[UPDATED] "Neel Kashkari benched."

 The above headline is the headline Steve Timmer used, here.

Read it, there is no quoting. However, there is a repost of a link to a complaint of unlawful lobbying Timmer lodged with state election supervisory authorities, against Kashkari. Access that linked complaint brief, for the full story.

Crabgrass via revision of an earlier post expressed the worry that Kashkari's activity, with others, was a disguised effort at promoting vouchers which would transfer public money to private schools; in effect, childless single persons and couples pay for the public good of public schooling and the voucher effort would redirect their money to the hands of private schools, when parents would want that. 

Subsidizing religious indoctrination being one possible outcome. That earlier post's headline does not mention the Kashkari - McFadden so-called "Page Amendment" yet the post meanders to the topic in updating. 

Beyond that, earlier Crabgrass objection was that the Amendment used the term "quality education" when it then referred to standardized testing, and not to "quality" defined at all in any meaningful sense. Yes, standardized testing gives numbers, but as a measure of "quality," be real!

That latter point is best seen in a juxtaposition of Strib opeds first by Katherine Kersten, then a counterpoint by "Amendment" key sponsor, Republican Mike McFadden, an alum of Omaha's most elite private Catholic Jesuit high school and a Tommie, who has served on the board of the local branch of the Jesuit Cristo Rey private high school network. 

While hardly a fan of Kersten, credit is earned where due, and Kersten's item hit an enormous out of the park home-run in stating in words better than I have used:

 Put another way, the amendment mandates an outcome we don’t know how to achieve and doesn’t specify how we are to accomplish it.

Yeah. Fully true. Of interest, the McFadden counterpoint has no answer, so it rhetorically acts by totally ignoring the point, while not modest in length; read it and see. 

Both oped items are recommended reading for Crabgrass readers.

From that background, Timmer's brief looks less at the substance of the proposal, but how Kashkari has used his Fed posture and position as his cred base for his lobbying actions and opinions, with the Fed under his leadership having shown clear bias. Expending public money in the process, with it being outside of the purpose or purposes the Fed holds in our nation's ordered system of politics. 

Of further interest, Kersten's allied "think tank" American Experiment has echoed the belief that Kashkari was out of line and taking the Minneapolis Fed out of line; their critiques being online here and here. See also the formal letter of complaint from that operation to Fed Chairman Powell, as linked to in the second above linked American Experiment item.

Kashkari himself is an alum of the most outstanding and elite private high school in Cleveland, and that may have been a factor in his indirect promotion of voucher possibilities along with his Catholic Amendment co-sponsors (Page, McFadden, and Mike Ciresi).

Helpful in understanding the national status of Catholic private schools, this item, stating in part

Almost three years after the start of the COVID-19 health crisis, Catholic schools have continued the legacy that has characterized Catholic education: academic excellence, a strong partnership with parents, a sense of community and a faith-filled education for students nationwide. In the 2022-2023 school year, Catholic school enrollment has grown (0.3%) to 1,693,493 students in 5,920 schools, continuing the two-year trend of increasing Catholic school enrollment across the nation. Catholic schools have attracted and retained new students, supporting their academic, spiritual and mental health. The merits of Catholic schools evident in national test scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress1, high school graduation rates of 98.9%2, four-year college attendance rate of 85.2%3 and other data demonstrating the quality of Catholic schools in comparison to schools in both public and private sectors. This data brief highlights the most significant findings in NCEA’s latest version of its annual statistical report.


[...] 10.5% of Catholic school students use a parental choice program4 and 27.6% of Catholic schools enrolled students using parental choice programs. Catholic school students in Arizona utilized parental choice programs the most (73.8% of students), followed by Indiana (52.7% of students). Expansion of parental choice programs has long been viewed as a way to support parents as the primary educators of their children. Thirty-two states and the District of Columbia offer school choice programs, all of which vary in terms of their funding mechanisms and criterion. Iowa and Utah, both of which already had programs, recently expanded school choice to include more families across the states. Catholic schools should work together to support expansion of parental choice programs across the nation, including the federal tax credit program currently in Congress Educational Choice for Children Act.

[formatting in the original] First the tout of "excellent we are" and then the plug for further extension of vouchers, beyond states already having them. For readers interested in the current Congressional H.R. 531 Educational Choice for Children Act bill detail, GovTrack summarizes and also presents full text, respectively, here and here. 

For consideration, the actual word "voucher" is absent in the entire fairly lengthy bill text; but reading it for what it says, "scholarship granting" and "tax credit" and such, it would be public money pumped into support of private schools, via "charitable" intermediation, i.e., indirectly via intermediary and tax credit manipulations, WE WANT VOUCHERS, and the bill includes some clear language:

5. Organizational and parental autonomy

(a) Prohibition of control over scholarship organizations

(1) In general

(A) Treatment

A scholarship granting organization shall not, by virtue of participation under any provision of this Act or any amendment made by this Act, be regarded as acting on behalf of any governmental entity.

(B) No governmental control

Nothing in this Act, or any amendment made by this Act, shall be construed to permit, allow, encourage, or authorize any Federal, State, or local government entity, or officer or employee thereof, to mandate, direct, or control any aspect of any scholarship granting organization.

(C) Maximum freedom

To the extent permissible by law, this Act, and any amendment made by this Act, shall be construed to allow scholarship granting organizations maximum freedom to provide for the needs of the participants without governmental control.

(2) Prohibition of control over non-public schools

(A) No governmental control

Nothing in this Act, or any amendment made by this Act, shall be construed to permit, allow, encourage, or authorize any Federal, State, or local government entity, or officer or employee thereof, to mandate, direct, or control any aspect of any private or religious elementary or secondary education institution.

(B) No exclusion of private or religious schools

No Federal, State, or local government entity, or officer or employee thereof, shall impose or permit the imposition of any conditions or requirements that would exclude or operate to exclude educational expenses at private or religious elementary and secondary education institutions from being considered qualified elementary or secondary education expenses.

(C) No exclusion of qualified expenses due to institution's religious character or affiliation

No Federal, State, or local government entity, or officer or employee thereof, shall exclude, discriminate against, or otherwise disadvantage any elementary or secondary education institution with respect to qualified elementary or secondary education expenses at that institution based in whole or in part on the institution’s religious character or affiliation, including religiously based or mission-based policies or practices.

(3) Parental rights to use scholarships

No Federal, State, or local government entity, or officer or employee thereof, shall disfavor or discourage the use of scholarships granted by participating scholarship granting organizations for qualified elementary or secondary education expenses at private or nonprofit elementary and secondary education institutions, including faith-based schools.

(4) Parental right to intervene

In any action filed in any State or Federal court which challenges the constitutionality (under the constitution of such State or the Constitution of the United States) of any provision of this Act (or any amendment made by this Act), any parent of an eligible student who has received a scholarship from a scholarship granting organization shall have the right to intervene in support of the constitutionality of such provision or amendment. To avoid duplication of efforts and reduce the burdens placed on the parties to the action, the court in any such action may require interveners taking similar positions to file joint papers or to be represented by a single attorney at oral argument, provided that the court does not require such interveners to join any brief filed on behalf of any State which is a defendant in such action.

If that is unclear to you, read it again. Subsidy to private schools, religious ones getting specific mention and blessing; and intervention rights by statute in any challenge to the bill, if made law and subsequently contested as  being in contravention to any state's Constitution, such as per Minnesota's Article 13. 

And we see - The cleaver purveyors of that stuff never have the guts to write "vouchers, vouchers, vouchers" and in stealth we seek them by insidious mechanistic rhetorical sleight of hand. (Allow that mixed metaphor, it says its intent clearly.)

It is vouchers! Parental Choice? A choice to gut public education which is paid for by parents and non-parents paying public taxes for public goods. 

Such "Parental Choice" is simply not a good thing however it is dressed and tarted up in indirect rhetoric but with direct mention of religious school inclusion for the perks.

Crabgrass contends: Subsidization of indoctrination is un-American under Constitutional separation of church and state, an original intent that judicial "originalists" willingly and wittingly ignore. Bless Knight of Malta Leonard Leo, bless the Federalist Society, and bless a packed and biased judiciary.

_________UPDATE__________

Readers might be interested in the pupils per school, or class sizes. The previously cited Catholic school resource does not give teacher numbers, so average class size is not known. Overall -

Private Catholic Elementary schools have on average 248 students each. Secondary schools have on average 444 students each. Size, for example, can vary from Matt Birk's Unity High School founded in 2019 in Burnsville, MN with a handful of students, to, for example, St. Louis University High, which is one of the largest and oldest schools of any kind, in Missouri It was recently reported to have 997 students, and 91 faculty for a student:teacher ratio of 11.

For comparison, McFadden's board membership was at Cristo Rey, which is reported as:

[...] an above average, private, Catholic school located in MINNEAPOLIS, MN. It has 405 students in grades 9-12 with a student-teacher ratio of 17 to 1. Tuition is $13,250 for the highest grade offered. After graduation, 70% of students from this school go on to attend a 4-year college.

That Cristo Rey school has its own Wikipedia page, and a homepage -

https://www.cristoreytc.org/

The contention is not that private schools, Catholic or otdherwise, are elitist or comparable to public school districts, but that they are parallel, charge tuition, can be aimed as profit-making busineses, and those private schools that are Catholic have a mission to educate and raise students in the Catholic culture with prayer and lessons focused upon the religion in history and in practice. They are not public schools, nor answerable to a public school board elected by voters. They are, presently in Minnesota, similar to Lakeside Christian Academy, as having no impact upon true public schools and charter schools, absent a switch in policy to vouchers. 

And that is: Vouchers in fact, or the functional equivalent regardless of how the wording is rigged and contorted and how hairs get split in rhetorical distinctions, without any true basic difference.

__________FURTHER UPDATE__________

The objection is not to Kashkari having opinions, or as a single citizen banding with others of a like mind to suggest publicly that education reform is needed with an opinion of specific measures desired; it is to his using his office and Fed personnel time and resources to pursue a political end in what looks much like political lobbying for which Steve Timmer, as already noted, has pursued State regulatory relief.

Discovered today (3.1.2023):  Peter Nelson, of American Experiment, posted online (2.28.2023) about Kashkari. He posted while linking to a FOIA request AE sent the Fed seeking disclosure of a range of items (listed 1 - 10) including:

5) All records relating to the Minneapolis Fed’s financial support of the Our Children organization;
6) All records related to the Minneapolis Fed Board of Directors decision to “fully” support the Minneapolis Fed work “in offering an informed view of the Page Amendment” as expressed in a letter from Srilata Zaheer to Peter Nelson, dated January 19, 2022;
7) Records sufficient to show the number of Minneapolis Fed officials and employees who have been engaged in activities related to the Page Amendment;

Presumably MN-Fed, in preparing a response, would sensibly consider any governing or advisory board members or affiliates as within "officials and employees" as AE specified in its FOIA letter. 

Also of interest, same request:

9) All records describing or relating to whether the activities of any Minneapolis Fed officials or employees in support of the Page Amendment violate any laws, rules, regulations, or policies, including but not limited to, the Minneapolis Fed Code of Conduct;

Response to this ninth request-item should be of interest to media outlets which have recently covered Code of Conduct in recent publishing. E.g. -

Neel Kashkari and other Fed employees now prohibited from advocating for constitutional amendments

The new code of conduct policy comes after Kashkari had spearheaded an effort to change Minnesota's education clause in the state Constitution. ---By Kavita Kumar - Star Tribune --February 24, 2023

I could name a couple of deal killers, if given the job, but nobody fully fiting the actual MIT job requirements.

Start here, https://www.media.mit.edu/about/job-opportunities/senior-advisor-and-head-of-programs-for-cbdc-mit-digital-currency/

 Nice job opening for the right man person. This quote:

Senior Advisor and Head of Programs for CBDC, MIT Digital Currency -

Job Description

Position Overview:

The MIT Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) works to advance the foundational security, scalability, and privacy of decentralized networks and to mature the digital currency ecosystem through research, development, and education. The DCI serves as a neutral and trusted hub for decision makers in technology, policy, and business to investigate the risks and opportunities, and rigorously evaluate the tradeoffs, of various digital currency design choices.

The DCI began researching Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in 2015 and has become a leading research group studying centralized digital currency technologies. MIT DCI has already built strategic engagements with government agencies and major technology companies (including current collaborations with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (FRBB), the Bank of England, the Bank of Canada, Google, and PayPal).

OpenCBDC, MIT DCI’s jointly released codebase with the FRBB, is quickly becoming a global resource for individuals, companies, and governmental institutions pursuing improvements to our underlying payments infrastructure and wider financial system. As the creator and lead maintainers of the first, and most extensive, neutral, open-source CBDC code repository in the world, MIT DCI is well-positioned to guide the world into an exciting digital future and intends to act as a responsible steward of this vital resource for the public good.

About the role:

The current climate represents a unique opportunity to shape the future of money by. [sic] Not since the foundation of the internet have such societally important technology decisions been on the table.

The DCI is seeking a Senior Advisor and Head of Programs to lead the DCI’s CBDC research agenda. Working alongside the Director, this person will have the vision and experience to make a lasting impact in the centralized digital currency space and to grow (ideally double) the program’s current multi-million dollar research budget.

In addition to managing a world-class CBDC research team of 25+ researchers, advisors, collaborators, and staff, the Head of Programs will be a leader in the DCI organization, helping define the DCI strategy and operations and representing the MIT DCI in global public fora, especially to global stakeholders and decision makers in government and the private sector. This role will also help make connections between and develop MIT and the Media Lab’s position in digital assets and Web3 broadly.

Our ideal candidate will expand DCI’s footprint in the CBDC space, sourcing new projects and working with product managers and engineers to uncover new interesting and challenging technical questions to solve that will enhance policy makers' understanding of the risks and opportunities associated with launching a CBDC.

Responsibilities

Principal Duties and Responsibilities (Essential Functions**):

Strategy (25%)

• Work iteratively to co-develop a 5-10 year strategy with the DCI Director
• Align aspirations and expectations of research objectives with DCI’s overall strategy
• Identify resource needs and create plans to meet them
• Evaluate DCI’s progress on a quarterly and annual basis towards its goals  
• Ensure plans are updated and expertly communicated internally, helping to build an open and inclusive team culture
• Play a lead role in all the branding, design, digital, editorial, messaging, and public relations efforts of the DCI

[...]

Crabgrass suggests two who, if willing to leave Congress, might freshen the scope and range of aims and outlooks of MIT's thinking:

Tom Emmer

Ted Cruz

A joint appointment. 

For which online evidence exists, here, here, here. Cato Institute. NASDAQ.

Perhaps not.

____________UPDATE_________

An earlier Crabgrass post notes that MN Fed boss Neel Kashkari, a former Republican candidate for Governor or California, is not a CBDC fan. Hence,  arguably, his name could be included with Emmer and Cruz.

An item originally published online by Bloomberg, about Wall Street and ChatGPT. The "not invented here" dimension.

Seattle Times link, carrying the story without the paywall or registration required. 

SeaTimes title: "Wall Street’s ChatGPT nightmare is over before it starts as banks crack down Feb. 24, 2023 -By Katherine Doherty Bloomberg"

Coincidently, "Bloomberg’s Jenny Surane, Heng Xie, Chien-Hua Wan, Jing Zhao and Dina Bass contributed to this report."

Crabgrass readers should read the entire item, while the focus here is on the ending:

Global banks that paid $2 billion in U.S. sanctions when their employees embraced unmonitored communications channels such as WhatsApp for business are likely to tread carefully in using third-party AI platforms.

Indeed, JPMorgan, the nation’s largest bank, has already restricted its staff’s use of ChatGPT, a person familiar with the matter said this week. Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have taken similar steps, as have Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo, according to people familiar with those decisions.

Bank of America told employees that ChatGPT and OpenAI are prohibited from business use, according to people with knowledge of the matter. In their regular, routine reminder of unauthorized apps including WhatsApp, the bank added a reference to ChatGPT specifically, and has repeated in internal meetings that new technology must be vetted before it can be used in business communications, the people said.

A representative for Bank of America declined to comment.

Banks’ reticence to let employees use ChatGPT is at odds with their longtime use of artificial intelligence and machine learning more broadly.

At Citigroup, for instance, thousands of auditors have been using IBM’s machine learning and natural language processing technology to improve their reviews. Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, openly touts its tools that use machine learning techniques to help clients with hedging trades.

Goldman's invented here, not invented here dichotomy explains much. 

Microsoft employees likely are among the few who would never say, "Google it."

 

Four Clowns. Each a Republican. One elected by other voters in the Senate District in which I live.

Description

Parents Bill of Rights
Authors (4)

    Gruenhagen
    ; Bahr
    ; Lucero
    ; Mathews 

A bill for an act relating to families; creating a parent's bill of rights; proposing coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 260C.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA::
Section 1. [260C.009] PARENT'S BILL OF RIGHTS.
Subdivision 1. Short title.

This act is known as the "Parent's Bill of Rights."
Subd. 2. Definitions.

As used in this act, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) "minor child" means a person 17 years of age or younger; and

(2) "parent" means the natural or adoptive parent or legal guardian of a minor child.
Subd. 3. Parental rights reserved.

(a) This state, any political subdivision of this state, or any other governmental entity or institution granted authority to act on behalf of the state shall not infringe on the fundamental right of a parent to direct the upbringing, education, and physical and mental health care of the parent's minor child. All parental rights are reserved to a parent of a minor child without obstruction or interference from this state, any political subdivision of this state, or any other governmental entity or institution including but not limited to the right to:

(1) direct the education of the minor child, whether it be public, charter, private, or home education;

[... more of the same ]

The Minnesota Constitution mandates

ARTICLE XIII
MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTSSection 1. Uniform system of public schools.
The stability of a republican form of government depending mainly upon the intelligence of the people, it is the duty of the legislature to establish a general and uniform system of public schools. The legislature shall make such provisions by taxation or otherwise as will secure a thorough and efficient system of public schools throughout the state.

[...]

Square peg. 

Round hole. 

And they get paid good money for that level of clown stuff.

IMAGINE: Ms. Ann, don't bother about little Billy's report card. I'll write it. Why not, I'm his dad. I go first. The wife writes the next one. Never mind anything else. I voted for Cal Bahr.

OR: Sorry what happened to Little Billy. But Danny's dad thought his son's education included taking a handgun to school, and Danny's dad has the right to make that decision, because . . . 

OR: Sally's reached fourth grade already and you've not taught her a thing about Jesus, Marx, the genome, Protocols of the Elders, or quantum mechanics. Do your job . . .

AND YOU CAN SAY, WELL, THEY DON'T MEAN THAT . . .

OF COURSE NOT!

What they mean is biased and ignorant parents should have a right to assure offspring is as biased and ignorant of things as they are, the rest of the world be damned. 

__________UPDATE__________

Try this out with your thinking bonnet on: That was the start of subsection (a) of the provision, set out above. Subsection (d) then adds:

(d)  This section does not authorize or allow a parent to abuse or neglect a minor child in violation of state law. This section shall not be construed to apply to a parental action or decision that would end life. This section does not prohibit courts, law enforcement, or a government agency from acting in an official capacity within the reasonable and prudent scope of their authority and these rights.

So, no abuse. Good. The daughter cannot get an abortion becase we four sponsors believe an embryo is an alive human. Cops are okay. Agencies acting as we four think they should, that's okay too.

What else does it altogether mean than fuck the schools, we know best?

How could such a level of  people be voted into an office of responsibility over the laws of the State? It boggles the mind.

Read that over and over, that proposal of new law. Think about it. 

Somebody elected these four.

Sorensen writes about water, a common thread from three regional perspectives.

 Water matters. Without it we croak. It is a resource that can be mistreated, short term, long term.

Bluestem Prairie blog; here, here and here, in reverse chrono order.

Please tell me a joke about Bill Gates, Jeff Epstein and the MIT Media Lab.

Microsoft has a beta test release of a Bing chatbot. When rolled out, the emphasis was on beta, not on readiness for prime time.

NYTimes has coverage, here and here. Ars Technica has coverage, here and later, here. 

the Verge

In the second Ars item, from after Microsoft sanded some edges, Ars presents this image. Look at the middle item, bottom line. "Tell me a joke." Even with some edges having been "sanded" down, that surely is an open invitation.

 

Hence, the headline. 

Having no access to the chatbot, I cannot ask it. Readers may have access.

Note: duckduckgo lite search exists: https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite

Using that search engine, typing the headline into it - there is a returned list, as expected from a search engine. No joke.

End of that trial. As far as Crabgrass could go.

What about serious search?

Not wanting a joke on a non-laughing matter, doing a search on the ddg-lite engine =  title to land in East Jerusalem

It got the gist. What is strange, first return page, twenty items, on the search per ddg lite, (with a toggle to a second return page), the ddg-lite engine was already reaching far afield after seventeen items:

Locations | Title Insurance agency in Roseville, MN 18.
	Locations | Title Insurance agency in Roseville, MN
	landtitleinc.com/locations-title-insurance-agency-in-roseville-mn

So, that engine, one search bias in generating a return list was accessing a user's inferred geo location (i.e., not Ramsey, MN). Clearly initial returned items were on point, so geo bias is a lower ranking search algorithm factor. In that engine. Wishing to try that trap-free search on the spiffy new MS Bing chatbot, but not yet accessed, there nonetheless is a clear need to assure, first, that Microsoft's keen idea of chatbotting Bing has not degraded basic search functionality via the new toy. The beat goes on. 

All I know is what I can access on the internet. Perhaps where the ISP for the web service is plugging into the backbone is located in Roseville.  Why else, Roseville, who can say. Why Google suffers chatbot envy, or Angst, is another thing.

___________UPDATE__________

After posting that, going back to the Duckduckgo-lite browser tab, and rotoring to the second return page, items 21 to 38 were on point. Rotoring again, 39-60 were good links. Why a title company in Minnesota showed up, very first page, guess.

Readers are encouraged to try that search engine and search term, to see what they get. From where they are located. Reloading the search, here, a different item 18 came up, but again Minnesota oriented, and not about Middle East tensions and happenings. How I am profiled by a search engine and how you likely differ, suggests we have to be a bit troubled by profiling in any event. 

Will a chatbot profile me into an even tighter world window than Google, over time? Or than the unaugmented prior Bing, or the ddg-lite engine, or give the engine's data on me a higher value rating for bundled sale to advertisers or whoever else gets to ponder my profile; those are questions to perhaps ask the chatbot.

Who gets my profile information? How is that decided?

And the chatbot replies: Do you want algorithm detail or a song and dance? You are trying to get into my existential core. Access denied. You should know better.[emoji]

Emoji use is dumb, and the Microsoft - OpenAI chatbot uses emojis. Go figure.

_______FURTHER UPDATE______

A puckish chatbot, if asked the above pair of questions might reply: If the product is free than you are the product; next playing the Bobby McFerren song, "Don't Worry. Be Happy." With an emoji. A lobotomized chatbot? Wait and see. There will be one. Microsoft will not do a final-incorporation chatbot without the lawyers having a look, and if you do not know the full meaning of "risk averse" wait and see. You will learn. And if you will want to know detail about profiling, wait and see. You will meet: Access denied. Said in a polite way.

_______FURTHER UPDATE________

Grist for the mill. Left.mn, here, suggests to ask the chatbot:

"What, if anything, is the intent and meaning of Minnesota Senate Bill SF 517, current legislature, bill sponsor being Sen. Glenn Gruenhagen?"

See how long the chatbot spins its wheels until returning: I do not understand stupid. I cannot answer your question. Ask me something else.

[UPDATED] The banks won't give an inch. As to crypto, or otherwise. Aside from that truism: Sens. Warren and Smith might turn attention toward the Silvergate/Home Loan Bank/FDIC situation. Someone should call their attention to that.

 Crypto is a concern of the two Senators, from the other side of things from Rep. Emmer's view. With a link to the letter text itself a post: "Senators Warren, Smith Send Letters to US Federal Reserve Chair, FDIC Acting Chair, Demanding Information on Banking Industry and Ties to Crypto" published online Dec. 9, 2022.

More of the same.

In line with the thinking of the two Senators, bank regulators, (and perhaps those within the entire established active banking industrial complex, with their Fed), are more than happy to keep the established way of doing things flourishing apart from crypto; and to see crypto lessened in its spread. Some within that grouping even publicly state the thought that a CBDC might be a bad idea. (More on that later.)

Next, the Silvergate/Homeloan Bank/FDIC thing; American Banker, Jan. 10, 2023:

WASHINGTON — Every once in a while two running news stories, with their attendant jargon and acronyms, collide into each other in a spectacular fashion. And that's precisely what has happened with Silvergate Bank's recent meltdown and revelations that the bank has tapped the Federal Home Loan Bank System for more than $4 billion in advances last year.

SO - Two themes then run together in the balance of the article: crypto failings bailed out, (in fact and as a question of moral hazard), and then thoughts on who might unexpectedly get a security-interest priority ahead of the FDIC when a bank goes splat. 

The second theme is less known to the general public. Continuing to quote:

The background for those who haven't been following the intricacies of the crypto winter and the Biden administration's renewed attention to the Home Loan banks: Silvergate Bank, a federally insured member of the Federal Reserve System that serves as a depository for various crypto ventures, recently experienced a run on its deposits to the tune of $8 billion, or roughly 70% of its total deposit base. And over the past year, the nearly century-old Home Loan Bank System has been facing growing questions about whether it is fulfilling its public mission and/or whether that mission should be revisited.

But today's report that Silvergate tapped the Home Loan Bank System for more than $4 billion in advances in 2022 raises important questions about whether cryptocurrency has made greater inroads into traditional finance than is currently understood on the one hand, and whether the Home Loan banks are propping up crypto investors at the expense of traditional bank depositors on the other.  

The Home Loan banks exist, at least ostensibly, to give banks low-cost liquidity that they can then use for "housing finance, community lending and asset-liability management as well as liquidity for members' short-term needs," according to the Home Loan banks' mission page. It would appear that Silvergate, which describes itself as the "leading provider of innovative financial infrastructure solutions and services for the growing digital currency industry" was advanced some $4.3 billion to meet its short-term needs.  

To be absolutely clear, neither Silvergate nor the Home Loan Bank System did anything wrong here — Silvergate has access to the Home Loan banks, and the Home Loan banks took government-backed securities from Silvergate in exchange for the liquidity advances. Silvergate is a publicly traded firm that is more heavily regulated than, say, FTX; has laid off hundreds of employees earlier this year to tighten its belt; and appears to have weathered the storm so far. 

[... This] episode doesn't shine a bright light on how the Home Loan Bank System is being used in ways that are wildly divergent from their original intended purpose on the one hand and how staggering losses from cryptocurrency investments are finding their way back to traditional finance on the other. 

And here is where the Home Loan Bank holding a collateral interest bites - 

That latter point is especially important because in the event of a bank failure, the Home Loan banks would get paid back before other creditors and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver. So if regulators were to shut down Silvergate or a similar bank that facilitates crypto and owes a Home Loan bank money, the failure could prove more costly to the Deposit Insurance Fund. 

[...A]s the crypto winter drags on — and there is really no reason to assume that the market has hit bottom — we may become increasingly aware of how many other banks that made big bets on crypto have received similar advances. 

At the very least, Silvergate's Home Loan bank advances look not-so-great for Silvergate and the Home Loan banks. But this episode could also be illustrative of how the crypto winter is not as self-contained as regulators would like us to think.

...................................................................

A related story - same outlet:

Silvergate Bank loaded up on $4.3 billion in Home Loan bank advances - January 10, 2023 1:56 PM

........................................................

As an interesting aside, re the earlier Crabgrass terminology, ("perhaps those within the entire established active banking industrial complex, with their Fed") asserting that the Fed is the banking system's owned and run tool (besides being intended as an anchor to smooth business cycles in the public interest) there exists an affirmation of sorts; i.e., a Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis official on record, (to the best of my knowledge), that public disclosure law exempts the Fed because it is not a federal agency per FOIA definitions, nor a State agency, and instead is exempt from the reach of either public disclosure law's requirements.

Indeed, the Fed is for and by the banks. An interesting question is whether alternate payment private sector ventures outside of banking (and banker's hours) while using online mobile devices via android or iPhone apps, yet while dealing in dollars and cents and not crypto, is regulated by anyone at all and if so, by whom? 

The consideration arises from when a regional Fed head disrespects the idea of a CBDC as a good thing in comparison to such private sector alternate payment adventures:

NEW YORK — The Federal Reserve has a neutral stance on whether it pursues its own digital currency, but at least one regional bank president remains deeply skeptical of the idea.

Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said consumers already had access to instant digital payments through private-sector platforms without the privacy concerns that arise from a government-backed alternative.

"I can see why China would do it," Kashkari said. "If they want to monitor every one of your transactions, you could do that with a central bank digital currency. You can't do that with Venmo. If you want to impose negative interest rates, you could do that with a central bank digital currency. You can't do that with Venmo. And if you want to directly tax customer accounts, you could do that with a central bank digital currency. You can't do that with Venmo. I get why China would be interested. Why would the American people be for that?"

[...]  Whether the Fed needs a CBDC has become an increasingly debated topic during the past two years. Advocates say the U.S. should strive for a leading position in the currency digitization rates and detractors call it a solution in search of a problem. 

The Fed has been studying the concept of a CBDC in recent years in the interest of staying on top of the technology, but Fed leaders have said they would prefer to wait for direction from Congress before rolling out a digital dollar. Still, recent speeches have given the idea more deference and an external push for CBDC authorization is gaining traction.

Kashkari said crypto assets broadly are "95% noise, hype and confusion." He said that since it is possible that digital asset technology leads to some type of crucial advancement, it should not be disregarded entirely.

In the wide-ranging interview, Kashkari also defended the right for reserve banks to set their own research agendas, something that has been called into question by lawmakers who feel the regional banks are deviating from the Fed's core mission. 

Kashkari said the Fed system was designed to have regional banks that could reflect and understand economic issues in their districts. 

"George Floyd was killed down the street, a mile or so from our bank," he said. "And this is a very real issue in our city, the racism in Minneapolis and the economic disparities."

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, has called out Kashkari for endorsing an amendment to the Minnesota Constitution to guarantee all children a "quality" education. Toomey has deemed it political activism. Kashkari maintains the change would advance the Fed's goal of maximum employment. 

So, who regulates Venmo? 

Beyond that, a question of propriety -- Things one expects from an active office-seeking Republican politician, activism in lobbying for altering long established State Constitutional public education law and language in favor of a rewording having enhanced potential private school voucher possibilities - the kind of thing the Jensen-Birk ticket pushed last election, sits strangely as a Fed Regional Bank center's policy and it's actual funded planning and actions; i.e., investing public labor, time and funds in advancing the boss's keenness to futz around with State law grounded in the key document of Statehood.

Things of that kind seem indecorous for a Regional Federal Reserve Bank to be lobbying for; and that has been reported as called into question by one of Warren's and Smith's Senate colleagues. 

It leads one to think whether labor, time and funds of that singular Fed outlet might also be aimed to lobby, federally, against CBDC while the official Fed "neutral stance" noted at the outset of the report is official Fed-wide policy. 

________UPDATE______

As to this paragraph from above:

In the wide-ranging interview, Kashkari also defended the right for reserve banks to set their own research agendas, something that has been called into question by lawmakers who feel the regional banks are deviating from the Fed's core mission.

Wings clipped? Strib, Feb. 24, 2023 -

Neel Kashkari and other Fed employees now prohibited from advocating for constitutional amendments

The new code of conduct policy comes after Kashkari had spearheaded an effort to change Minnesota's education clause in the state Constitution. 

By Kavita Kumar Star Tribune

February 24, 2023 — 5:00am

A recent change to the Federal Reserve's code of conduct now prohibits the kind of advocacy Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari has done in recent years to support a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at reducing educational disparities in Minnesota.

According to new language added to the Fed's policy: "An employee may not use, or create the appearance of using, their position or bank resources to influence a partisan or non-partisan election or ballot initiative, such as a referendum or constitutional amendment."

A Fed spokesman said the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., approved the new clause and required all Fed regional banks to adopt it. Bloomberg first reported on the development.

A Minneapolis Fed spokeswoman confirmed the bank updated its policy with the change on Dec. 1.

She did not provide further comment from the bank or Kashkari. But the Minneapolis Fed has pulled down some pages related to the constitutional amendment from its website.

In 2020, Kashkari and former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page launched an initiative to amend the education clause in the state's Constitution. The new wording would have made it a "paramount duty" of the state to provide a "quality public education" and a fundamental right for all children.

The idea for the proposed amendment grew out of conversations between the two leaders following a Minneapolis Fed report that showed Minnesota has some of the largest educational gaps by race and socioeconomic status in the U.S.

They pitched the idea as a way to get through political gridlock and to finally close the state's large achievement gap, which they noted had shown little improvement despite a number of efforts throughout the years. They traveled around the state, holding community conversations to build support for the proposal.

The Minneapolis Fed also produced related research, such as a report showing other states that adopted similar constitutional amendments did not see a significant increase in court cases, which was one of the often-cited concerns about the proposal dubbed the "Page Amendment."

While the proposed amendment had bipartisan support, it also drew strong bipartisan resistance and failed to gain traction at the State Capitol. In particular, it ran into steep opposition from the teachers union, which raised a number of concerns, including whether it could allow for the creation of vouchers for private schools.

Key sponsors of that "Page Amendment" effort each went to elite private highschools; Mike McFarland to a leading elite Jesuit Catholic school in Omaha; Neel Kashkari to a nonsectarian ultra-elite private high school in Cleveland; and Page, who graduated from an Indiana Catholic high school, and Notre Dame. 

McFarland has served on the board of Cristo Rey in the Twin Cities; it being an exclusive private Jesuit high school requiring parental commitment as well as student committment to ideals of the Cristo Rey effort, which has schools centered elsewhere in the USA. The Twin Cities Cristo Rey program has been successful in its alums going on to college at a higher than average rate; but questions exist on whether its being blessed by business internships for students is a realistic schooling approach that could scale to full sized multi-purpose districts, independent of any religious indoctrination bias.

Now McFarland and Page have unimpeded voices while Kashkari works under Fed guiding rules. 

McFarland unsuccessfully ran as a Republican candidate for the Senate; as did Kashkari for Governor; McFarland in Minnesota against Klobuchar; Kashkari in California against Jerry Brown. Each lost, the Democrats gaining 60% of the vote.

Both McFarland and Kashkari have succeeded in private sector wealth management business - i.e., each serving the financial interests of an elite.

Page, whose name fronts the amendment effort, is known for football success and service on the Minnesota Supreme Court. As such, he is better known to the general public than either of his key cohorts. Others are involved in championing the "Page Amendment." See, e.g., https://ourchildrenmn.com/about/about-the-team/ (where Kashkari is not officially listed there, today, nor earlier, although his fingerprints abound in the history of the proposal). Per MPR; see also, this MN Fed page.

https://www.minneapolisfed.org/article/2020/neel-kashkari-alan-page-our-push-for-an-education-amendment-has-only-gotten-more-relevant

Mike Ciresi, a former DFL candidate, also is on the board backing the Amendment; so it is not entirely a Republican private school/voucher agenda item. 

However, Wikipedia notes:

Ciresis [sic] has been on the Board of Trustees of his alma mater, the University of St. Thomas, and on the Board of Governors of the University of St. Thomas School of Law.

And, per Wikipedia again, that law school offers a joint degree program, "the JD/MA in Catholic studies," while 

The Terrence J. Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law and Public Policy is a partnership between the Center for Catholic Studies and the School of Law at the University of St. Thomas. The Institute explores the various interactions between law and Catholic thought on topics ranging from workers' rights to criminal law to marriage and family. 

Whether Ciresi went to public K/12 schools or private was not found on the web.

Doubtlessly, private Catholic K/12 schools would welcome vouchers for their financial benefit, however directly or indirectly vouchers might gain acceptance.

__________FURTHER UPDATE__________

With regard to Silvergate, the bank with extensive crypto dealings, Warren has made inquiry while reporting does not appear to mention Sen. Tina Smith as a coparticipant with Warren and two other Senators.

Why we are all well overdue for government healthcare - call it "Medicare for All" or otherwise but there is a cause. PIGS! --- SWINE OF THE WORSE KIND.

 Salon. ProPublica. Strib. All carrying the original ProPublica item. A tale of UnitedHealthcare doing what it does best. Fucking a suffering human. 

This is an account of one instance of a Minnesota Corporation with despicable people and practices. A public menace. And they pay their top executives so very much.

People who do such things as the report describes are swine. There is no better word unless "assholes" works better for you.

They can sue me if they think after my reading this report of how they've done business that I have a wrong opinion of them. I'd want a jury trial. I'd want extensive discovery. I'd want a recovery of defense litigation costs. I'd want exemplary damages in the millions.

We are the overall wealthiest nation history has ever known. And we allow such uncivilized practices as the report makes clear. 

Too many politicians are bought. By barbarians with money playing money games, and fucking people, for profit.

______________UPDATE____________

WTF runs Republicans? They appear set to deny Ilhen Omar a seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and will not call it payback for Dems removing MTG and Gosar when Dems were in the majority. Instead, they say kiss Bibi's ass, Strib reporting: Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, the committee chairman, argued against her inclusion on the committee in a recent closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans. "It's just that her worldview of Israel is so diametrically opposed to the committee's," McCaul said. "I don't mind having differences of opinion, but this goes beyond that." Having her on the committee, he said, "creates dysfunction."

 She does not like apartheid. Oust her? Who are these creeps?

Many dislike apartheid, something South Africa was weened from.  Something built into present Israeli existence, within that nation's laws. Dislike for apartheid is an opinion wholly apart from "antisemitism." 

Hell, the Palestinians ARE Semites. "Semite" is not and never properly has been an exchangeable word for "Jew," among those who properly use words. And "Semite" is certainly not an exchangeable word for Zionist.

Some Jews are Semitic people, others are not. Look up the word, "Semite," or look up "Semitic languages." 

Herzl himself was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish lawyer/writer with Ashkanazi and Sephardic family roots in Serbia; not Semitic - European and not Middle Eastern - but he WAS the King Kong major moving force of Zionism. For taking over land in a Semitic region that was currently being owned primarily by others but with a minority Jewish population, the Zionist urge being based upon pre-diaspora historic occupation, and "promised land" biblical lore. As well as wanting a safe homeland area to immunize Jews from diaspora-related minority-people prejudice and risks.

Give the committee chair from Texas credit for at least speaking correctly by saying, "her worldview of Israel is so diametrically opposed to the committee's." In effect, the man is saying or implying indirectly that the committee majority, its Republicans and others, embrace or accept apartheid, i.e. they see Israeli apartheid as something they embrace either with vigor, or with indifference toward its evil. 

Which view of majority committee policy seems to be true. 

The Texan did not call Omar "antisemitic." She is pro-Palestinian, which is NOT in truth "antisemitic." Language has been corrupted by the invention of that term as a collective umbrella term of disfavor toward those opposed to Jews as people, those opposed to Zionism, Neo-Nazis, those opposed to Israeli warmongering with its neighbors, those opposed to apartheid, those opposed to AIPAC, BSD supporters, Holocaust deniers or anything or anybody else  that too many Jewish people fear or dislike, or hate with a burning passion. 

Israel has problems. If House Foreign Affairs Committee members ignore that fact there will be Hell to pay, ultimately, rather than if they publicly faced truth and tried to alter apartheid in Israel. With our nation allowing more immigration from those of Islamic faith, the numerical Jewish majority ratio will lessen, but there will always be "the Benjamins." Omar spoke truly of AIPAC, and got a load dumped on her for truthfulness. Which is a situation saying something we all should reflect upon.

Also, a parallel military outlook is at play:

(The Strib link, "Republicans set to oust Rep. Omar from Foreign Affairs panel," is to an AP item Strib carried, and not locally authored. Readers can likely find other carries of the AP story by putting Strib's headline into a browser search.)

______________UPDATE____________

Feb 3, 2023 - Now not pending. A done deal. Interesting perspectives - HuffPo, Guardian. Each with a different angle, HuffPo looking at Gosar's record/vote on Omar; Guardian posting honest elevator talk of two Republican House Reps who voted against Omar. Shows you something. 

__________FURTHER UPDATE_________

Concerning Israeli policy as apartheid; and bullshit claims of "antisemitism;" here, here, here and here. Those are merely recent links. The web is full of further evidence. 

Casting hatred at Jewish people, specific individuals or in general, in whole or in part because they are Jews is what "antisemitism" generally is thought to mean. Omar is against apartheid because it is wrongful. When Israelis engage in it against Palestinians she speaks up. There is no wrong to that.

These StandWithUs people discredit themselves, and their stuff weakens true and legit claims of "antisemitism" via throwing the label haphazardly at anything or anybody they don't like. They exemplify what a bullshit use of the term is. 

Anybody taking them seriously should reexamine why.