Run on a Major Crypto Exchange; Hurricane Forecasted to Hit Third Most Populous State; Billionaires Behaving Badly

[Gunnar Larson]

Increasingly, Americans are telling us that they no longer listen to the
news – because they feel it is a threat to their peace of mind and
wellbeing. That might be a short-term fix but working diligently each day
to make one’s society less dystopian is likely a better long-term plan.

Everything crazy and corrupt and Orwellian about life in the United States
in this era of corporate and billionaire control feels like it is coming to
a head today – for better or worse.

Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, who has sluiced tens of millions of
dollars into this year’s elections
<https://wallstreetonparade.com/2022/07/crypto-billionaire-sam-bankman-fried-is-dangling-1-billion-in-political-donations-but-he-wants-dangerous-crypto-derivatives-trading-in-return/>
(hoping
to make crypto more dangerous than it already is) is today watching a major
run on his crypto exchange, FTX. According to analytics firm, Nansen, in
the past 24 hours FTX has witnessed an outflow of $653 million
<https://twitter.com/nansen_ai/status/1589859261089054721?cxt=HHwWgoCgweKkqJAsAAAA>
.

Reuters reports the problem like this:

“Crypto enthusiasts had raised questions on Twitter last week about FTX’s
token, following a report from crypto news website CoinDesk
<https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/02/divisions-in-sam-bankman-frieds-crypto-empire-blur-on-his-trading-titan-alamedas-balance-sheet/>
about
a leaked balance sheet from Alameda Research, a crypto trading firm founded
by Bankman-Fried that maintains close ties with FTX.

“According to CoinDesk’s report, much of Alameda’s $14.6 billion in assets
are held in FTX’s token, which is called FTT. Reuters was unable to
independently verify the accuracy of the report or the origin of the leaked
balance sheet.”

Those rumors led to Changpeng Zhao, the founder of competing crypto
exchange, Binance, dumping the FTT token and Tweeting about it
<https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1589283421704290306?s=20&t=pJ6OZCED7S9yR2EeGsmsow>.
As of 7:17 a.m. ET this morning, the FTT token had lost 22.6 percent of its
value in the past 24 hours.

For a quick course in everything you need to know about crypto, see our
report: Over 1,600 of the Brightest Scientific Minds in Technology Have
Signed a Letter Calling Both Crypto and Blockchain a Sham
<https://wallstreetonparade.com/2022/07/over-1600-of-the-brightest-scientific-minds-in-technology-have-signed-a-letter-calling-both-crypto-and-blockchain-a-sham/>.
Despite this, crypto billionaires are still allowed to infuse their
ill-gotten gains into U.S. elections and put their sycophants in Congress.

Then there is the forecast that Subtropical Storm Nicole
<https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/2022-11-08-hurricane-tropical-storm-nicole-florida-southeast>
may
become a hurricane and hit Florida’s heavily populated East Coast sometime
within the next 24 to 48 hours. This news comes as the folks on the Gulf
Coast of Florida are still cleaning up from the devastating effects of
Hurricane Ian. This latest news may impact voter turnout in Florida, the
third most populous state in the U.S., as people have to choose between
putting up hurricane shutters or going to the polls.

Donald Trump won Florida in the 2020 presidential election – despite the
fact that the state is heavily impacted by climate change and Trump removed
the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord on June 1, 2017, after barely four
months in office. Trump was following the demands of a Koch Industries
fossil fuels front group, Freedom Partners, which provided the Trump
administration with a list of environmental regulations
<https://kochdocs.org/2019/06/06/freedom-partners-roadmap-repeal/> it
wanted gutted. Freedom Partners threatened those lawmakers who didn’t get
on board, writing that “Freedom Partners will hold lawmakers who oppose
regulatory relief accountable for their positions.”

Why did Koch want to gut environmental regulations? Koch Industries has
been serially charged, including a criminal conviction
<https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2001/April/153enrd.htm>, with
dangerously polluting the environment. On January 13, 2000, the Justice
Department and the EPA announced the largest civil fine ever imposed
against Koch Industries to resolve claims related to its “more than 300 oil
spills
<https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/koch-industries-inc-oil-spills-settlement>
from
its pipelines and oil facilities in six states.” The company agreed to pay
a $30 million civil penalty and spend $5 million on environmental projects.

Koch Industries is headed by a billionaire, Charles Koch, who has
notoriously set up front groups to get his way in Congress for the past
forty years. He’s also branched out to getting his way on the U.S. Supreme
Court
<https://wallstreetonparade.com/2022/03/the-money-trail-to-the-ginni-thomas-emails-to-overturn-bidens-election-leads-to-charles-koch/>
.

Another U.S. billionaire behaving badly is Elon Musk, who just chaotically
fired half of Twitter’s staff
<https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/04/technology/elon-musk-twitter-layoffs.html>
after
taking the company private last week. Musk is also Chief Executive Officer
of Tesla, the electric car manufacturer which has a Code of Business Ethics
which Musk violates on a regular basis with seeming impunity from the
publicly-traded company’s Board of Directors (one of the Board members is
his brother, Kimbal Musk).

The Tesla Code of Business Ethics requires the following:

“Tesla has been, is and always aspires to be a Do the Right Thing
company—in other words, engaging in conduct that you and your family would
be proud of.”

And this:

“Each of us has a responsibility to maintain trust and protect Tesla’s
reputation.”

Despite that code, Musk has smoked marijuana on a widely circulated podcast
<https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/07/elon-musk-smokes-weed-on-joe-rogan-podcast.html#:~:text=The%20Tesla%20chief%20was%20speaking,of%20his%20tunneling%20firm%27s%20flamethrowers>
 and called the Securities and Exchange Commission “bastards” at a TED
conference
<https://nypost.com/2022/04/18/elon-musk-lied-about-taking-tesla-private-lawsuit/>
because
it charged Musk in 2018 with fraud for falsely Tweeting that he had secured
financing for taking Tesla private at $420 per share. The SEC case was
quickly settled <https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-226> with Musk
and Tesla each paying $20 million in penalties. Musk was also  removed as
Tesla’s Chairman as part of the SEC settlement and the Board was forced to
“establish a new committee of independent directors and put in place
additional controls and procedures to oversee Musk’s communications.”

Despite this 2018 settlement with the SEC, Musk Tweeted a link to an
unconscionable
false claim <https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/paul-pelosi-gay-prostitute/>
about
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, bringing the man who
attacked him home from a gay bar. Musk eventually removed the Tweet. The
Capitol Police, which had surveillance cameras on the Pelosi home, have
video of the attacker breaking into the Pelosi home and the San Francisco
Police have video of the man attacking Paul Pelosi with a hammer as they
arrived at the scene.

Tesla’s stock has fallen 50 percent year-to-date versus 20 percent for the
S&P 500. Inevitably, shareholders pay the price for unaccountable CEOs just
as citizens pay the price for unaccountable Presidents who foment an attack
on the seat of government and steal Top Secret documents

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Pam Martens <alerts at wallstreetonparade.com>
Date: Tue, Nov 8, 2022, 10:01 AM
Subject: Once Daily Digest Email
To: <alerts at wallstreetonparade.com>


Wall Street On Parade has posted a new item:

Welcome to Election Day from Hell: Run on a Major Crypto Exchange; Hurricane
Forecasted to Hit Third Most Populous State; Billionaires Behaving Badly
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2022/11/welcome-to-election-day-from-hell-run-on-a-major-crypto-exchange-hurricane-forecasted-to-hit-third-most-populous-state-billionaires-behaving-badly/

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: November 8, 2022 ~
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla
Increasingly, Americans are telling us that they no longer listen to the
news
– because they feel it is a threat to their peace of mind and wellbeing.
That might be a short-term fix but working diligently each day to make one’s
society [...]

Quietly, the Fed Releases Its Financial Stability Report and Lines Up a
Scapegoat
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2022/11/quietly-the-fed-releases-its-financial-stability-report-and-lines-up-a-scapegoat/

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: November 7, 2022 ~
One minute after the stock market closed on Friday, the Federal Reserve
mailed
out a link to its newly-released Financial Stability Report to folks who
have
signed up to get press releases from the Fed.
For those of you who have been reading our reports on the Fed [...]

If the hyperlink above is not active, please paste it into your browser and
press "Go" to read the full article.

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Best regards,
Pam Martens, Editor, Wall Street On Parade
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