Lee Ardis

Soaring UK Inflation Leads To Record Deposit Run

While the US deposit fight that started with the failure of three major US banks in March, has alternated between a bank jog, run and a sprint, depending on whether one uses actual data or the Fed’s politically-mandated seasonal adjustments to deposit outflows…

… the rest of the “developed world” has so far avoided a similar cascade of bank failures (who knew that injecting trillions in reserves to artificially preserve bank viability would make them beyond brittle and terminally fragile the moment liquidity was withdrawn) and by extensions, a sweeping bank run.

Or maybe not, because while no other western nation suffered a recent bank crisis as painful as that of the US, it doesn’t mean that other nations are immune to deposit flight.

Consider the UK, where households just withdrew a record amount from bank accounts last month; and while in lieu of a bank failure panic that would suggest consumers are looking elsewhere for higher interest rates, the reason why deposits are fleeing banks in the US may have a much simpler reason: tapping savings to pay bills.

As the FT reported, a net £4.6bn was taken out from banks and building societies in May, the highest level of withdrawals since monthly records began in 1997, according to the Bank of England data published on Thursday.

And since the large net withdrawals from instant-access accounts were only partially offset by net inflows into fixed-term accounts, which typically pay higher rates, and individual savings accounts, which offer tax-free dividends and interest on shares or cash, this suggests that the deposit flight wasn’t the result of rate arbitrage.

BoE figures showed the effective rate on instant-access accounts dropped 8 basis points to 1.33 per cent in May. That lags considerably both the central bank’s benchmark rate, now at a 15-year high of 5 per cent, and rates for two-year fixed mortgage deals, which are above 6 per cent.

In its latest report, the BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee noted that “the pass-through [of higher interest rates]” to these accounts had “been unusually weak” since it began raising rates in December 2021.

So if not merely moving deposits from Bank A to Bank B, what’s going on? According to Ashley Webb, UK economist at consultancy Capital Economics, some of the fall to “people moving money into other investments outside of the banking sector, such as UK gilts”. But he added: “It’s possible that households’ pandemic savings are being depleted to support spending.”

UK households are contending with high inflation, which stood at 8.7% in May, and many have complained that bank savings rates are failing to catch up with the BoE’s rate hikes. Yields on UK 10-year gilts stand at about 4.3%, up from 3.3% in March, while two-year government bonds have a yield of 5.2% up from 3.2% in March, reflecting the changing outlook for interest rates.

Daniel Mahoney, UK economist at Handelsbanken, said the record £4.6bn figure provided “strong evidence” that people were “dipping into excess savings built up during the pandemic to sustain living standards” amid the cost of living squeeze.

Roving gang of baseball bat-wielding kids targets mothers and nannies on school runs in San Francisco

Democratic Mayor London Breed recently took issue with the characterization of her city as a dangerous cesspool that is fast driving away business, stating, “San Francisco is a major city and it has challenges.”

Among the leftist-controlled city’s latest challenges is a roving gang of baseball bat-wielding kids that targets mothers and nannies trying to pick up children from school.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that a group of adolescents is likely responsible for the attacks on at least 11 women in the city’s Noe Valley, also called “stroller valley” on account of the preponderance of young families still living there.

Thomas Harvey, captain of the San Francisco Police Department’s Mission Station, indicated that the ski mask-clad suspects smashed and robbed their victims in broad daylight then used a stolen car as a getaway vehicle.

A woman who identified herself only as CW told the Telegraph that police — whose force is greatly understaffed — appeared to have “zero interest” in investigating her attack. She had been thrown to the ground and robbed while attempting to pick up her daughter from the nursery.

One juvenile male was detained Thursday, though the others remain at large.

Rafael Mandelman, a Democratic member of the city’s governing San Francisco Board of Supervisors, attributed the trend of children “doing these really awful things” in part to kids’ removal from schools during the pandemic, which teachers’ unions pushed for.

‘We Need to Act Fast’: Disney+ Green Lights New Show About Girl Falling in Love With the Devil

The family-friendly entertainment organization MovieGuide is sounding the alarm about a new campaign against an upcoming Disney+ that features a teenage girl’s love affair with Satan.

The streaming platform has given the green light to start production on a new German original series titled Pauline. According to Deadline, the series follows an 18-year-old girl becomes pregnant after a one-night stand with the devil.

The series’ creators, who are behind Netflix’s “How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast),” say the project is “very close” to their hearts.

“For a long time, the series has been and still remains a project very close to our hearts,” Philipp Käßbohrer and Matthias Murmann said. “We’re thrilled that Disney+ loves this coming-of-age story as much as we do and that we’ve now been able to begin filming with such an amazing cast and crew.”

Lately, Disney’s “coming-of-age” films have been out of touch with what parents want their kids to watch. They often push content with themes around witchcraft, sex, and violence.

Last year, the company lost over $100 million each for their animated movies, “Light Year” and “Strange World,” which depicted same-sex relationships on screen.

Movieguide chairman and founder Ted Baehr, is calling on parents to petition Disney+ to stop the release of “Pauline” on the platform.

“We can’t let this twisted and disturbing content corrupt our children’s values and beliefs,” he shared.

“Let me be clear. Pauline is not just another piece of entertainment,” Baehr added. “Horrifically, this series even portrays Satan as a romantic partner! By normalizing and promoting such a relationship, Pauline sends a dangerous message to young viewers that associating with demons, Satan, and evil is acceptable and even desirable!”

‘It’s the Devil Masquerading’: Ex-Psychic Warns of Bizarre, Spiritually Dangerous ‘Starseeds’ Phenomenon Reportedly Sweeping Social Media

An ex-psychic medium is addressing yet another occultic phenomenon spreading across social media: the concept of so-called “starseeds.”

Jenn Nizza, host of “Ex-Psychic Saved Podcast,” tackled the issue on the most recent episode of her show, noting the hashtag for starseeds has more than 950 million views.

Nizza, who brought on a guest named Hannah (@mustardseedhannah on TikTok) to discuss the matter, encouraged people to “mark and avoid” anything affiliated with starseeds. Like Nizza, Hannah also has an occultic background, having been taught palm reading and divination at an early age.

Now a Christian, Hannah speaks out against these practices and warns Christians to avoid such trends.

“First of all, let’s address what a starseed is,” Nizza said. “They believe [they are] an advanced spiritual being from other planets and realms.”

Hannah said the starseed paradigm is one in which people are told they have a “spark and it’s part of the universe and you can change the universe through this spark.” She said starseed ideology is akin to Scientology, claiming they “share doctrinal similarities.”

“The starseed ideology is so dangerous because it pulls in people who already feel lost and it gives them a place to think they can flourish and … walk into their identity, ascend, grow,” Hannah said. “What they’re looking for, they don’t know it, but it’s sanctification. But, instead, they found the counterfeit, which is ascension.”

The power people believe they contain within the starseed paradigm is dependent upon “other entities and frequencies,” with Hannah noting these individuals might point to chakras and negative energies to explain what might be unfolding in a person’s life.

Hannah specifically warned kids who have been “parented poorly” and don’t have a biblical worldview might seek out counterfeit lies and the New Age to try and find power and protection, making the starseed paradigm attractive to these individuals.

“When you don’t have a foundation on Christ Jesus, you are susceptible to all of the lies of the evil one,” Nizza added. “And he loves to prey on vulnerability.”

The largest teachers union in America recommended educators include ‘Gender Queer’ in their summer reading

The National Education Association (NEA) on Monday recommended that teachers include the controversial book “Gender Queer” on their summer reading lists.

The book was featured in the NEA’s “Great Summer Reads for Educators!” list that showcased 11 books.

Among those books are “White Fragility,” a book that insists that White Americans use anger, shame and guilt to avoid taking responsibility for racial inequality.

Other sections included “books to help you forget about work” and “books to celebrate or help you understand Junetheenth.”

Under the “banned books” section, Gender Queer is recommended as a reading.

“Gender Queer” has as courted major controversy among America parents for being in public school libraries throughout the US and has been challenged for its depictions and descriptions of oral sex as well as discussions on masturbation.

Fox News Digital previously reported on Gender Queer’s author, Maia Kobabe, defending the sexually explicit graphic images in the memoir during an interview with NPR in January.

“And I honestly think the book is a lot less explicit than it could be,” Kobabe told NPR.

“The topic of gender touches on identity… and it touches on sexuality,” Kobabe continued.

“And it’s hard to fully explain I think what like how a gender identity can impact every facet of life as an adult without touching at least a little bit of sexuality. And I wanted to at least not to like shy away from that.”

The book also discusses Kobabe’s journey of self-discovery towards identifying outside the “gender binary.”

This list of books comes after the president of the National Education Association declared that racial and social justice is a “Pillar of the NEA’s efforts.”

Trans Barbie dolls? Hollywood braces for another woke disaster at the box office

On July 21, the new “Barbie” live action movie will hit theaters across the country.

Featuring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken, the highly anticipated Warner Bros film is projected to earn over $80 million just on opening day.

But, there’s been a trend of movies flopping at the box office lately.

Not just any movies though — woke movies specifically.

Take Pixar’s film “Elemental.” It resulted in the second-lowest three-day opening in the history of the studio.

Why did it flop when it had a $200 million budget and was expected to earn $40 million on opening weekend?

Might it have had something to do with the fact that one of the characters is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns?

What about Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” remake?

Its box office performance was also deemed a failure.

Could it be related to the fact that Ariel’s iconic flaming red hair was suddenly … replaced?

Regardless, numbers are indisputable, and the numbers for many of these overtly woke movies are abysmal.

It won’t be shocking, then, if the new Barbie movie follows suit because it, too, has a woke agenda, and Dave Rubin, for one, is far from thrilled about it.

The film “includes a biologically male actor who identifies as a woman playing a female doctor,” tweeted Mary Margaret Olohan next to a picture of Hari Nef, the actor chosen for the role.

“I don’t have a problem with the trans person being an actor,” Rubin says.

But “there’s a gajillion girls out there who would love to be in the ‘Barbie’ movie as a girl, so why do they go out of their way to have a biological boy play a girl who’s supposed to be completely a girl in the ‘Barbie’ movie unless they’re trying to confuse kids?” he asks.

6,000 congregations are leaving the United Methodist church in a split over LGBTQ agenda

About a fifth of the congregations in the second-largest Protestant church in the U.S. are splitting away over a schism about the inclusion of the LGBTQ agenda in Christianity.

That comes to about 6,000 communities in the United Methodist Church, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune.

“I don’t think any of us want to see any of our churches leave,” said UMC Council of Bishops president Bishop Thomas Bickerton.

“We’re called to be the body of Christ, we’re called to be unified,” he added. “There’s never been a time when the church has not been without conflict, but there’s been a way we’ve worked through that.”

The mass exodus was the latest development in the years-long debate over LGBTQ inclusion in Methodist theology. Traditional Protestant teaching forbids gay relationships and marriages, but some members and churches are opposing the biblical teaching.

Many of the 6,000 congregations leaving are planning to join the Global Methodist Church, a new organization that will neither ordain or marry LGBTQ people.

Rev. Keith Boyette, the chairman of the council guiding the creation of the new denomination, said in March that many churches are frustrated with the actions of the UMC.

“Theologically conservative local churches and annual conferences want to be free of divisive and destructive debates and to have the freedom to move forward together,” said Boyette.

The U.N. Is Planning To Seize Global ‘Emergency’ Powers With Biden’s Support

The proposal might be the biggest attempted power grab in the history of the United Nations. If approved, the United States as we know it could cease to exist.

In September 2024, less than two months before the next U.S. presidential election, the United Nations will host a landmark “Summit of the Future,” where member nations will adopt a Pact for the Future. The agreement will solidify numerous policy reforms offered by the U.N. over the past two years as part of its sweeping Our Common Agenda platform.

Although there are numerous radical proposals included in the agenda, perhaps none are more important than the U.N. plan for a new “emergency platform,” a stunning proposal to give the U.N. significant powers in the event of future “global shocks,” such as another worldwide pandemic.

Many of the details of the U.N. emergency platform were laid out in a March 2023 policy paper titled “Strengthening the International Response to Complex Global Shocks — An Emergency Platform.” In the paper, the U.N. secretary-general writes, “I propose that the General Assembly provide the Secretary-General and the United Nations system with a standing authority to convene and operationalize automatically an Emergency Platform in the event of a future complex global shock of sufficient scale, severity and reach.”

Once triggered, the emergency platform would give the U.N. the ability to “actively promote and drive an international response that places the principles of equity and solidarity at the centre of its work.” The U.N. would bring together the “stakeholders” of the world, including academics, governments, private sector actors, and “international financial institutions” to ensure there is a unified, global response to the crisis.

The emergency platform would also give the United Nations the power to “Ensure that all participating actors make commitments that can contribute meaningfully to the response and that they are held to account for delivery on those commitments.”

In other words, the United Nations would be given unprecedented authority over the public and private sectors of huge swaths of the world, all in the name of battling a yet unknown crisis.

SCOTUS Unanimously Strengthens Religious Liberty In The Workplace

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously strengthened religious liberty in the workplace Thursday, ruling in favor of a Christian postal worker who lost his job for refusing to work on Sundays.

The Court’s unanimous opinion in Groff v. DeJoy, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, overruled the decision of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that the United States Postal Service (USPS) did not violate the religious accommodation rights of postal worker Gerald Groff under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

“This decision will give those religious minorities a fair shot in court and, one would hope, encourage more employers to adopt more inclusive workplace policies so that religious employees won’t have to choose between their livelihood and their faith,” Joshua McDaniel, director of Harvard Law School’s Religious Liberty Clinic, said.

After clarifying Title VII’s requirements, the Court gave the case back to the Third Circuit to retry the case because of its factual complexity. This means that either Groff or the USPS could eventually prevail, but the USPS — and all employers — must meet a much higher standard to deny a religious accommodation.

Groff, an Evangelical Christian and longtime employee of the USPS, never worked Sundays in line with his religious beliefs and his initial job description. But when the USPS started to deliver packages on Sundays because of a deal with Amazon, the postal service would require him to work on his Sabbath. To avoid conflict, he transferred to a different location.

His new location started delivering on Sundays, and he claimed that USPS “progressive[ly] discipline[d]” him because he refused to work Sundays. He then resigned and sued the USPS for religious discrimination. The Third Circuit rejected his claim.

The controversy in this case surrounded a 50-year-old standard from Trans World Airlines v. Hardison. In that case, the Court held that an employer could deny an accommodation if it causes a “more than de minimis cost” — a legal term meaning that anything more than a “very small” cost would be enough for an employer to legally deny any religious accommodation.

The Court held that Title VII’s “undue hardship” language requires employers to show that the accommodation would impose a burden that “is substantial in the overall context of an employer’s business.” Justice Alito stated that a business proving the accommodation would cause a small cost is not enough “to establish ‘undue hardship’ under Title VII.” This means that an employer now needs to show a substantial hardship would be caused by the religious accommodation in order to deny it.

Senator Says 200,000 Babies Have Been Saved From Abortions Since Dobbs

As the nation celebrates the first anniversary of the Supreme Court decision returning abortion to democratic control, national leaders celebrated the birth of tens, or hundreds, of thousands of unborn children saved by pro-life laws.

Although precise estimates vary, “the best guess that we have is about 200,000 children were born this year that would not have been born” apart from the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, said Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) at a news conference Tuesday. “That’s 200,000 kids. That’s 200,000 smiling faces on playgrounds. That’s 200,000 silly songs, starting in kindergarten. That’s 200,000 families that will be blessed with looking in the eyes of a child.”

The Dobbs decision, which took the shackles off voters and lawmakers to enact life-saving protections for the unborn, eliminated 96% of abortions in the 13 states that enacted pro-life protections between the June 24 decision and year’s end, The Daily Caller found. Although abortion rates had risen early in 2022, state pro-life laws prevented 32,260 abortions in the first six months following the ruling, according to the WeCount report from the Society of Family Planning released in April. A total of 25 states have since enacted some pro-life protections, since they “now have an opportunity in the United States to see this message in the hands of lawmakers and the people,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins told Newsmax on Friday.

Saving 200,000 babies — the upper end of an estimate analysis from Susan B. Anthony Pro-life America — would be enough people to fill a city the size of Grand Rapids, Michigan; Vancouver, Washington; or Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Republicans and Democrats had starkly different reactions to the one-year anniversary, much as they did to the landmark pro-life ruling.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) led 20 fellow Republican senators in introducing a resolution praising the Dobbs decision. “[M]odern science has illuminated our understanding of the humanity of unborn life,” the resolution reads. Their motion “celebrates the millions of lives that will be saved as a result of the ruling in Dobbs” and “commits to proclaiming the humanity of the unborn, consistent with the findings of modern science and the unswerving demands of justice.”

“Thank God Almighty for the Dobbs decision!” Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) told the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference Friday. In an online ad, Scott highlighted Biden administration Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen saying the Dobbs decision would prove “very damaging” for the U.S. economy. “That’s unconscionable,” Scott replies in the 60-second spot. “As a black man born to a woman living at the poverty line, I’m so thankful my mama chose life.”

The “Gospel truth” is “the foundation of this nation,” he says.

By contrast, Democrats seethed, cursed, and vowed to remove the voters’ newfound right of democratic consultation in the life-or-death issue.