Chinese State Bankers Face Bonus Cuts Of At Least 30% Senior bankers at China’s state-backed financial institutions are preparing for bonus cuts of at least 30% as Beijing presses ahead with sweeping pay reforms across its $69 trillion financial sector, according to Bloomberg. At two major state-owned banks, senior managers — including department heads — saw their 2025 bonuses reduced by 30% to 50%, according to people […]

Everything, Everywhere, All At Once Authored by No1 at Gold & Geopolitics substack, Let me start with a number. In 1980, when the Iran-Iraq war disrupted global oil supply, the volume lost was around 4 million barrels per day. Painful. The world went into recession. Volcker raised rates to 20% to kill inflation. It nearly killed the economy in the process. We called it a crisis and we meant it. The current Hormuz blockade is […]

Why The Left Is More Distressed, Anxious, & Filled With Hate Than The Right Authored by ‘Sallust’ via DailySceptic.org, There is an interesting article in the Telegraph by a psychotherapist called Jonathan Alpert, called ‘There’s a reason the Left seems more psychologically distressed than the Right’ (you can read it here). This is how he opens: In my clinical practice, one pattern has become increasingly […]

Vance Embraces ‘Fraud Czar’ Role, Dems Plan To Make It A 2028 Liability Authored by Philip Wegmann via RealClearPolitics, Democrats began laying a trap the moment that President Trump announced during his State of the Union that Vice President JD Vance would lead a new “war on fraud,” salivating at the possibility of political liability and dubbing the MAGA heir apparent the “fraud czar.” “It will be blocks of cement […]

Ready For War? New B-21 Raider Activity Spotted Over Mojave Desert There has been increased activity of the B-21 Raider stealth bomber, suggesting the Department of War is on an accelerated path to bring the next-generation bomber platform into service, with the USAF targeting an operational date in 2027. Earlier this month, plane spotters appeared to capture the highly secretive B-21 refueling behind a KC-135R tanker over the […]

Did US Intel Agencies Hide Chinese Interference In 2020 Election From ‘Vulgarian’ Trump? Authored by Bryan Hyde via American Greatness, Questions over the integrity of the 2020 election continue to linger after the revelation that analysts inside the U.S. intelligence community sought to conceal evidence of Chinese interference from then-President Donald Trump. Never before reported upon comments found in a January […]

Qatar Expels Iranian Diplomats After Strike On LNG Hub; Israel Attacks Iran’s Navy In Caspian Sea Summary Israel strikes Iran Navy in Caspian Sea. Iran FM Discusses Strait of Hormuz with EU’s Kallas, oil dumps, amid reports of Iran launches on KSA. Largest Qatar LNG export hub hit by Iranian missiles. Doha expels diplomats. Some Gulf states want to ensure Iran’s missile arsenal destroyed for good, as EU, Russia, China demand […]

Schiff: This War Is “Going To Cost A Lot Of Money We Don’t Have” Last night, ZeroHedge hosted investor Peter Schiff and Rabobank’s Michael Every to debate the question: Will the war in Iran accelerate the U.S. dollar’s collapse or is it a geopolitical chess move that could strengthen its hegemony? Moderated by Cornell professor Dave Collum, Schiff – based in Austrian economics – argued that the war will do nothing but harm the […]

Fed Remains On Hold (As Expected) Amid ‘Uncertain Implications’ Of War With Iran Tl;dr: Rates on hold as expected with a hawkish tilt to ‘uncertainty’ around the Iran war clouding the outlook. The Dot-Plot showed no real change (7 on hold, 12 at least 1 cut in 2026) but inflation expectations surged in the SEP. *  *  * A lot – and we mean a lot – has happened since the last FOMC meeting (Jan 28th). Oil is up 54% since the […]

US Median Rent Hits 4-Year Low, 30th Straight Month of Decline Authored by Mary Prenon via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Renters across the United States may be able to save a bit more on apartment leases this month, as rents nationwide hit a four-year low last month, marking the 30th consecutive month of declines. A sign is posted in front of an apartment building with available rentals in San Francisco on June 9, 2023. Justin […]

Iran Says It Busted Up Over 100 ‘Pro-Monarchist Cells’ Working With US, Israel Iranian authorities have newly announced hundreds more arrests across the country, describing that anti-government “pro-monarchy cells” and “traitors” have been exposed and caught.  Tehran officials have touted busting up more than 100 of these alleged cells in 26 of Iran’s 31 provinces in a major overnight security operation, describing that these […]

Unearthed Docs Reveal More Names Targeted in Biden DOJ’s Fishing Expedition Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA, Former Special Counsel Jack Smith targeted more Republican lawmakers and conservative figures than previously known, newly unearthed documents show.  Smith, tasked by the Biden administration with prosecuting Donald Trump after 2021, has faced scrutiny since 2025, when bombshell disclosures revealed he […]

Wall Street Reacts To “Neutral” Fed Hold The digital ink on  the Fed statement is still wet and the kneejerk reactions are already flying. Here is a small sample of the more notable ones, with opinions ranging from this was a dovish, neutral and hawkish statement. So right in the middle, perhaps as Powell intended: George Goncalves, MUFG: “this is a “neutral” statement from the FOMC.The statement tweaks are an attempt at […]

Watch Live: Fed Chair Powell’s Penultimate Press Conference Fed Chair Powell may be wishing he had quit a month ago as he faces his penultimate press conference (perhaps) amid a dramatically changing global economic and geopolitical environment. Markets anticipate a “hawkish hold,” with Powell reinforcing the statement’s “hold” that The Fed is prioritizing caution amid heightened uncertainty. On the bright side, an activist […]

US Carrier Pulling Back From Iran Operations To Crete Port After Suffering Fire America’s largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is pulling away from the Middle East region as it nears a record-long deployment and after it suffered a major fire which damaged living quarters and other areas. Bloomberg reports in a fresh update Wednesday, “The US Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier is retreating from […]

John Roberts Calls For Restraint After Years Of Judicial Overreach Authored by David Manney via PJMedia.com, Chief Justice John Roberts, the person in charge of the Supreme Court of the United States, recently stepped forward with a familiar appeal, urging Americans to dial back personal attacks on judges and to show respect for the judiciary. The message landed with a tone of concern, almost paternal, as if the country had […]

Gabbard Showdown: DNI Scrubs “Obliterated” Iran Nuke Line from Testimony, Dodges Imminent Threat Question Update 1250ET: Things are getting spicy on Capitol Hill – as DNI Tulsi Gabbard faced intense scrutiny from Democrats during a Senate hearing on worldwide threats, while Sen. Markwayne Mullin endured a fiery intra-GOP confrontation during his DHS confirmation, and the SAVE America Act debate dragged into its second day amid […]

Some Gulf States Egg On US Iran Strikes As EU, Russia, China Demand Ceasefire – Beijing Ignores Trump’s Hormuz Plea Fresh reports suggest that at least some Gulf states are now egging on the US-Israeli bombardment of Iran, hoping that the Islamic Republic’s significant ballistic missile can be blunted forever, after countries from Bahrain to UAE to Saudi Arabia have been target of literally thousands of drones and missiles since […]

Polymarket’s New DC ‘Situation Room’ Bar Lets Patrons Sip Old Fashioneds And Monitor WW3 Headlines Polymarket, the crypto-based prediction market, announced on X the grand opening of “The Situation Room” in Washington, D.C., a bar where patrons can sip Moscow Mules, Old Fashioneds, or beer (preferably not Bud Light, perhaps a local IPA like Dogfish) while monitoring X feeds, Bloomberg terminals, and Polymarket bets on […]

Why AI Malware (And Harmful Second-Order Effects) Are Out Of Control Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, Fixing all this doesn’t scale. What scales is the spread of uncontrollably harmful consequences. When something scales faster than it can be absorbed or controlled, the resulting extremes break the system. That’s the problem of asymmetric scaling. Let’s take a current example: the malicious use of AI and the […]

No One (?) By Michael Every of Rabobank One of the central beliefs of neoclassical economics is that we are all One. One world market; One global central bank; One base interest rate; with temporary aberrations and interventions, One price. Except, as has been evident for some time, that doesn’t work very well, so increasingly we aren’t One. And that division is perhaps even spreading to something we all rely on: energy. The […]

U.S. Waives Jones Act After Iran Gas Field Attack Shortly after Israeli fighter jets struck Iran’s upstream oil and natural gas production assets for the first time in Operation Epic Fury, sending WTI futures to $98.5/bbl, the Trump administration appears to have pulled another emergency lever from JPMorgan’s six-option playbook we recently outlined: a 60-day Jones Act waiver that allows foreign-flagged ships to transport oil, gas, […]

US Crude Stockpile Hits Highest Since June 2024, Exports Surge Summary: US crude stockpiles surged for the fourth consecutive week. The build takes inventories to the highest level since June 2024. The increase is likely to reinforce perceptions of ample supply in US markets, and though prices are significantly higher, WTI continues to lag global benchmark, Brent.  US oil imports rose to the highest level since November […]

Did Trump Doom The SAVE America Act? Recent polling makes one thing abundantly clear: the American people are firmly behind election integrity, and the SAVE America Act is right in line with where voters already are.  According to the latest Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll, support for the legislation clocks in at 71%, with strong backing from independents and even a sizable chunk of Democrats. That shouldn’t surprise anyone when you […]

Russia Evacuates Hundreds Of Its Specialists From Iran’s Nuclear Bushehr Complex After Missile Strike Russia has lodged formal protest with Israel following its reported strikes near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear facility, angrily warning that the attacks directly endangered Russian personnel on the ground. Israeli and Russian media have confirmed that Moscow issued a sharp condemnation and warnings of a red line after Israeli forces […]