graham steele

*BLACKROCK’S $26 BILLION PRIVATE CREDIT FUND LIMITS WITHDRAWALS

It's happening.

With Trump’s help, Iran, too, can lose 92,000 jobs a month.

Kraken Becomes First Crypto Firm to Win Access to Fed’s Core Payments System The decision means the industry is a step closer to becoming integrated into the mainstream financial system.

Bizarre to write this story about Kraken gaining access to major US government financial infrastructure without mentioning the company's past legal troubles, which include... being investigated for subverting sanctions and enabling transactions with people based in Iran.

www.wsj.com/finance/regu...

No, from what I’ve read this was under their 2022 3-tier master account framework.

(Raises the question of why the skinny master accounts are needed if a state SPDI can get a master account under the old framework.)

It has flown under the radar given everything else going on, but crypto companies are being given access to public financial architecture with very little oversight.

We’re going to look back in a few years and wonder what regulators were thinking.

Beware the Kraken - Bank Policy Institute On Sept. 16, 2020, the Wyoming State Banking Board approved the application by U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Payward Inc. for a SPDI...

I don’t often agree with banking industry trade groups, but they were right 6 years ago when they argued Kraken’s business model presents significant risks and its light-touch oversight regime by the state of Wyoming isn’t up to the task of addressing those risks.
bpi.com/beware-the-k...

Kraken Becomes First Crypto Firm to Win Access to Fed’s Core Payments System The decision means the industry is a step closer to becoming integrated into the mainstream financial system.

The @federalreserve.gov just granted a crypto company—Kraken—access to its public payment services for the first time.

More evidence that crypto’s success is not as an *alternative* to the existing financial system but to capture the existing payment infrastructure.
www.wsj.com/finance/regu...

Crypto is only important electorally because the industry's strategy is to strategically flood races with PAC spending on ads completely unrelated to crypto.

Government surveys have repeatedly shown that very few people own crypto (and even fewer care about it as an issue).

Exclusive | Kashkari Says Fed Can Sit Tight as War Clouds the Outlook Minneapolis Fed president, citing cost shock that followed Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, says he wants to avoid “Transitory 2.0.”

“Do we really want to do another ‘Transitory 2.0’?”

Neel Kashkari said inflation has been on a trajectory of "gently heading down" while there's no evidence the labor market is tightening.

But the war complicates the outlook by creating a possible echo of the commodity shock of 2022.

This would be a very good time to have a functioning Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

As I recall, everyone was very patient with the Biden administration when energy prices spiked after Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

Michael S. Schmidt • @nytmike x.com NEW and BREAKING: In a major reversal, the Trump admin is NOW trying to walk back its decision to walk away from defending the law firm executive orders in court. DOJ just notified the four fighting law firms that it now intends to continue defending the legality of the orders in court. A day ago, DOJ had a very different position.

You gotta be kidding me

This mural slaps. Literally turned around so I could get a picture.

Trump drops battle against law firms over punitive executive orders Administration to terminate appeals in four cases involving law firms that sued to block measures from taking effect

Trump drops battle against law firms over punitive executive orders ft.trib.al/OmzaE3d

Gambling on war and death doesn’t just present national security risks, it also raises serious concerns about potential insider trading — presenting unscrupulous government officials with a chance to profit off the new war in Iran.

These contracts are immoral. The CFTC can and must ban them.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfEk...

Incredible. Kalshi is not paying out "Khamenei out of power by [date]" contracts because he died.

Polymarket Iran Bets Hit $529 Million as New Wallets Draw Notice As US and Israeli bombs fell on Iran this weekend, bettors on Polymarket — where $529 million was traded on contracts tied to the timing of the strikes — were cashing in. Almost immediately, blockchain sleuths began hunting for unusual patterns in recent bets.

As US and Israeli bombs fell on Iran this weekend, bettors on Polymarket — where $529 million was traded on contracts tied to the timing of the strikes — were cashing in

A remarkable series of choices by the administration to pump up the AI industry such that it is one of the few pockets of growth in the economy and then turn around and attack one of its largest companies in a fit of pique.

Does @anthropic.com's arbitration clause cover disputes with the DOD?

Radiohead is demanding that the Trump administration take down a pro-ICE promotional video featuring a version of its song “Let Down” without permission.

Full statement from the band:

For America’s 250th, Should the Coin of Trump’s Realm Be Gold?

Numismatic glorification: Trump team wants his image on a second coin, this time in gold. But an obscure panel is blocking it. "Only those nations ruled by kings or dictators display the image of their sitting ruler on the coins of the realm.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/u...

Trump Agenda Needs Allies to Stick With Treasuries as Rest Flee The US is becoming ever more dependent on its closest allies to fund its swollen debt burden, exposing a vulnerability in the $30 trillion Treasuries market.

The US is becoming ever more dependent on its closest allies to fund its swollen debt burden, exposing a vulnerability in the $30 trillion Treasuries market

Well, if Trump is suing for $10 billion because of leaked info from the IRS, that means the government is on the hook for about $427 trillion here — more than its total budget over U.S. history. Oh well!

Judge: IRS broke law ‘approximately 42,695 times’ in giving DHS data A court on Thursday issued an opinion on a data-sharing agreement between the taxpayer agency and federal immigration authorities.

Breaking news: A federal judge found that the IRS violated federal law “approximately 42,695 times” when it shared confidential taxpayer addresses with immigration enforcement officials last summer.

“[Bessent] is under a lot of pressure from the White House to show some interim results,” a Trump ally said. “Trump needs something for 2026 on Somalia.”

Career officials involved in formulating the Minneapolis order also raised objections and generally resisted the requirements, viewing them as clumsy and an inefficient way to root out potential fraud, said four people familiar with the internal deliberations. Some officials also viewed the order as an overtly partisan use of treasury resources, according to one of the people.

Hurley shared at least some of the career officials’ concerns about the order but they were effectively overruled by others in the administration, fueling tensions with the treasury secretary and others in the administration, two of the people said. One of the people familiar with the administration’s thinking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, described Hurley as having been on thin ice with the White House for not getting the career officials more in line with the administration’s views on using a treasury office known as FinCEN — or the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network — more aggressively to target suspicious payments.

The article contains striking details about the White House pressuring Treasury to use money laundering laws to target an immigrant population, and internal Treasury objections to using the anti-money laundering laws to further a partisan agenda.

Trump Treasury official to exit after objecting to Minneapolis crackdown John Hurley’s exit follows internal disputes over the White House-backed push to target alleged fraud in the Somali community.

According to @washingtonpost.com, the departure of Treasury's top official on money laundering and sanctions issues was driven by objections to the use of an anti-money laundering tool (known as geo targeting orders) to surveil Minneapolis' Somali community.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

It is worth remembering that, but for a group of (Democratic) senators defying the White House, Summers would have been Fed chair in 2013 while he was still friendly with Epstein.

www.thecrimson.com/article/2013...

My new draft paper, titled "Financial Subordination," unpacks how the administration is using financial regulations and financial institutions to preference certain partisan-affiliated groups and causes, while marginalizing non-aligned out-groups.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....