Manuel Cardoso, MBA, FLE’s Post

Challenge to the SWIFT based payments system? For more than three years, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) and the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE iShares MSCI UAE Capped ETF 0.0% ) have been working on a cross-border central bank digital currency (CBDC) project known as mBridge. The Saudi Central Bank is joining mBridge as a full participant. There are also now more than 26 observing members. Multi-CBDC arrangements that connect different jurisdictions in a single common technical infrastructure. A platform based on a new blockchain – the mBridge Ledger – was built to support real-time, peer-to-peer, cross-border payments and foreign exchange transactions. In tandem, the project steering committee has created a bespoke governance and legal framework, including a rulebook, tailored to match the platform's unique decentralised nature. The BRICS+ are interested in it - see: https://lnkd.in/gNgQkYtC . #currency #payments #swift #cbdc

Services are trending down since 2022 and below forecast. At this point it is public spend and direct public transfers for personal income, that are sustaining economic growth. #economy #indicators #gdp #fiscalpolicy

It seems to be a good year to be an intern at Bank of America! And a good time for big Banks to keep controlling their non interest expense ratios. BofA London interns' hours are allegedly 9.30am to 10pm on Mondays to Thursdays and 9.30am to 7.30pm on Fridays. The claims come after Leo Lukenas, an associate on Bank of America's US FIG team died as a result of an "acute coronary artery thrombus," in May. There were suggestions that Lukenas had worked 120-hour weeks, which Bank of America denied. In 2014, Bank of America intern Moritz Erhardt died after allegedly working 72 hours without sleep. An inquest found that Erhardt died of an epileptic seizure, of which the coroner said fatigue could have been a possible trigger. Banking interns are paid £1k a week in London. The restrictions on working hours have caused complaints in the past, particularly at French banks where off-cycle interns earn less and are expected to work a lot more. #work #interns #exploitation

Another beautiful day in Taxland California. Invoice that my family and I got for an hotel room in San Francisco. For the highest taxed state, which has a budget deficit, and in every election pushes props for new taxes, it feels the Twilight Zone again and again. Remember, a tax is the government taking money from someone, to give it to someone else. The Government does not create money with any economic activity, just prints it when they it can no longer keep grabbing someone else’s money via tax, at least as much as they intend to grab in California. #california #tax #economy

This paper’s intro (worth reading the paper): “ This paper reviews psychological studies of real-life use of credit, debt, and overindebtedness, with the aim of making policy recommendations that could reduce the damage done by debt to both individuals and society. The overall level of debt in society is heavily influenced by the level of economic inequality and social insecurity, and no psychological factor can prevent debt if excessive socioeconomic disadvantage is not addressed. Within that constraint, psychological precursors to debt problems, psychological impacts of debt, and psychological strategies to help people get out of debt can be identified. Research results in these areas are used to formulate a series of recommendations that could help mitigate debt problems. #debt #overindebtness #psychology #awareness

Insufficient condemnation the US-led invasion of Iraq received by the international community in contrast to the numerous sanctions and outcasting that Russia received, is a surprisingly dynamic. Recent estimates (source BBC: https://lnkd.in/gdrEhTtH, and source UN: https://lnkd.in/gZ9z88vr) suggest that the death toll of military forces in Ukraine approach 200,000, while civilian casualties may be around 16,300 (with 6,430 civilians killed). In turn, a recent study (source BBC: ttps://https://lnkd.in/gBnnyz-n) on war-related deaths in Iraq post-2003 puts the figure at 461,000. These figures exclude other direct and indirect war-related harms, including harm to third parties, to infrastructure, to nature and non-human animals, and long-term effects on the victimised populations. And then you got this from J W Bush: https://lnkd.in/g_PXcXM8 And then the fact that in 2003 key contractors linked to Dick Cheney, former Secretary of State George Shultz and ex-Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, hit the não loot in billions awarded in Iraq reconstruction contracts. Which pales by comparison to the $15bn fund for Ukraine reconstruction led by JP Morgan and Blackrock in 2024. There are no good or bad sides in these things, they all tend, in all countries, to be equally bad, and $$ driven, not too hard to grasp, for those who dare to think critically. #geopolitics #criticalthinking #awareness

Why hasn’t the U.S. entered a deep recession yet? First, you have to consider that it is currently running the largest deficit as a percentage of GDP outside of WWII. Second, In many ways, the government IS the economy right now. Since mid-2021, job growth in the public sector (red line in the chart below) has outpaced that in the private sector (blue line in the chart below). Third, The government is also putting out gargantuan amounts of money via social spending. To put it in numbers, 40% of the growth in income in 1Q24 was from government transfers, the single largest contributor to personal income growth in 20 states (Source BEA: https://lnkd.in/gMCtUVYn). Credits: Graham Summers, Phoenix Capital Research. My take? This cannot go on forever, but yes for a while. Maybe until an election? #economy #publicspend #recession #awareness

In 1952 the top earners income tax rate was 92.0 percent, and income taxes paid as a percent of GDP was 18.5 percent. In 2007, for example, the top rate was 35.0 percent, and income taxes paid as a percent of GDP was 17.9 percent. Try as we might, raising tax rates won’t generate higher revenues (as a percentage of gross domestic product). W. Kurt Hauser explains in The Wall Street Journal: “Even amoebas learn by trial and error, but some economists and politicians do not. … None of the personal income tax or capital gains tax increases enacted in the post-World War II period has raised the projected tax revenues.” For workers who earn a paycheck, there’s not much they can do to change the timing of their income, find tax shelters, or shift income to capital gains. When income tax rates rise, they have to pay more. But people with high incomes can use these and other strategies to reduce the taxes they pay. In fact, there is an entire industry of accountants and lawyers to help people reduce their tax. As tax rates rise, people seek to reduce their taxable income, and make investments in unproductive tax shelters. There is less incentive to work and invest. These are some of the reasons why tax hikes usually don’t generate the promised revenue. Data is from The Tax Policy Center (TPC), a joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution. It is in your best interest to read tax strategy books such as this one: https://lnkd.in/gYh3rUcC #tax #incometax #personalfinance

It was painful to watch from both of them. And concerning, because both were pretty bad at it. If you saw the highlights, absolutely nothing useful was said beyond zingers and bland political talking points. In fact, at one point they were arguing about who had a better Golf swing. We’re really just watching a (bad) reality TV show where the most entertaining/popular person is going to be elected. And more worrisome, neither candidate mentioned debt and deficits during the debate. That might be because neither has any idea (or any intention) of reducing annual deficits or the total debt. And in the first week of July 2024, Biden said ‘I’m staying in the race…and I’ll beat Donald Trump in 2020.’ Then Trump challenged Biden to a cognitive test but confuses the name of the doctor who tested him. What a pair… #politics

Once upon a time, paper trades set their algos to push down Gold to sub 2,300 and Silver to 29. The physical market won’t let these levels persist for much longer, as the USD keep depreciating (I.e. it is the USD’s value that goes down, not the metals that go up, one gram or ounce yesterday retains purchasing power today, unlike debased fiat currencies from highly e dented nations with fiscal deficit. #gold #silver #trading #algorithms