GisermanGroup.com #BreakingNews
🚨🚨All U.S #Flights Grounded—What Happened??
💸$1.6 Billion #Lottery : Hey Somebody Has to Win It
🎢#Stocks Zig-Zag, Blame #Fed
🛌Bed Bath & #Bankruptcy
📝Turn-Around Fair Play: Classified Docs Found in #Biden Office
🎢#KevinMcCarthy Now What?
🏈#Hamlin Back in Buffalo
💲#Trump’s Tax Dodge
💊#Weight Loss Wonder #Drug
🚨🚨ALL U.S. FLIGHTS GROUNDED✈️✈️
The FAA has ordered airlines to stop domestic departures until at least 9 a.m. ET, to allow the agency to restore a critical computer system that alerts pilots and crew to safety advisories and other information for flights.
The agency, which oversees and manages the aviation network in the U.S., said it is working to restore its so-called Notice to Air Missions System. “Operations across the National Airspace System are affected,” the FAA press office said. It said it was performing final checks to get the system back up and running.
Passengers are reporting delays, citing the outage, but the scale of the impact wasn’t immediately clear. Some U.S.-bound flights from international destinations such as London and Tokyo were still taking off.
💲Mega Jackpot Second-Largest Ever
The Mega Millions jackpot has reached an estimated $1.35 billion – the second-largest in the lottery’s history – after no winner snagged the big prize in Tuesday night’s drawing.
🛌Bed Bath & #Bankruptcy
Bed Bath & Beyond is in danger of bankruptcy after reporting a quarterly loss of about $393 million following a tough holiday season.
The company did not say if it would file for bankruptcy after saying last week it was seeking outside advisers to look at various options after years of weakening sales.
Bed Bath & Beyond also said it started cost reductions of about $80 million to $100 million across the business, including overhead expenses and LAYOFFS.
⛈️Deadly #California Storms
California seeing little relief from drenching rains as the latest in a relentless string of storms swamped roads, turned rivers into gushing flood zones and forced thousands of people to flee from towns with histories of deadly mudslides.
At least 14 people have died since last week.
The storm prompted a few tornado warnings and brought heavy snow to the Sierra Nevada a day after dumping up to 14 inches of rain at higher elevations in central and Southern California.
Miles of Sierra highways were subject to chain requirements and closures due to whiteout conditions, and avalanche warnings were posted in the backcountry. The Eastern Sierra’s Mammoth Mountain ski resort reported 4.5 to 5.5 feet of snow, with more expected.
🎉#Stocks Higher Despite Fed
Stocks higher, Dow up 200 points, Nasdaq up 1% even after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stressed the need for the central bank to be free of political influence while it tackles high inflation. Powell says stabilizing prices requires making tough decisions that can be unpopular politically.
Nobody predicted that!
So called ‘experts’ got it all wrong in forecasting the markets in 2022. SO, why should we believe their predictions that inflation and recession will subside this year?
Be prepared for the unexpected!
For December, the S&P 500 lost 5.8%, while the Dow was down 4% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq down 8%
If there is a lesson to be taken away from the past 12 months it is this:
Expect more surprises.
The Fed Chief says the central bank will continue hiking interest through the year ahead, projecting a higher-than-expected rate of 5.1%, currently it’s 4.25%. BUT looks like inflation may already be moderating.
Exiger CEO Brandon Daniels, a GisermanGroup client, tells FBN "Further interest rate hikes will certainly move us into a recession”:
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⁉️2023: Your Best Investment
What was your best investment in 2022? - Dow Stocks?, S&P 500 Fund ?, Tech Stocks?, Bitcoin? NOPE: YOUR HOME!
Stocks had their worst yearly performance since 2008,Bitcoin crashed, BUT, Existing-Home prices climbed 8.6% from a year ago in the 3rd quarter according to the National Association of Realtors.
SitusAMC's Tim Rood, former Fannie Mae Executive and GisermanGroup client says all signs point to a better performance for housing in the year ahead, which he labels as "2023: The Great Housing Bust that will NEVER happen."
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🕕FTX Drama Leads to Crypto Collapse
The fallout from the collapse of FTX is expanding as a growing number of crypto businesses report that they’re struggling financially.Silvergate’s shares plunged after a run on the bank. The crypto-focused bank’s stock fell nearly 43%. Coinbase, a cryptocurrency trading platform, said it would lay off about 20% of its employees, its latest move to cut costs as crypto markets decline. The layoffs come after nearly a fifth of employees were let go in June.
Federal authorities are moving to seize hundreds of millions of dollars in assets in the U.S. tied to the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, a sign that the battle over control of the company’s remaining funds is escalating.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to fraud and other criminal charges, in New York Federal Court following the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange. His trial is scheduled for October.
Politicians were among the biggest benefactors. Bankman-Fried; Ryan Salame, the former co-C.E.O. of FTX; and Nishad Singh, a former head of engineering at the company, have donated a total of $84.3 million to Democrats, Republicans and political action committees since 2019, according to data collected by OpenSecrets.org.
Meantime, a lawsuit has been filed against stars who promoted the firm including Larry David, Tom Brady, and Stephen Curry.
Exiger’s Samar Pratt on FinTechTV explains how Crypto had just gained a foothold at BNY Mellon before this meltdown:
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📝Classified Docs Found in Biden’s Office
President Biden on Monday refused to answer questions about the classified documents that were found at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C.
Records from Biden's time as vice president were discovered at the think tank by his personal attorneys on Nov. 2, and included a "small number of documents with classified markings," the White House said. The National Archives were notified and took possession of the documents the following day.
"The documents were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the Archives," White House special counsel Richard Sauber said in a statement. "Since that discovery, the President's personal attorneys have cooperated with the Archives and the Department of Justice in process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives."
Attorney General Merrick Garland put U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois John Lausch in charge of reviewing the records.
Get The Notice You Deserve in 2023
It’s a trying time for all of us.
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🔫6-Year Old Shoots Teacher
A 6-year-old student reportedly shot a teacher at a Virginia elementary school on Friday.
"This was not an accidental shooting," Police Chief Steve Drew told reporters during an evening news conference. (Hey Chief - the kid is only 6, come on!?!)
The chief said the teacher, a woman in her 30s, suffered what he described as a life-threatening gunshot wound and was taken to a hospital.
The student taken into custody.
🏛️January 6th Never Forget!
The longtime partner of a Capitol Police officer who died after the January 6th Capitol attack is suing Donald Trump and two Capitol rioters, arguing that his death was a “direct and foreseeable consequence” of their roles in the mob violence that day.
The suit filed just before this second anniversary of the attack, seeks at least $10 million in damages each from Trump and two men accused of assaulting the officer, Brian D. Sicknick, with chemical spray on Jan. 6, George Tanios and Julian Elie Khater. Khater pleaded guilty in the assault, and Mr. Tanios pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges.
Five people died and more than 140 police officers were injured two years ago when Trump-supporters violently breached the Capitol as lawmakers and then-vice president Mike Pence, were set to certify Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden.
Never forget!
🎢#KevinMcCarthy: Gridlock Ahead
It took 15 ballots for Kevin McCarthy to become Speaker of the House, and countless deals.
McCarthy made many deals with Maga-Republicans in order to gervhis opponents votes. McCarthy agreed to allow a single lawmaker to force a snap vote at any time to oust him as speaker, a rule that he had previously refused to accept, regarding it as tantamount to signing the death warrant for his speakership in advance.
This and other concessions could lead to gridlock between the GOP-controlled House and Democrat-run Senate and White House.
The drama even included Rep. Richard Hudson, R-NC, pulling back Rep. Mike Rogers, R-AL, as the battle to get Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-FL on board the McCarthy train turned into a near-brawl on the House floor.
The House hasn’t had this many failed votes to decide on a speaker since before the Civil War. This year’s vote was the first time in 100 years that a speaker didn’t win on the first ballot.
It’s a sign of what’s ahead on important measures such as funding the government and budget bills. .
Democrats are loving the circus for now.
🏈Hamlin: Signs of Improvement
Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin posted a photo of himself on social media Sunday that shows him sitting up in his hospital bed and rooting on his teammates less than a week after his cardiac arrest and on-field collapse.
Final: Buffalo Bills 35, New England Patriots 23
Hamlin was released from an Ohio hospital Monday, a week after he collapsed on the field during a nationally televised game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Hamlin was transferred to a hospital in Buffalo, New York, where he is expected to continue his recovery process before making the transition home.
👑Crowning Ratings
Prince Harry’s Sunday 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper brought in a season-high audience for the CBS newsmagazine, drawing 11.2 million total viewers, according to Nielsen’s time-zone adjusted Live + Same Day data. That audience count is up from the 10.52 million viewers reported Monday for the Prince Harry-Anderson Cooper sitdown, per the earliest available Nielsen data. That initial number alone was up 16% from the 60 Minutesseason average viewership to-date and made the episode the third-most watched of the season.
💊Weight Loss Wonder Drug Worth Billions
What price beauty?
An Eli Lilly drug if approved for weight loss could become the best-selling drug of all time.
Experts are confident that the drug, called tirzepatide, will be granted approval by the Food and Drug Administration sometime this year. If that’s the case, it would join two other popular — and expensive — recently approved weight loss drugs on the market, Wegovy and Saxenda, both from the drugmaker Novo Nordisk.
The drugs have been shown in clinical trials to be highly effective for weight loss. All three drugs — which are given as injections — work in a similar way: They’re a class of drugs called GLP-1 agonists, which mimic a hormone that helps reduce food intake and appetite.
Oh yea it would cost you $13,000 a year (and most insurances won’t pay)!
😷Another Year Another Covid Warning
A new version of omicron has taken hold in the U.S., according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The subvariant of omicron, named XBB.1.5, has raised concerns about another potential wave of Covid cases following the busy holiday travel season.
The CDC projects about 40% of confirmed Covid cases are caused by the XBB.1.5 strain, up from 20% a week ago. In the Northeast, about 75% of confirmed cases are reported to be XBB.1.5.
There’s a lot that’s still unknown about the latest subvariant, including whether it’s more contagious than other forms of omicron.
💻Ban TikTok
The U.S. House of Representatives is banning TikTok on all House-managed devices, moving to get in sync with a new law banning the app on executive branch government phones amid mounting national-security concerns.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr calls on Congress to ban TikTok - saying ownership of the popular social media app by a Chinese company is a major security concern.
Exiger’s Bob Kolasky, former Cybersecurity Official at the Department of Homeland Security and a GisermanGroup client, has been warning for years that, “You and especially Your Business need to protect key data now from TikTok, the Chinese Government and others who desperately want to get their hands on it.”
Kolasky, on Cheddar also warns of Russia hacking U.S. companies:
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🚨Trump Prosecution - Will Justice Dept Act?
Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, paid $750 or less in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017. The couple paid zero taxes in 2020 and claimed a $5.5-million refund, according to the returns released by the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees tax legislation.
In three other years, Trump paid significant amounts. As a share of his income, however, his payments were far below those of the average taxpayer. The returns show he paid $641,931 in 2015, just under $1 million in 2018 and $133,445 in 2019.
Meantime the former President been accused of insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of an act of congress by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol as it referred him to the Justice Department for potential prosecution. His tax returns have just been releases as well
The action, the first time in American history that Congress has referred a former president for criminal prosecution, for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election that culminated in a violent mob of the former president’s supporters laying siege to the Capitol.
The key question: Will the Justice Department follow up and bring charges?
Trump's business has been convicted of criminal tax fraud. A New York jury finding the Trump Organization engaged in an off-the-books compensation scheme to pay some executives in car leases, apartments and cash.
Trump and his family were not personally charged in this case, but the former president was mentioned repeatedly during the trial by prosecutors about his connection to the benefits doled out to executives.
The maximum penalty is $1.62 million, a rounding error for Trump.
🤥Congressman Lied About Resume
Democrats calling for an House Ethics committee investigation, as Federal and local prosecutors probe whether Representative Congressman George Santos committed any crimes involving his finances and lies about his background on the campaign trail.
The New York Republican officially assumed his role in the House under a cloud of suspicion over his dubious resume.
Santos came clean to The NY Post, admitting he lied about his education and work experience — but insisting that the controversy won’t deter him from serving out his two-year term in Congress.
“I am not a criminal,” Santos said at one point during his exclusive interview. “This [controversy] will not deter me from having good legislative success. I will be effective. I will be good.”
“My sins here are embellishing my resume. I’m sorry,” Santos said on Monday.
Santos confessed he had “never worked directly” for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, chalking that fib up to a “poor choice of words.”
The 34-year-old now claims instead that a company called Link Bridge, where he worked as a vice president, did business with both of the financial giants.
Santos says he never claimed to be Jewish…rather he claimed to be “ Jew-ish”!?!
Musk Looking for New Twitter CEO
Elon Musk says he’s searching for a CEO to run Twitter. It follows his poll asking users whether he should step down as head of the social-media platform showing they want him to go.
More than 17 million users had voted by the time the poll closed after 6 a.m. ET, with 57.5% saying he should leave as head of the company he bought in October for $44 billion. Mr. Musk had said when he launched the Twitter poll that he would abide by the results.
Musk has reinstated the journalists he banned from Twitter saying he allowed the users back on the platform based on the results of a 24-hour Twitter survey that he posted Thursday night where he asked if the accounts should be reinstated immediately or in seven days. More than 58% of voters urged him to unsuspend the journalists “now.”
Musk without warning or explanation Friday banned the accounts of several high-profile journalists including: The New York Times' Ryan Mac, The Washington Post's Drew Harwell., CNN's Donnie O'Sullivan, Progressive journalist Aaron Rupar and pundit Keith Olbermann.
Musk earlier reinstated Donald Trump’ Twitter account three weeks after acquiring the social media company for $44 billion and shortly after millions of accounts voted in favor (52% of more than 15 million total votes) of the decision through a poll Musk posted Friday night. Twitter previously suspended Trump's account two days after the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol, in what it said was a response to the "risk of further incitement of violence." Trump has yet to Tweet.
Meantime, Tesla's sell-off intensified on Tuesday, with the stock closing down 11%. Musk's electric car company is days away from closing out its worst month, quarter and year on record and has moved past Meta to become the worst-performing stock in 2022 among the most valuable tech companies.
💸Trump’s AntiSemitism
Jewish Republicans are finally distancing themselves from Trump after his dinner with Kanye West, who has been denounced for making antisemitic statements, and with Nick Fuentes, an outspoken antisemite and Holocaust denier. Twitter has again suspended West’s account after he posted a swastika in a tweet.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell saying that anyone who thinks the Constitution can be suspended will have a “very hard time” becoming president.
Has anyone heard from Ivanka or Jarred Kushner?
And Get This: two more documents marked as classified have been found during a search of a Trump storage locker. A source familiar with the situation is quoted as saying it contained a wide array of items, including bizarrely wrestling belts!
🚨Domestic Terror Alert
Warning to Jews, the LGBTQ community and migrants over violent extremists inside the U.S. from, the Department of Homeland Security.
Americans motivated by violent ideologies pose a “persistent and lethal threat,” a senior DHS official told reporters. Intelligence officials across the federal government have consistently highlighted the growing threat of American extremists in recent years, while explaining that foreign threats such as the Islamic State terrorist group and Al Qaeda are no longer as persistent as they once were.
College campuses have long hosted heated debates about the Israel-Palestinian conflict. But now, students say anti-Jewish antagonism is on the rise: Antisemitic incidents have increased, and a growing number of campus groups bar students who support Israel from speaking or joining.
Widespread power outages caused by vandalism of electrical substations in Central North Carolina blamed on Anti-LGBTQ terror. Electricity shutoff to 450,000 homes and businesses. The outages are the result of intentional damage by firearms to two substations in the county, according to Moore County and Duke Energy officials. A curfew is in effect.
💻They Want Your Password
Warning-New Scams to steal your passwords.
If you've had a password hacked recently, you aren't alone. The volume of password attacks has soared to an estimated 921 attacks every second. That's a 74% rise in one year, according to the latest Microsoft Digital Defense Report.
Exiger's Robert Kolasky with more on Bloomberg & CBS:
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🐭DisneyTo Sell ABC, ESPN?
Will Disney sell off ESPN andABC?
Wells Fargo analyst Steve Cahall described it as the "best path forward" and said he sees it "as a reasonable probably late-'23 event." Cahall, who said it is "time for change," explained that "with linear and sports trends diverging from core IP, we think severing the company is increasingly logical." He says CEO Bob Iger wants to do something big.
🎶Chorus Against Ticketmaster
The chorus against Ticketmaster’s contentious concert pricing practices is growing, numbering among them Zach Bryan and friends.
The country music artist dropped a live album, “All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster,” on Sunday. With it came a statement posted to social media in which he decried “a massive issue with fair ticket prices to live shows lately.”
Ticketmaster has faced a slew of bad press and scrutiny in recent weeks, notably around the botched rollout of tickets for superstar Taylor Swift’s upcoming Eras Tour.
A presale event in mid-November crashed the site and left many fans without tickets; the planned general sale for the stadium tour was subsequently scrapped because the dominant ticketing giant had run out of tickets. The debacle has even led several state attorneys general to open investigations.