🇺🇸🇵🇦 Pentagon's Hegseth arrives in Panama as Trump vows to take back canal

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth landed in Panama late on Monday for his first official visit to the country as questions persist about President Donald Trump's repeated vows to take back the Panama Canal.

During his trip this week, Hegseth will meet Panamanian officials as well as defense leaders from other Central American nations who are attending a security conference in Panama City.

🔎 Source
#US #Panama

☠️ Blood Meridian

🇺🇸🇵🇦🇨🇳 US to 'take back' Panama Canal from Chinese influence

"China did not build this canal. China does not operate this canal. And China will not weaponize this canal. Together, we will take back the Panama Canal from China’s influence," U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday during a visit to Panama.

🔎 Source
#US #Panama #China

☠️ Blood Meridian

On the Verge of a Liquidity Event
March 2020 without a pandemic?

This article is a rehash of my last piece but with much greater focus - detailing how an abrupt and significant reserve drain could unwind the basis trade and spark a massive cross-asset selloff on par with March 2020.

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The upcoming reserve drain will flow throughout dollar funding markets, blowing up the cash-futures basis trade and creating safe-haven positioning that spikes the dollar’s FX.

A soaring dollar in FX terms and an unsteady Treasury market would contradict protectionist goals of the incoming Trump administration and stability goals of to the Fed, respectively, giving both a shared incentive to weaken it. The most direct and impactful way in which officials can weaken the dollar and restore stability to the Treasury market is by encouraging a new end investor to narrow interest rate differentials between foreign bonds and U.S. Treasuries.

The 'new' end investor will most likely be commercial banks armed with balance sheet relief for Treasuries. But that regulatory change will not come until the situation absolutely demands it - what I call the "dealer's Armageddon", as unfolded in March 2020.

The way to think about the coming liquidity event is not reserve scarcity in the absolute sense, but balance sheet scarcity that’s suddenly made much worse with sharply fewer reserves.

Here, the mechanics of the reserve drain leading to a basis trade unwind, and how this flows through the dollar system, from Treasuries to stocks to FX to gold, are analyzed in much greater detail than they were last month.

- DeathTaxesandQE on X

https://zerohedge.com/news/2024-11-30/verge-liquidity-event

— it was quite predictable given the tariffs war and the consequent cooling (although most likely temporary) of the world economy.

JUST IN - We are entering unchartered territory in the global financial system — Deutsche Bank

@disclosetv

EUROPEAN STOCK MARKETS SLUMP AS TRUMP TARIFFS TAKE EFFECT ...