A Panicking Japan Considers Shorting Oil To Prop Up The Crashing Yen With the yen collapse accelerating, and pushing the USDJPY above 160 for the first time since 2024, markets are on edge expecting a BOJ intervention at any moment as this was the price when the BOJ intervened last time. However, with BOJ interventions having been consistently proven futile with a half life of just weeks if not days, Japan – facing soaring […]

Iran-Linked Hackers Breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s Personal Email Account, DOJ Confirms Iran-linked hackers have claimed responsibility for breaching the personal email account of FBI Director Kash Patel, publicly releasing photographs of him, a purported resume, and excerpts of old emails. A U.S. Justice Department official has confirmed the compromise, marking the latest escalation in cyber tensions between the United States and […]

Johnson To Advance New 60-Day DHS Funding Package But Schumer Says DOA House Speaker Mike Johnson agreed to put a short-term DHS funding package on the floor The resolution would fund all of DHS, including ICE and CBP It would replace the Senate-passed bill on the House floor Chuck Schumer says it’s ‘DOA’ Update (1340ET): After meeting with the Freedom Caucus, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has agreed to advance a 60-day […]

Cartels Are Going ‘Broke’ As US Fentanyl Supply Drops By Almost 60%: Homan Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times, The Trump administration’s border crackdown is slowing the flow of deadly drugs into the country to the point that cartel profits have plummeted. ​Border czar Tom Homan said during an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s […]

Will QatarEnergy’s LNG Fiasco Derail Goldman’s Prewar View Of A Mega LNG Wave Global energy flows are being rewired across Eurasia as the Russia-Ukraine war and the latest U.S.-Iran conflict disrupt Gulf energy flows in what may be the worst energy shock on record. One major new development is that roughly 20% of global LNG flows remain shut in the Gulf region because of the Hormuz chokepoint, with QatarEnergy warning last week […]

Schiff: “Real Rates Are Going To Collapse”; Dollar Confidence Crisis Gold or Bitcoin: which can anchor the next reserve system?  Last night, in a ZH debate hosted by Real Vision’s Ash Bennington, Peter Schiff argued for gold’s role as the future global reserve currency, while Mark Moss made the case for Bitcoin, arguing that it is gaining traction on sovereign balance sheets as of 2025. They covered America’s dwindling reserve […]

Iran Threatens Industrial Sites Across Gulf-Region After Its Nuclear & Largest Steel Plants Attacked Summary No pause from Tehran, war footing deepens: Iran denies requesting Donald Trump’s 10-day halt; Israel attacks steel & industrial sites. Also, Khondab Heavy Water Research Reactor, part of the Arak Nuclear Complex, targeted. Yellow Cake factory in Yazd province hit. Escalation on all fronts: IRGC HQ targeted […]

Newspaper Apologizes For Accurately Describing Suspected Killer As ‘Illegal Immigrant’ Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, The student journalists at Loyola University Chicago’s Phoenix newspaper have issued a groveling apology for initially reporting the facts about the man charged with murdering 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman. In an editor’s note, the paper stated: “Additionally, in the body of the original post, […]

UAE Pushes For Hormuz Security Force, While Turkey Argues Against Gulf Entry Into War It’s one of those things that sounds nice on paper, but when missiles and drones are inbound, no one is going to want to be on a military ship sitting in the middle of the Strait of Hormuz: the United Arab Emirates, which has been among the hardest-impacted Gulf states in Iran’s ongoing retaliation, is pressing for a multinational maritime […]

House Ethics Panel Finds Florida Democrat Congresswoman Committed 25 Violations Authored by Chase Smith via The Epoch Times, A bipartisan House Ethics Committee panel found on March 27 that Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) committed 25 ethics violations, a ruling that sets the stage for a sanctions hearing and a potential expulsion vote on the House floor. The adjudicatory subcommittee, composed of four Republicans and […]

China Dismisses Report Of Top Chipmaker Aiding Iranian Forces As “Fake News” Beijing moved into damage-control mode on Friday, with its foreign ministry dismissing a Reuters report that cited two senior Trump administration officials alleging that SMIC, China’s largest chipmaker, had sent chipmaking tools to Iran, as “false information.” Asked about the report at a regular news conference in Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Lin […]

Someone Tell Lloyd Blankfein The Fire In Private Credit Has Already Started Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance As I’ve been writing about, private credit has been under immense stress for months, with liquidity strains, redemption pressure, and growing questions around valuations all surfacing at once. And now with things on the verge of imminent collapse and literally all of f*cking Wall Street already on notice, one former […]

Logic, Logistics, And At Least Another 10 Days… By Michael Every of Rabobank Thursday was a rocky day in markets ahead of today’s deadline for the US to shift from bombing Iran’s nuclear, missile, drone, military-industrial, and regime sites to destroying its electricity grid, potentially taking out its power generation for a generation, and unleashing an Iranian response against the broader region’s power, water, and energy […]

Iran War Triggers Jump In Americans’ Inflation Expectations, Slump In Sentiment While the preliminary UMich survey was undertaken between February 17 and March 9, with about half completed after the start of the US military conflict in Iran, today’s final print includes the full month with all the conflict’s escalations (and de-escalations). Expectations were for the headline sentiment index to tumble with expectations projected […]

QatarEnergy Declares ForceMajeure For LNG Shipments Through May, Representing As Many As 90 Cargoes The already dismal LNG supply situation just got worse. With up to 20% of global LNG flows shuttered due to the ongoing blockade of the Hormuz Strait and the extensive damage of Qatar LNG infrastructure, QatarEnergy has declared force majeure on some of ⁠its long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply contracts, including ‌for […]

“There’s A Lot Of Concern”: GOP Lawmakers Predict Midterm Disaster If Troops Deployed To Iran While most Republicans are still with Trump on Iran, beneath the outward show of unity, something more politically dangerous is beginning to emerge: a growing fear that a war sold as limited could turn into the kind of Middle East quagmire MAGA voters thought they had already rejected. And it isn’t just the usual anti-interventionist […]

Peak Lobotomized American Consumer Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance There’s a very specific kind of financial confession I’ve had to make to myself recently. I see charges pop up on my phone’s home screen on various credit cards all the time. A lot of times they just say “Apple” or “Amazon.” No details. No explanation. Just a clean, confident withdrawal from my account like I’m renting air to breathe from both of […]

AI Disruption Returns: Cybersecurity Stocks Tumble On Report Of New Anthropic “Step Change” AI Model Cybersecurity stocks are slumping in premarket trading on Friday as the AI disruption trade returns after a Fortune report said Anthropic is testing a new AI model that “poses significant cybersecurity risks.” According to the report, Anthropic is “developing and has begun testing with early access customers a new AI model more […]

Trump Fails To Jawbone Market As Futures, Bitcoin Tumble; Oil And Yields Soar Futures are sharply lower, erasing modest overnight gains and trading near session lows as Brent crude futures are back above $110 a barrel after erasing an earlier fall and knocking broader risk sentiment off course in the process. There didn’t appear to be a single catalyst for the oil turnaround, although a steady stream of drone and missile […]

First Qatar Supply Shock, Now Cyclone Chaos Slams Major Australian LNG Plants In a troubling overnight development that could further deepen the Gulf energy shock, especially in global LNG markets, a tropical cyclone has disrupted operations at three major Australian LNG facilities, which together account for roughly 8.4% of global supply. The timing is alarming: Iranian strikes have already knocked out about 17% of Qatar’s LNG […]

Did Melania Trump’s White House Walk With Humanoid Robot Signal Admin’s Push Into Physical AI The White House on Wednesday hosted an education summit featuring first lady Melania Trump walking side by side with an American-made humanoid robot.  “Figure 03” AI-powered robot accompanies first lady Melania Trump to a White House summit on empowering children with educational technology. pic.twitter.com/RShdfvEG38 — CSPAN (@cspan) […]

K-Shaped Economy Bites Back: Retail CRE Transactions For Shops, Malls Plunge February U.S. commercial real estate transaction activity appeared soft on the surface, but Goldman analysts believe the weak initial print will likely be revised meaningfully higher. The most notable area of weakness in last month’s transaction data was across the retail space, which is not especially surprising as the K-shaped economy continues to […]

UK Pushes Ahead With Temporary Ban On Political Crypto Donations Authored by Stephen Katte via CoinTelegraph.com, The UK government is advancing plans for a moratorium on political donations made through cryptocurrencies, following an independent review and pressure from multiple high-ranking politicians. Cointelegraph reported on Wednesday that the Rycroft Review, an independent inquiry into foreign financial interference in […]

Pentagon Weighs Sending Another 10,000 Ground Troops To Middle East, Suggests Seizing Iran-Controlled Islands Summary The Pentagon is looking at sending up to 10,000 additional ground troops to the Middle East to give the US President more military options even as he weighs peace talks with Tehran, according to unnamed Department of War officials     The earlier five-day deadline for resumption of US attacks on Iranian energy […]

EU Accuses Hungary Of ‘Pro-Russian Espionage’ Authored by Lucas Leiroz de Almeida via InfoBrics, The rhetorical escalation between Budapest and Brussels continues to grow. Now, the EU accuses Hungary of actively sabotaging Europe by passing strategic information about the bloc to the Russian side. This type of serious accusation could never be made without proof, yet it has become common practice for the Western liberal regimes to […]