Wendy’s Data Pinpoints When Working-Poor Customers Ditched “Dave’s Single” Burger Readers have been well informed about the bifurcated consumer landscape, where financial conditions look relatively stable for upper-middle-class and wealthy households. But for anyone earning less than $100,000 a year, financial misery persists, with many pressures lingering after four years of the disastrous Biden-Harris regime era. Last week at the […]

Supreme Court Seems Poised To Side With Trump In FTC Firing Case Authored by Sam Dorman via The Epoch Times, The Supreme Court seemed inclined to remove certain limits on President Donald Trump’s power to remove bureaucrats, but oral arguments on Dec. 8 left questions about how far their eventual decision would go in empowering the executive. The case – Trump v. Slaughter – focused on President Donald Trump’s request to […]

“Do Not Mistake Compliance For Surrender” – Alina Habba Steps Down As Acting US Attorney For New Jersey Alina Habba, the former personal attorney to President Trump, is stepping down from her contested position atop the federal prosecuting office in New Jersey. “As a result of the Third Circuit’s ruling, and to protect the stability and integrity of the office which I love, I have decided to step down in my role,” she said in a […]

Border Czar Says 62,000 Illegally Smuggled Children Rescued So Far Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times, White House border czar Tom Homan on Dec. 7 said more than 60,000 children who were illegally smuggled into the United States have been located by the Trump administration and that some were rescued from dire situations, including sex trafficking and forced labor. In an interview with the Fox News show “Fox & […]

India Plans Coal Expansion Through 2047 Despite Supposed “Climate Goals” It’s funny how no one actually seems to care about climate change malarky when there isn’t an environmentalist Democrat in the White House to try and impress… Along that vein, India is weighing a major expansion of coal power that could extend new plant construction until at least 2047, according to people familiar with ongoing discussions between the […]

Rickards: 8 Events Driving The Gold Frenzy Authored by James Rickards via Investors Daily, Events are moving quickly in the gold market. You know about the run-up in the price of gold; it has become a mainstream media story. But the gold situation is bigger than that. There are important developments almost daily that will sustain the gold bull market for years to come. Let’s look briefly at the gold price action and then turn to […]

Ukraine Claims It Can Intercept Conversations Of Kremlin Officials The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency has boasted of being capable of intercepting conversations of senior Russian officials. He made the big claim in a fresh local media interview, but didn’t back it up by proof or any specifics. “Yes, we can. We get paid for this,” stated the agency’s chief, Kyrylo Budanov, to RBC-Ukraine on Sunday. He had […]

Solid, Stopping-Through 3Y Auction Boosted By Surge In Foreign Demand Due to the FOMC meeting falling on a Wednesday, the Treasury is scrambling to issue this week’s coupon auctions, starting with a $58BN 3Y auction which saw solid demand when it was offered at 1pm ET. The sale of $58BN in 3 year paper priced at a high yield of 3.614%, up from 3.579% in November, and the highest since August. The auction also stopped through the […]

The DPI Link To Margin Debt Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, A recent article by Simon White, via Bloomberg, discussed the rising cost of margin debt for investors. While his analysis below compares the cost of debt to GDP, we will also consider a more critical comparison to disposable personal income (DPI). Here is Simon’s point. “Yet, where history does raise a red flag is if we look at the cost of […]

Offer Royale: Paramount-Netflix Bidding War For Warner Bros Heats Up In A Blockbuster Showdown Update (1324ET):  Here’s the side-by-side comparison of the Netflix versus Paramount-Skydance offers as the bidding war for Warner Bros.’ assets goes into overdrive. In markets, Netflix shares were down about 4% in early afternoon trading in New York, while Paramount shares were up nearly 10%. Fox Business reporter Charles […]

NY Fed Consumer Survey Shows Steady Inflation, Despite Soaring Expectations For Medical Care Costs US consumer inflation expectations were stable in November while perceptions about households current financial situations deteriorated “notably” and perceptions about job prospects improved, according to the latest Survey of Consumer Expectations from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Median inflation expectations a year ahead […]

Dr. Oz Threatens To Pull Funding From Minnesota After $1 Billion In Medicaid Funding Was Stolen by Fraudsters Authored by Jacki Thrapp via The Epoch Times, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) threatened to withhold federal funding from Minnesota after fraudsters allegedly stole more than $1 billion set aside for Medicaid programs. CMS administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz ordered Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to follow a […]

Jamie Dimon Says “People Have To Grow Up” After Being Asked About Crypto Debanking Claims JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has pushed back against claims that the bank is cutting off accounts because of political views or ties to crypto, following recent accusations from Strike CEO Jack Mallers that both his personal and business accounts were abruptly closed. The allegations — later amplified by former President Donald Trump — revived […]

Judge Temporarily Blocks DOJ From Using Evidence Proving James Comey’s Guilt Via Headline USA, A federal judge has dealt a setback to Justice Department efforts to seek a new indictment against former FBI Director James Comey, temporarily barring prosecutors from using evidence they had relied on when they initially secured criminal charges. The ruling Saturday night from U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly does not […]

Trump’s Corollary To The Monroe Doctrine Changes Everything By Benjamin Pictor, senior market strategst at Rabobank US equity indices closed in on new highs on Friday as traders look ahead to this week’s FOMC meeting and place bets that monetary conditions are poised to get a little easier. Nevertheless, the US sovereign curve shifted higher by almost 4 basis points, with around half of that move coming after the release of […]

Buffett Protégé Todd Combs Leaving Berkshire For JPMorgan Warren Buffett, 95, has still not departed the investment conglomerate he founded decades ago, and already Berkshire Hathaway is rocked by departures: this morning we learned that his investment protégé Todd Combs is leaving Berkshire for a new role at JPMorgan Chase, as a new guard prepares to take over at the sprawling $1.1tn conglomerate. Todd Combs was seen as Warren […]

House Approves Bill Blocking IRS Fines Without Specific Supervisory Approval Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The House of Representatives voted to pass two bills on Monday that increase protections for taxpayers in matters related to penalties imposed by the IRS and tax dispute proceedings in the U.S. Tax Court. The IRS building in Washington on Jan. 9, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu /The Epoch Times […]

‘Disappointed’ Trump Raps Zelensky Who ‘Hasn’t Yet Read’ Peace Proposal President Trump has continued to speak frankly about Zelensky and the Ukrainian government, at a moment of a sense of stalled frustration on the peace plan with Russia unveiled last month. His frustration with Keiv continues to show, especially after high hopes for his 28-point peace plan were dashed by yet more roadblocks which saw his Thanksgiving deadline […]

Magnitude 7.2 Quake Strikes Off Japan, Triggers Tsunami Alert A powerful earthquake struck offshore along Japan’s northern coast near Aomori and Hokkaido just moments ago. Japan’s Meteorological Agency has issued a tsunami alert, warning that water surges could reach up to 3 meters (about 10 feet) along parts of the northeastern coast. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters that citizens in the affected areas must […]

Key Events This Busy Week: Fed, JOLTs, Central Banks Galore; Oracle & Broadcom Earnings It’s a busy week for both economic news and central banks, with all roads pointing to Wednesday’s FOMC, where overwhelming consensus is for the Fed to deliver a final and third 25bps rate cut for 2025, making it 6 cuts and 175bps in this easing cycle since September 2024 (there was a very painful path to get here with several communication […]

Trump Expected To Roll Out $12 Billion Farm Aid Program Today The Trump administration on Monday is planning to roll out a $12 billion farm aid package to help producers hurt by the trade war, which will include up to $11 billion in one-time payments to crop farmers under the Department of Agriculture’s newly designed Farmer Bridge Assistance program. The rest of the aid will go to crops not covered by the FBA, Bloomberg reports, […]

Tesla Shares Slip After Morgan Stanley Downgrades To Equal-Weight From Overweight Tesla shares slipped about 1.5% in early trading on Monday after Morgan Stanley cut its rating on the stock to Equal-weight from Overweight, even as the firm raised its price target to $425 from $410. With Tesla changing hands around $455 into the move, the new target implies modest downside and a more balanced risk-reward profile in the eyes of the […]

“The Days Of Censoring Americans Online Are Over”: Senior US Diplomats Slam EU’s “Attack” On American Tech Platform X Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and several other senior U.S. officials have criticized the internet policies of the European Union (EU), likening them to censorship, after the governing bloc last week levied Elon Musk’s social media platform X with a $140 million […]

Trump Readies “One-Rule” Executive Order Aimed At Centralizing AI Regulation President Trump continues to argue that a single, national set of rules, otherwise known as a “One Rulebook,” governing the artificial intelligence industry is essential, rather than a patchwork of state-by-state regulations that would slow development amid a superpower race with China. This comes as Trump’s national strategy to build out data centers, […]

Confluent Shares Erupt After Report Of $11 Billion IBM Takeover Bid Confluent shares skyrocketed in premarket trading in New York after a Wall Street Journal report revealed that IBM is in talks to buy the data infrastructure company for $11 billion. The deal could be announced as soon as today. *IBM acquiring Confluent in $11 billion all-cash deal *IBM: Confluent Deal Represents Enterprise Value of $11 Billion — zerohedge […]