Amazon's NFT Plans Teased in a Receipt Mailed Friday Afternoon

In an email to CoinDesk's Nikhilesh De, Amazon appeared to confirm that digital tokens, an NFT gallery and resale opportunities are coming to the site.

By Rosie Perper

On Friday afternoon, CoinDesk's managing editor for global policy and regulation, Nikhilesh De, received an email from an official Amazon account appearing to confirm the existence of digital tokens and a gallery on the e-commerce platform.

The email was sent to De as a confirmation after a Amazon Prime Video channel subscription was renewed automatically. De had not purchased a non-fungible token (NFT) from Amazon and did not have any prior knowledge of the platform's integration of NFTs.

Medical, Financial, Political & War Disasters Getting Worse – Dr. Chris Martenson

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Dr. Chris Martenson holds a PhD in toxicology from Duke University, is a futurist and economic researcher. He is also a Wall Street Journal best-selling author with his new revised book called “Crash Course.” Martenson said in August 2021 on USAWatchdog that the FDA approval of Pfizer’s CV19 vaccine named Comirnaty was “actually a fraud.” He was right. Now, Martenson is warning that medical, financial and war troubles abound and people need to get ready to deal with a reality that no human has ever seen before.

UBS Was Quietly Bailed Out in 2008; Now It’s Getting a $173 Billion Backstop to Buy Credit Suisse at 82 Cents a Share

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

Yesterday, the Swiss banking giant, UBS, agreed to a shotgun wedding with its collapsing long-time Swiss rival, Credit Suisse. Switzerland has committed $173 billion in loans and guarantees to the combined firm.

A key player in this deal was the central bank of Switzerland, the Swiss National Bank. That’s the very same central bank that had quietly bailed out UBS during the financial crisis of 2008 with the assistance of dollar swap lines from the Federal Reserve (the “Fed”) – the central bank of the U.S.

Yesterday, the Fed announced the return of those emergency dollar swap lines as the shotgun wedding of UBS and Credit Suisse failed to quell a spreading banking panic.

What to Watch After the SVB and Signature Bank Collapses

In today's special edition of Something You Don't Know, you'll find an important briefing from credit analyst and author Martin Fridson, who leads Porter & Co.’s Distressed Investing team.

An Urgent Update from Our Distressed Investing Director

Editor's Note:

Below, you'll find an important briefing from credit analyst and author Martin Fridson, who leads Porter & Co.’s Distressed Investing team.

Martin is “the most well-known figure in the high yield world,” according to Investment Dealers’ Digest. Over a 25-year span with brokerage firms including Salomon Brothers, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch, he became known for his innovative work in credit analysis and investment strategy. Now, he’s the director of Porter & Co.'s new Distressed Investing advisory, where we examine the "greatest legal transfer of wealth in history."

Friends,

In the space of three days, we’ve witnessed the second and third largest bank failures in U.S. history.  Both Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank were profitable, with investment grade credit ratings as of last Wednesday. Price drops of 63% and 38% last week show that the collapses were huge surprises to the market.

Banks are a special breed of companies. They can seem to be going along fine and then wham!—depositors lose confidence. The bank is hit with massive withdrawals and suddenly it has a liquidity crisis. This is very different from the long, drawn-out deterioration that typically moves industrial companies and retailers into the distressed category.

RIP Silicon Valley Bank: Shut Down by California Regulator, Taken Over by FDIC, Shareholders Bailed In, Insured Depositors to Get their Cash by Monday

The bank survived the Dotcom Bust. But this bust is far bigger because the Free-Money bubble was far bigger. FDIC may not have a loss on this deal.

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.

Silicon Valley Bank, a California state-chartered bank that was uniquely exposed to the massive all-encompassing startup bubble during the Free Money era – a bubble that is now imploding spectacularly amid what is called a mass extinction event among startups – was shut down and taken over Friday morning by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI). In its press release, the regulator cited “inadequate liquidity and insolvency.”

The DFPI appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. The FDIC announced that it had created the “Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara (DINB)” and that the FDIC, as receiver, “immediately transferred to the DINB all insured deposits of Silicon Valley Bank” to protect insured depositors. Depositors will have access to their insured deposits on Monday, March 13.

Biggest Recession Warning in 42 Years Just Tripped

By Brian Maher

Mr. Powell frightened the horses yesterday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 532 panicked points on his congressional testimony that:

We continue to anticipate that ongoing increases in the target range for the federal funds rate will be appropriate in order to attain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2% over time. In addition, we are continuing the process of significantly reducing the size of our balance sheet…

The latest economic data have come in stronger than expected, which suggests that the ultimate level of interest rates is likely to be higher than previously anticipated. If the totality of the data were to indicate that faster tightening is warranted, we would be prepared to increase the pace of rate hikes. Restoring price stability will likely require that we maintain a restrictive stance of monetary policy for some time.