China Launches Anti-Dumping Probe Against Japan Over Key Chip-Making Chemical The China-Japan spat now seems to be accelerating by the day, with Tokyo warning in the aftermath of Tuesday’s dual use export curb announcement by China’s commerce ministry that the fresh action could “impact more than 40% of Chinese exports to Japan” – according to Bloomberg. In unveiling its fresh punitive measures Tuesday, marking a serious […]

Job Openings Plunge Below Lowest Estimate As Gov’t Openings Crater; Hiring Plummets While today’s ADP report was a solid rebound from the worst monthly report in years (even if it missed expectations due to a sudden plunge in California payrolls), the same could not be said for the JOLTS job opening report that followed less than two hours later, and which was another epic disaster: for the month of November (recall JOLTS lags the […]

False Choice: Individualism Vs Collectivism Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times, The Second World War had ended and the Cold War had already begun. The public was exhausted from grand ideological struggles. The notion that the United States would embark on yet another global campaign seemed implausible. And yet, there was Harry Truman in 1948 warning about the new threat: the Russians. The Republican Party was in no […]

Dumbocracy? US Falls Below The OECD Average At Math Math skills are a foundational input into modern economies. They support innovation, productivity, and long-term competitiveness. As technology and data-driven work become more central, countries with stronger math outcomes often gain an edge. This infographic, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, ranks countries by their average math scores among 15–16 year-olds. The data […]

An Arctic Chill In Greenland By Elwin de Groot, Head of Macro Strategy at Rabobank You may already have buckled yourself up, but an arctic chill may also require you to wear an extra vest these days. President Trump and some officials in his administration amplified threats to take Greenland. Preferably by “buying” it, but by force if necessary. The White House yesterday said it is discussing options for acquiring Greenland, […]

Donroe Doctrine: US Seizes Russian-Flagged Tanker In Atlantic, Intercepts Dark-Fleet Ship In Caribbean Update (1014ET): “Donroe Doctrine” to clean up the Western Hemisphere was busy Wednesday morning, with the seizure of the Russian-flagged oil tanker Marinera (formerly Bella 1) in the North Atlantic, followed by U.S. forces seizing a stateless dark-fleet tanker in the Caribbean region. The seizure of Marinera is the headliner […]

Some Republicans Are Distancing Themselves From MAGA Tuesday marks five years since the January 6 unrest of 2021, when self-proclaimed MAGA supporters entered the Capitol. Now, with Donald Trump back in the White House and entering the second year of his second term in office, a recent poll by NBC News Decision Desk shows signs that his strong support base has started to splinter. As Statista’s Anna Fleck details below, the […]

Somali UN Ambassador Linked To Ohio Health Care Company Sanctioned For Medicaid Fraud, HHS Says Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has confirmed that Abukar Dahir Osman, Somalia’s permanent representative to the United Nations and the current president of the U.N. Security Council, is associated with an Ohio-based home health care company that the federal government […]

Climate-Change Fears Drop, AI Anxiety Pops: What Will Happen In 2026? If the last years have shown us anything, it’s that a lot can change, fast. While many events cannot be foreseen, can others? Ipsos asked more than 23,600 people across 30 countries about their predictions for the coming year, with a survey on topics ranging from artificial intelligence to the climate and the World Cup. This data is based on one […]

ADP Private Payrolls Rebound But Miss Estimates After California Jobs Tumble One month after ADP reported a dismal -29K private payrolls print for November, tied for the worst month since March 2023, and just in time to validate the Fed’s latest rate cut, moments ago ADP reported that in December, the US added 41K payrolls, which while a solid jump from last month’s -29K, missed consensus estimates of a +50K print.  The […]

Medicaid Will ‘Claw Back’ Fraud Funds From Minnesota: Agency Head Authored by Janice Hisle via The Epoch Times, Minnesota will feel an “increasing vise grip of financial penalties” to help make up for taxpayer dollars lost to fraud, Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service, said Jan. 6. His agency is auditing all 14 Medicaid programs that Minnesota flagged as vulnerable to fraud; that […]

Stocks Head For First Drop Of 2026 As Focus Turns To Geopolitics, Macro US equity futures are weaker but off session lows, as markets pause ahead of a series of US labor and economic data. As of 8:00am ET, S&P futures are down 0.1% as global equity markets have run into some resistance after a strong start to 2026; Nasdaq futures dip 0.2% with TMT underperforming premarket, with most Mag7 and Semis names lower while Energy, […]

MSCI Will Not Exclude Bitcoin Treasury Companies Like Michael Saylor’s Strategy From Global Indexes Authored by Micah Zimmerman via BitcoinMagazine.com, In a major development for Bitcoin-focused corporations and the broader digital asset ecosystem, global index provider MSCI has concluded its review of digital asset treasury companies (DATCOs) and decided against excluding them from its flagship indexes. MSCI said the current […]

Goldman Sees Middle Class “Outperforming”, Yet K-Shaped Economy Persists All of Goldman’s 2026 global outlooks across macroeconomics, markets, and the consumer were rolled out Monday for Premium and Pro readers, offering more visibility for how the firm’s top desks are viewing this year. In this note, we focus more closely on the consumer outlook, where Goldman expects middle-income households to outperform while lower-income […]

US Discusses Ways To Acquire Greenland; Military Use On Table Authored by Kimberley Hayek via The Epoch Times, President Donald Trump is seeking to acquire Greenland as a U.S. national security priority necessary to deter adversaries in the region and may consider military action, the White House said on Tuesday. “President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United […]

Germany’s Chancellor Warns Of Economic Collapse… Then Doubles Down On Central Planning Submitted by Thomas Kolbe In a letter to members of the governing coalition that has so far only become known in fragments, Chancellor Friedrich Merz warns of a severe economic crisis and calls for reforms. Yet the circulating and quotable elements of the document from the Chancellery reveal no deviation whatsoever from the course already […]

Crude Drops After Trump Says Venezuela Will Transfer Up To 50 Million Barrels To US Update (2035ET):  Brent crude futures fell after a Truth Social post from President Trump said officials in Venezuela will transfer “30 to 50 MILLION barrels of high-quality, sanctioned oil” to the U.S. “This oil will be sold at its market price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is […]

Soaring Silver Prices Force Solar Makers To Rethink Materials Longi Green Energy Technology Co. is preparing a major shift in how it makes solar cells, moving away from heavy reliance on silver and toward lower-cost base metals as the industry grapples with rising material prices and shrinking margins, according to Bloomberg. The company said it will begin large-scale production using base metals in the second quarter, a step it […]

Twenty Years Of Watching The Thermometer… And The Narrative Authored by Anthony Watts via WattsUpWithThat.com, In November 2006, when I launched Watts Up With That?, the idea was simple enough: look at the data, check the instruments, and ask whether the conclusions being drawn actually followed from the evidence. It was never intended as a career in heresy. It was, at the time, a fairly normal scientific impulse steeped in […]

Paris Summit Wants Ukraine ‘Peace’ Through NATO Boots On Ground Tuesday’s major Ukraine summit of the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ in Paris on Tuesday, where dozens of European leaders were hosted by President Emmanuel Macron, is still desperately trying to salvage strong security guarantees for Kiev as a central part of any future peace deal to end the war with Russia. Macron vowed that Ukraine’s allies and military […]

The Heart Of The Matter: Cardiac Risks Of COVID-19 Vaccines Authored by Michael Tomlinson via The Brownstone Institute, Evidence continues to mount indicating that the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic was counterproductive and harmful, yet mainstream opinion continues to proclaim that it was a triumph. This is based on scientific papers that often manipulate the data or present it selectively. Exhibit 1: Cohort study […]

These Are The Middle East’s Most-Populated Cities The Middle East is home to some of the world’s fastest-growing and most densely populated cities. Rapid population growth, rural-to-urban migration, and economic concentration have driven major cities to expand well beyond their historic cores. This map, via Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte, highlights the most populated cities in the region in 2025. The data for this […]

“We Don’t Want Your Culture Of Dominance” – Denmark To Ramp Up Deportations Of Criminal Foreigners Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has announced plans for deportation reform aimed at expelling more foreign nationals convicted of serious crimes, using her New Year’s address to argue that Denmark must put public safety and victims first, even if doing so pushes the boundaries of […]

Perhaps We Should Actually Be Focusing On Fixing America Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com, After years of heading in the wrong direction, nobody can deny that the United States is facing overwhelming problems. So why don’t we focus on fixing those problems first? The truth is that we can’t do everything because our resources are very limited. U.S. households are more than 18 trillion dollars in debt, and […]

Chevron Contracts 11 Tankers For Venezuela Port Calls As Don-Roe Doctrine Begins Chevron stands out as the clear winner among U.S. oil majors, given its unique positioning already in Venezuela. The company already produces a quarter of the country’s oil output under a U.S. sanctions waiver and exports crude, giving it an operational and regulatory moat no other oil major can match. With the Monroe Doctrine effectively rebranded as […]