Millions Of Student Borrowers Are Defaulting: They Are 40 Years Old On Average The NY Federal published its latest report on Household Debt and Credit for the first quarter: the report showed total household debt increased by $18 billion, just a 0.1% increase, in Q1 2026, to $18.8 trillion.  Some details: Mortgage balances shown on consumer credit reports grew slightly by $21 billion during the first quarter of 2026 and totaled […]

Illinois Sued Over Allegedly Using Race As A Factor In Congressional Map Authored by Troy Myers via The Epoch Times, A public interest law firm announced Monday it was suing Illinois over its use of race in drawing congressional maps. The lawsuit accuses the state of violating the 15th Amendment, which prohibits government from denying a citizen the right to vote based on race, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in light of a […]

CME Launching Futures Market For AI Compute US derivatives exchange CME Group and index provider Silicon Data have teamed up to create a futures market for computing power, a key source driving the AI boom. Bloomberg reports that the futures will help traders, financial firms, AI builders and cloud providers manage volatility and price swings. Indexes from market-intelligence firm Silicon Data will help underpin the products. The […]

Labor Unions Join Banking Industry In Opposition To Senate Crypto Bill, The Clarity Act Authored by Micah Zimmerman via Bitcoin Magazine, Five of the nation’s largest labor organizations are urging the Senate to vote against a pending cryptocurrency market structure bill, warning that the legislation would expose retirement accounts to digital asset volatility ahead of a key committee vote Thursday. The AFL-CIO, Service […]

Crestfallen Commie Mamdani Abandons Planned Property Tax Hike On New Yorkers Looks like NYC’s communist mayor has had second thoughts about extracting more taxes by raising New Yorkers’ property taxes – something he vowed to do to help close a two-year deficit. According to Bloomberg, the decision to drop the tax hike will be included in Mamdani’s executive budget released today, which will mark the latest version of his […]

Nelson Peltz’s Trian Discussing Wendy’s Go-Private Takeover Shares of Wendy’s jumped in premarket trading after the Financial Times reported that Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management is considering taking the hamburger chain private and is seeking investors to back the deal. FT noted: Trian in recent weeks has held discussions with outside investors, including in the Middle East, about financing a potential takeover of Wendy’s, […]

Dismal, Tailing 10Y Auction Sees Lowest Foreign Demand Since Jan 2025 As Yields Soar With 30Y yields trading on the wrong side of 5% today, all eyes were on today’s 10Y refunding auction to see if it would be ugly enough to push yields to 4.50% or higher. Here is what happened. Just after 1pm, the Treasury announced that the high yield on today’s sale of $42 billion in 10Y paper was 4.468%, the highest yield since Jan 2025, and a […]

Pakistan ‘Categorically Rejects’ Reports It Hid Iranian Military Planes From US Attack A day after initial allegations were first widely reported, Pakistan’s government has issued a public rejection of claims that it hosted Iranian military aircraft in order to shield them from coming under US-Israeli attack during the opening weeks of Operation Epic Fury. However, Islamabad in the statement did acknowledged the presence of some […]

“Actions Speak Louder Than Words”: Can Tom Steyer Now Sue Katie Porter For Defamation? Authored by Jonathan Turley, California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer has run on the slogan of “actions speak louder than words.” It may now be time for him to prove it and bring a defamation action against opponent Katie Porter for her accusations that he engaged in dirty politics. Porter used a CNN interview to accuse Steyer of […]

Shadow Wars: IRGC Operatives Tried To Infiltrate Kuwait, Firefight Ensues Kuwait and Iran are barely separated by a small section of Iraqi coastline at the head of the Persian Gulf, but they do share a maritime border. But given the small oil-rich Sunni sheikdom’s close proximity to the Islamic Republic, and given its historic role in hosting American forces and bases, it is to be expected that it would be heavily targeted in […]

Virginia Democrats Ask US Supreme Court To Reinstate Congressional Map Authored by Bryan Hyde via American Greatness, Virginia Democrats, along with their state Attorney General, have asked the US Supreme Court to override the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision last week that struck down a partisan redistricting plan. ABC News reports Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones wrote in the emergency application filed on Monday that […]

“Like Band-Aid On An Arterial Bleed”: Ranchers Warn Trump’s Proposed Beef Tariff Cut Offers Only Temporary Relief Summary: Cattle ranchers respond with first-takes on proposed policies from White House  Tuesday: Trump team is “fine-tuning” an executive order aimed at reducing ‌domestic beef prices Monday: Tyson Sinks, Walmart Falls After Trump Moves To Temporarily Lower Beef Import Tariffs Ranchers Respond […]

‘Could Resonate Globally’: Korea Sparks Market Chaos With ‘AI Tax’ Threat Korean markets were under pressure overnight after politicians floated the idea of tapping AI profits.  Bloomberg reports that a top South Korean policymaker said the nation should pay citizens a ‘dividend’ using taxes on AI profits, with the obvious read through to Samsung and SK Hynix.  The comments in a Facebook post by presidential policy chief Kim […]

Global Coal Demand Surges As Middle East Energy Crisis Deepens Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via Oilprice.com, Global coal shipments and imports surged in March and April as buyers scrambled for fuel amid massively disrupted oil and gas supply from the Middle East. The trend has been accelerating in recent weeks, and global coal imports are on track to reach their third-highest monthly level on record, according to estimates by […]

As Hantavirus Cases Rise, US Officials Say Risk To Public “Very, Very Low” A total of 11 hantavirus cases have been confirmed as of Tuesday morning, with global health officials warning that the number could rise. The risk to the public from an illness called the hantavirus is low, a U.S. official said on May 11. “Let me be crystal clear: the risk of hantavirus to the general public remains very, very low,” Dr. Brian […]

Massive Life Support By Benjamin Picton, Senior Markets Strategist At Rabobank Massive Live Support “On massive life support” was Donald Trump’s characterization of the US-Iran ceasefire yesterday. This followed Sunday’s rejection of Iranian terms for peace that Trump described as “totally unacceptable”. In a boy-who-cried-wolf-style sign of growing market insensitivity to Presidential prognostications, Brent was only […]

Anthropic Voids Unauthorized Share Transfers, Triggering Bloodbath In Tokenized Markets Anthropic warned investors that any unapproved sale or transfer of its private shares, including those packaged through tokenized products, is void and will not be recognized on the company’s books, escalating tensions over how restricted pre-IPO equity can be repackaged for retail traders.  The AI company behind Claude quietly updated its […]

CIA Document Sparks Wild Theories Of Ancient Knowledge Hidden Under Egypt’s Sphinx Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, A declassified CIA document that references a “Temple under Sphinx” in a 76 year old photographic inventory, has reignited interest in a mythical Hall of Records said to lie beneath Egypt’s Great Sphinx. The document in question is a CIA inventory cataloging black-and-white photo negatives from […]

Cable, Gilts Under Pressure As UK PM Starmer On The Brink As Rebellion Spreads UK Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, is on the brink this morning as The Telegraph reports that six Cabinet Ministers reportedly call on him privately to quit and the number of MPs on the record saying he must go reaches 84. The Telegraph learnt before the meeting that six ministers – Shabana Mahmood, John Healey, Ed Miliband, Lisa Nandy, Yvette […]

Stocks Fall, Oil And Rates Rise As Inflation “Roars Back” US equity futures and bonds were lower as oil climbed, with a key inflation report showing the impacts of higher energy and supply disruptions stemming from the war in Iran. Stocks are poised to fall from all-time highs after the core CPI rose more than expected in April. As of 9:15am S&P futures ewere down 0.2% and Nasdaq futures dropped 0.7% as a slide in […]

First Houthi Drones Sent On Israel Since Iran Ceasefire Took Effect In what appears to be the first Houthi attack out of Yemen since the broader Iran ceasefire came into place starting in early April, the Israel Defense Forces said a drone “launched from the east” was intercepted by the Israeli Air Force near the southernmost city of Eilat on Tuesday. The IDF further indicated it is believed to have been launched from Yemen, […]

US Consumer Prices Are Rising At Their Fastest Pace In 3 Years Bearing in mind the one-off impact of BLS correcting for shutdown-related distortions (in rent/shelter) from last October., this morning’s CPI was expected to come in hot as the impact of the Iran war starts to spread (energy, airfares, transport) and the melt-up in memory costs (unrelated to war) as the token wars continue. As a reminder, March saw headline CPI in […]

HIMS Shares Plunge As Pivot To Branded GLP-1s Weighs On Outlook Hims & Hers shares tumbled in premarket trading in New York, the most in three months, after the company posted a first-quarter loss and revenue that missed analyst estimates tracked by Bloomberg, as costs rose amid a massive pivot from selling copycat GLP-1 drugs toward branded obesity drugs from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. Revenue for the first quarter came in at […]

Jet Fuel Shortage Deepens Pressure On Global Airlines Via City AM, Heathrow’s April passenger numbers fell 5% to 6.7 million, with Middle East traffic down 50%. Transfer traffic rose 10% as travellers rerouted through Heathrow to Asia and Oceania. Airlines are facing mounting pressure from jet fuel shortages and higher oil prices. Fewer passengers were heading to Heathrow Airport in April as the war in the Middle […]

‘Mediator’ Pakistan Hosted Iranian Military Aircraft To Insulate Them From US Attacks, Graham Fumes At Islamabad Summary CBS reports Pakistan sheltered Iranian military planes, Sen. Graham outraged, calls for ‘reevaluation’. US President blasts ‘piece of garbage’ Iran response, says ceasefire on ‘life support’, reportedly mulls renewed military action; US Treasury imposes yet more sanctions. Trump mulls restarting […]