share Went Directly to People and Families

The combined stimulus packages represent one of the greatest transfers of wealth in world history, according to CNBC, and certainly the greatest transfer of dollars from the American government to its people.

According to the Times, $1.8 trillion in stimulus — the largest percentage of the combined $5 trillion — went straight into the pockets of people and families. The biggest chunk of the $1.8 trillion by far — $817 billion — was delivered in the form of direct-payment stimulus checks. Here’s how the rest was distributed:Expanded child tax credit: $93 billion
SNAP and other food aid: $71 billion
Delayed student loan payments: $39 billion
Child care block grants: $28 billion
Child care provider grants: $24 billion

The other $48 billion went to other tax breaks and adjustments to retirement plan rules. A University of Michigan report showed that the flood of money prevented millions of Americans from falling into poverty and increased household wealth nationwide — but many economists blame the sudden injection of cash into the economy for the inflation that followed.

Businesses Took the Next-Biggest Share

Just behind the $1.8 trillion that flowed directly into America’s households was the $1.7 trillion that benefitted America’s businesses. The biggest chunk by far — $835 billion — went to the Paycheck Protection Program and the 9 million-plus small businesses that collected loans through it. Here’s how the rest was divvied up:Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program and loan advances: $376 billion
Adjustments to limits on business losses: $193 billion
Delay of employer payroll tax: $85 billion
Support for Federal Reserve loans: $25 billion
Employee retention payroll tax credit: $26 billion
Interest deductions and other tax breaks: $22 billion
Paid leave credit: $11 billion

Venues were given $13 billion to stay afloat, but two particularly hard-hit industries received outsized portions of the stimulus pie. Airlines received $80 billion and restaurants received $29 billion.

States and Municipalities Needed a Lot of Help, Too

With so many people and businesses depending on federal aid to get by, the states and localities where they lived and worked saw revenues drying up while pandemic-induced expenses piled higher. To keep governments functioning and able to provide services, the stimulus packages provided $745 billion in state and local aid, including:American Rescue Plan Direct Aid: $244 billion
Elementary and secondary education: $190 billion
CARES Act direct aid: $149 billion
Transit and transportation infrastructure: $79 billion
Expanded Medicaid: $72 billion

The rest, roughly $11 billion more, went to non-public schools, education and workforce grants, and election security. The money helped governments manage the many costs of the pandemic without major budget cuts — many came out with surpluses.
Naturally, the Healthcare Industry Was in a Class by Itself

The industry that needed the most relief was not hospitality or the airlines. It was, of course, the healthcare industry, which received $482 billion in stimulus. The bulk of it, $156 billion, went to grants for healthcare providers. The rest broke down like this:Vaccines, treatments and supplies: $64 billion
Medicaid coverage: $56 billion
Testing, monitoring and research: $46 billion
Development of vaccines and treatments: $45 billion
Changes to Medicare: $38 billion
Expanded A.C.A. subsidies: $22 billion
COBRA coverage: $18 billion

The rest went to cost-sharing, health agency expenditures and other costs. The funds were critical in keeping healthcare centers and hospitals in operation as revenues evaporated when elective procedures were canceled and the masses postponed routine care.

A Lot of Money Went to Agencies, Specific Industries and Groups

People, businesses, state and local governments, and the healthcare industry received all but $288 billion of the $5 trillion in combined stimulus. Most of that remaining amount — $78 billion — went to disaster spending. The next-biggest chunk — $59 billion — went to colleges and universities in the form of grants. Another $39 billion went to housing programs, $41 billion was paid to farmers, $21 billion went to transportation programs and the rest went to the USPS, defense agencies and other government agencies.

Half the States Cut Unemployment Benefits in Vain

During the Great Resignation and the labor shortage that surrounded it, many argued that the enhanced unemployment benefits were disincentivizing the jobless to go find jobs. Drawn sharply along political lines, roughly half the governors in the country withdrew from expanded federal unemployment programs and cut their state’s jobless benefits in June and July 2021, months before they were set to expire.

In April of this year, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco released a report that vindicated those who argued that people were staying out of the job market not because enhanced benefits had made them lazy, but because of ongoing health risks and increased family care duties.

The states that cut off their unemployment benefits early did not experience any significant improvement in job growth, hiring activity or reduced unemployment. The states that kept the federal benefits flowing fared the same, but millions of unemployed people who lived in those states had $300 extra per week to get them through the summer that their counterparts in the cutoff states did not.