TNT – “Tidbits From TNT” Tuesday 10-24-2023

Tishwash:  The Biden administration is preparing for the possible evacuation of hundreds of thousands of its citizens from the Middle East

The Washington Post reported that the administration of US President Joe Biden is preparing for the possibility that hundreds of thousands of its citizens will need to be evacuated from the Middle East if the bloodshed in Gaza is not contained.

According to four officials familiar with US government emergency plans, Americans living in Israel and Lebanon are of particular concern, although they stressed that an evacuation of this size is considered a worst-case scenario, and that other outcomes are considered more likely.

However, one official said: “It would be irresponsible not to have everything planned.”
The newspaper quoted three sources as saying, “The administration, despite its strong public support for Israel, is deeply concerned about the possibility of escalation, and in recent days has partly turned its attention to the complex logistics of suddenly having to transfer a large number of people.

According to State Department estimates, there are about 600,000 American citizens in Israel and another 86,000 are believed to have been in Lebanon when Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7.

The American newspaper said, “Concern in Lebanon is mainly focused on Hezbollah, amid fears that it may attack Israel from the north, which could lead to a war on two fronts, which will exhaust the Israeli forces.”
“This has become a real problem,” one official said. “The administration is very concerned that this is going to get out of control.”

Last week, the State Department issued advice to all American citizens around the world to “exercise increased caution” due to “increasing tensions in various locations around the world, and the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations, or acts of violence against American citizens and interests.”    link

*************

CandyKisses:  Economist rules out that oil production and prices will be affected by the conflict in the region

Information / Baghdad…Economist Dr. Safwan Qusai ruled out the impact of oil production or oil prices due to the ongoing conflict in the region, pointing to the possibility that the Arab oil-producing countries threaten the Zionist entity and pressure it to stop the conflict and practices against the Palestinian people. 

Qusai told Al-Maalouma that “there is a possibility of expanding the circle of conflict in the Middle East in isolation from energy security, especially since all countries in this region are oil-producing and it is unlikely that there will be a goal to harm the interest of producers, as the rise in prices will harm the interest of consumers.

“”The rise in oil prices will hurt the Europeans in terms of their energy consumption pattern, as will China and India, and the conflict is not expected to expand to target production in the Middle East,” he said.

He pointed out that “the oil-producing countries in the Arab world, in the Organization of OAPEC, may issue a threat to the Zionist entity in order to pressure to stop the conflict or resort to the circle of truth and settlement with the Palestinian people ” 

**************

Tishwash:  Oil and Gas Parliament: The cessation of some oil projects costs the country millions of dollars*

The Oil, Gas and Natural Resources Committee in the House of Representatives revealed that there are projects that have been stalled in the Ministry of Oil for many months without any action being taken, which would cause major financial losses.

Committee member Kazem Al-Touki said in an interview with Al-Sabah, followed by Al-Eqtisad News, that there are “projects in some directorates of the Ministry of Oil that have been suspended for about 10 months without any solution being resolved,” noting that “those projects are on hold due to red tape.”

And laws, while any stoppage or defect in any oil facility causes losses to Iraq amounting to millions of dollars.” He stated that “the committee had previously summoned officials in the Ministry of Oil to discuss this matter,” stressing that “recommendations were issued to Minister Hayan Abdul Ghani to take action on these matters that were diagnosed by the committee, and that there is no need to delay production projects.”

He stressed that “the minister previously reviewed his program regarding gas investment and the projects and contracts concluded for that purpose, in addition to operating the Karbala refinery, which contributes to saving 80 percent of oil derivatives and reducing dependence on imports.”    link

****************

Tishwash:  The Sudanese advisor estimates the percentage of “idle” funds in Iraq

Today, Monday, the financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Mohamed Saleh, set the priorities for reforming the banking system and the conditions for achieving it, while pointing out that 85% of the monetary supply is outside banking circulation. 

Saleh told the official news agency, “The basic function of the banking system is bank credit or granting loans and is based on a basic lever aimed at attracting hoarded funds from outside the banking system and pushing them into banking channels.” 

He added, “This is done by encouraging the public’s interaction with banking units in a smooth and easy manner with high confidence, and by providing attractive means provided by banks to the public to open deposit accounts in very simplified ways in exchange for providing encouraging benefits and features to attract deposits.”

He continued, “Based on the above, banking reform can play its effective role in searching for easy banking mechanisms that help at the same time strengthen credit activity or grant loans, and proceed with financing economic activity in a broader manner without stumbles in banking liquidity.” 

He stressed that “this will achieve the goal of central banking reform in achieving easy, low-risk credit, through the availability of reform mechanisms capable of regularizing the flow of funds within the banking system and transferring them from economic surplus units (saved and hoarded) outside the banking system to become in the form of bank deposits that have adequate protection from… Liquidity risks are then transferred through credit or lending operations to financial deficit units that are looking to obtain financing to carry out investment and economic activity.

He pointed out that “the fundamental problem that the banking system suffers from, and the aspiration to reform that system, lies in the following question, which is: How can banks reverse the hoarding equation represented by the public’s retention of about 85% of the issued currency, which is still in the form of hoarded balances outside the banking system and is considered inactive non-banking balances?” effective, and does not provide any important service to the national economy, and that some of it operates with very high usurious borrowing risks?”

He believed that, “Therefore, one of the priorities of banking reform is to work to reverse the hoarding equation to become a savings equation with the public’s surplus funds flowing in the form of safe bank deposits, which requires that banks compete to attract deposits and provide loans in accordance with the banking management requirements that banks must work with regardless of Whether governmental or private. 

The Prime Minister’s advisor continued, “Therefore, the basics of banking reform are for banks to search for sufficient, effective and influential means that attract the public to open bank accounts, because the bank account is one of the basics of financial inclusion and encouraging individuals of all segments to make bank deposits, and by encouraging means the priority for the depositor to be obtained is On bank credit or banking facilities when needed before others, to ensure that the public is encouraged to make double deposits. 

He noted that “the banking system still deals with only 15% of the monetary mass issued into circulation until today, which is called cash leakage outside the banking system, and it is one of the basic indicators from which banking reform begins.”

He pointed out that “the priorities of banking reform are achieved in providing competitiveness by winning public deposits by facilitating cash deposit procedures and creating an effective atmosphere of reassurance that the deposited funds are protected according to the law and that the Iraqi Deposit Guarantee Company is the primary protector of deposits against banking risks.”

He stated that “the first and ultimate goal of reforming the banking system will remain based on quickly providing facilitated banking services for economic activity with the highest levels of facilitation, in addition to providing positive incentives to the public in order to deposit, whether with encouraging bank interest or facilitating (easy and safe) deposit and withdrawal methods for their money, in addition to obtaining loans.” “Before others.”

He pointed out that “the overall banking reform that we are looking forward to requires searching for means that embody the ability to transfer funds from the surplus units that hoard cash wealth (the public), which are mostly unemployed and hoarded, to be transferred to the investment forces that are searching for funds to complete the national income cycle and contribute to economic growth through… Granting credit and carrying out the real productive activity necessary to sustain development, which at the same time requires sustainable bank financing coupled with banking reforms as a precondition  link