WTI Rises After Big Product Draws, Tiny Crude Build, SPR Nears ‘Tank Bottoms’ Oil prices extended their declines for a third straight day after the US plan to ramp up economic pressure on Iran spared the country’s trading partners from harsher measures for now, while mediators said they were continuing efforts to end the conflict. “There was a lot of buildup around the announcement but what we got was more a warning about where […]

Terrifying Video Captures ‘Day After Tomorrow’-Like Flood Swallowing Entire China-Nepal Border Checkpoint At least 31 people were confirmed dead, and hundreds of tourists and travelers remained missing after a catastrophic flash flood tore through Nepal’s border region with Tibet. This image helps explain what happened along the Nepal–Tibet border. According to reports, a magnitude 4.4 earthquake on the Tibetan side triggered a […]

“This Is Crazy” – FTC Chair Responds To Soaring Chip Costs, Floats Possible Antitrust Action We’ve covered soaring “chipflation” for months and the trend does not seem to be abating. Nvidia is reportedly informing its largest customers to expect price hikes of at least 15% for next year, possibly to set expectations of a still larger move upward… and meanwhile the semi component in the PPI looks like a 2021 memecoin: All […]

Meta Settles With US States For $16.7 Billion Over Social Media Harms To Children Meta Platforms has reached a $16.7 billion settlement to resolve a landmark claim brought by several states that the company designed Instagram and Facebook to addict children, improperly collected children’s personal data, and misled consumers about their safety.  The deal was in a Wednesday court filing in California after a lawsuit was brought […]

Oil Extends Decline As Rubio Rules Out New Strikes, Iran-Oman Transit Deal Nears Finalization An IRGC spokesman has announced Wednesday that Iran and Oman have reached agreements on their share of the Strait of Hormuz and its revenues, according toTasnim news agency. So essentially the “fee” scheme has been set. There’s talk of reopening the strait on an “interim” basis, Bloomberg says. “We entered into negotiations with Oman about […]

CIA Director Held Covert Moscow Talks With Russian Intel Chiefs As Relations Sink Deeper Into “Crisis” Summary:  CIA Director Ratcliffe Met With Senior Russian intelligence officials, Not Putin Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov Says Meeting Focused On Repairing Bilateral US-Russia Relations In “Deep Crisis”  CIA Director Ratcliffe On USAF Cargo Jet Flight To Moscow US Air Force C-17 Makes Mysterious Visit To Moscow  New […]

Q2 GDP Grew At Modest 1.5% According To Latest Revision, As Expected While far less relevant than the rest of today’s data barrage, including the core PCE report and Durable Goods data which showed a mixed real-time picture of the economy as core prices rose more than expected while core CapEx missed expectations, the BEA also reported its second revision of Q2 GDP data – yes, for the quarter ended June 30 or almost two months ago – […]

Fed’s Favorite Inflation Indicator Ticks Up In July As Americans Suddenly Start Saving More Following the CPI and PPI internals, this morning’s PCE data should not offer too many surprises with expectations for the headline price Index to rise just 0.1% MoM in July (after deflating for the first time since COVID in June). The (old) Fed’s favorite inflation indicator – Core PCE (a measure of price changes in consumer goods and […]

Futures Flat Ahead Of Key PCE Report, Nvidia Earnings Stock futures are are flat and Treasuries slipped while oil stumbled heading into today’s PCE report and NVDA earnings. As of 8:00am ET, S&P Futures are unchanged and Nasdaq futures drop 0.2% as NVDA and MRVL both rise 0.2% with Semis flat, Memory down 80bp, Korea down 46bp, Software down 1.3%, but Unprofitable Tech +83bp which point to continued de-risking into NVDA / MRVL […]

Colombia’s New President Orders Immigration Raids, Vows To Deport Illegal Immigrants Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times, Colombia’s new president has ordered immigration raids this week and promised deportations of immigrants without legal status. Colombia’s President Abelardo de la Espriella speaks during a press conference at the Palacio de San Carlos in Bogota, Colombia, on August 12, 2026. (Esteban Vega La-Rotta/AFP […]

US-Canada Trade War Threatens Electricity Imports, Prices By Robert Walton of UtilityDive An escalating trade war between the United States and Canada is once again threatening to ensnare the electric power sector at a time when consumers are already stretched thin. Canada is expected to announce retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods Tuesday after President Donald Trump’s 50% tariffs on about $20 billion in Canadian goods went […]

Oil Dumps As Iran, Oman Push To Reopen Hormuz; Satellite Image Shows Gulf Producers Ramping Up Brent crude futures dropped for a third session as Iran and Oman advanced plans for a temporary maritime corridor through the Strait of Hormuz. Brent tumbled to $85 a barrel early Wednesday, down more than 9% for the week, while West Texas Intermediate traded around $80. Crude remains up more than 41% this year following the US-Iran […]

Zelensky Continues To Oppose Wartime Democracy Amidst Escalated Election Demands Authored by John Weeks via Antiwar.com, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is facing mounting pressure to hold elections. The Ukrainian leader was elected to a five-year term in 2019, which expired in May 2024. Last week, Ukraine’s former defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov publicly called for elections, breaking what has been characterized as a […]

Why Data Centers Favor On-Site Gas Power Most data center developers opting for on-site gas power say that they see it as a “bridge” solution until a grid connection is secured. Yet economics may favor keeping those assets running even after grid power becomes available. A recent BloombergNEF analysis shows the marginal cost of operating an on-site gas plant may be below industrial electricity tariffs, making continued […]

When Paris Went Hungry Under Government Food Controls Authored by Daniel J. Smith via The Daily Economy, How does Paris get fed? Frédéric Bastiat famously explained in Economic Sophisms (1845) how market exchange reliably provisioned the (then) million people of Paris with agricultural produce from the countryside that they were able to enjoy “peaceful slumbers…not disturbed for a single instant….” In stark contrast, […]

ICE Begins Deporting Illegal Immigrants To Dangerous African Countries Imagine entering the US illegally and enjoying the fruits of the American economy for years, only to wake up one day in the darkest of Africa in a country known for cannibalism?  The strategy might be ugly, but it might also be ingenious.   Last year, illegal Cuban immigrant Yasmany Moreno de Armas was working and living in Florida. He’s now in the Central […]

US Removes Syria, Including Al-Nusra Front, From Its List Of Terrorism Sponsors Following a decade-and-a-half of a Washington-led full economic siege of the Syrian state, and after a fierce CIA-backed proxy war (Timber Sycamore) to oust Assad over that same period, this week has witnessed the huge milestone of the United States finally removing Syria from its state sponsors of terrorism list. The designation itself had stretched […]

Normal Brits Are Unwittingly Funding Pro-Illegal Migrant Charities Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News, Every week millions of ordinary Brits buy a National Lottery ticket hoping for a life-changing win. What most never realise is that a chunk of that money has been systematically channelled into pro-migrant activist charities that push open borders and far-left ideology. A GB News exclusive has revealed that the […]

Pitch For Defense Treaty And Moving US Military To Israel Is Insane Authored by Jennifer Kavanagh via Responsible Statecraft, On August 18, Israel bombed a non-operational Syrian air base, reportedly to derail Turkish plans to deploy military forces to the installation. The move drew swift condemnation from the United States, which did not receive prior notification despite its growing support for Syria, its alliance with Turkey, […]

This Is The Income A Family Needs To Live Comfortably In Every US State Here’s the short version of what it takes for a family of four to live comfortably in 2026 by state: In Massachusetts, you’d need nearly $330,000 a year – the highest figure in the entire country. Only three states clear the $300,000 mark: Massachusetts, Hawaii, and California. At the other end of the spectrum, Mississippi is the most affordable at about […]

DEA Seized 47 Million Fentanyl-Laced Counterfeit Pills In 2025 Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times, The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) confiscated more than 47 million fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills and almost 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder in 2025. Just two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a lethal dose. Courtesy of the DEA The seized narcotics are equivalent to 369 million lethal doses of […]

Scandal-Plagued KPMG To Cut Australian Workforce Following Government Contract Suspension A major consultancy firm under fire for misconduct in its audit business is cutting its local workforce following a suspension from applying for new government contracts. KPMG’s U.S. headquarters at Two Manhattan West. Photo via Emily Louick Photography and Entropy Film Works Inc. KPMG – one of the “Big Four” accounting firms alongside […]

Macroeconomic Data Is Really A Tool For Government Intervention Authored by Frank Shostak via Mises Institute, It is common for commentators and economists to refer to something called the “economy,” which sometimes performs well and, at other times, poorly. The “economy” is presented as an entity apart from individuals. Within this framework, the “economy” is assigned paramount importance, while the role of individuals is barely […]

Is ICE Investigating Ilhan Omar? Trump ‘Truths’ Report On Withheld Fraud-Probe Records President Donald Trump drew fresh attention to a long-running controversy on Sunday when he reposted a Just the News article on Truth Social headlined “ICE refuses to disclose records on Ilhan Omar fraud probe, cites ongoing ‘enforcement proceedings.'” His decision to amplify the report, without comment, renewed scrutiny of allegations that have […]

Limits On Border Patrol Arrests In California Lifted By Federal Appeals Court Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times, A federal appeals court on Aug. 24 rescinded a preliminary injunction that limited U.S. Border Patrol stops and arrests in California’s Central Valley. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that a federal district court failed to properly analyze whether the plaintiffs had standing to seek […]