Individual Economists

DHS Releases List Of 'Sanctuary' Jurisdictions That Could Lose Federal Funding

Zero Hedge -

DHS Releases List Of 'Sanctuary' Jurisdictions That Could Lose Federal Funding

Authored by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times,

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on May 29 released a list of so-called sanctuary jurisdictions across the nation that could be made ineligible for federal funding under an executive order by President Donald Trump.

The DHS list encompasses counties and cities across 35 states and the District of Columbia with policies deemed as obstructing federal immigration enforcement.

“These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. “We are exposing these sanctuary politicians who harbor criminal illegal aliens and defy federal law. President Trump and I will always put the safety of the American people first. Sanctuary politicians are on notice: comply with federal law.”

The announcement comes after an April 28 executive order signed by Trump requested that DHS produce “a list of States and local jurisdictions that obstruct the enforcement of Federal immigration laws.”

In their press release on the publication of the list, DHS stated: “Each jurisdiction listed will receive formal notification of its noncompliance and all potential violations of federal criminal statutes. DHS demands that these jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens.”

In some cases, entire states have been marked sanctuaries. They include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia.

Some of the jurisdictions fall in traditionally Republican states. These include Anchorage, Alaska; Atlanta and surrounding counties; Boise, Idaho; Monroe County, Indiana; Douglas County and Lawrence, Kansas; Louisville, Kentucky and four counties in the state; New Orleans; 10 counties in Nebraska; five counties in North Carolina; seven counties in North Dakota; and Nashville and one county in Tennessee.

Other states identified as having at least one county or city in violation of the law include Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Trump’s April order calls for executive department chiefs and the director of the Office of Management and Budget to “identify appropriate Federal funds to sanctuary jurisdictions, including grants and contracts, for suspension or termination, as appropriate.”

It also calls on the attorney general and DHS secretary to “pursue all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures to end these violations and bring such jurisdictions into compliance with the laws of the United States.”

The push to strip sanctuary jurisdictions of federal funds aligns with a long-held Republican objective of border security and enforcement of immigration laws.

Future actions related to Trump’s executive order are also expected.

To ensure that illegal immigrants are not accessing federal entitlements like the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP)—commonly known as food stamps—Medicaid, Medicare, or others, the president directed the attorney general and DHS secretary to “develop guidance, rules, or other appropriate mechanisms to ensure appropriate eligibility verification is conducted for individuals receiving Federal public benefits.”

He has also directed the same officials to “identify and take appropriate action to stop the enforcement of State and local laws, regulations, policies, and practices favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens that are unlawful, preempted by Federal law, or otherwise unenforceable, including State laws that provide in-State higher education tuition to aliens but not to out-of-State American citizens.”

Tyler Durden Fri, 05/30/2025 - 09:35

PCE Measure of Shelter Decreases to 4.2% YoY in April

Calculated Risk -

Here is a graph of the year-over-year change in shelter from the CPI report and housing from the PCE report this morning, both through April 2025.

ShelterCPI Shelter was up 4.0% year-over-year in April, unchanged from 4.0% in March, and down from the cycle peak of 8.2% in March 2023.
Housing (PCE) was up 4.2% YoY in April, down from 4.3% in March and down from the cycle peak of 8.3% in April 2023.

Since asking rents are mostly flat year-over-year, these measures will slowly continue to decline over the next year as rents for existing tenants continue to increase.
PCE Prices 6-Month AnnualizedThe second graph shows PCE prices, Core PCE prices and Core ex-housing over the last 3 months (annualized):

Key measures are slightly above the Fed's target on a 3-month basis. 

3-month annualized change:
PCE Price Index: 2.1%
Core PCE Prices: 2.7%
Core minus Housing: 2.4%
Note: It is likely there is still some residual seasonality distorting PCE prices in Q1.

Personal Income increased 0.8% in April; Spending increased 0.2%

Calculated Risk -

From the BEA: Personal Income and Outlays, April 2025
Personal income increased $210.1 billion (0.8 percent at a monthly rate) in April, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI)—personal income less personal current taxes—increased $189.4 billion (0.8 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $47.8 billion (0.2 percent).

Personal outlays—the sum of PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments—increased $48.6 billion in April. Personal saving was $1.12 trillion in April and the personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income—was 4.9 percent.

From the preceding month, the PCE price index for April increased 0.1 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index also increased 0.1 percent.

From the same month one year ago, the PCE price index for April increased 2.1 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 2.5 percent from one year ago.
emphasis added
The April PCE price index increased 2.1 percent year-over-year (YoY), down from 2.3 percent YoY in March, and down from the recent peak of 7.2 percent in June 2022.
The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 2.5 percent YoY, down from 2.6 percent the previous month, and down from the recent peak of 5.6 percent in February 2022.

The following graph shows real Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) through April 2025 (2017 dollars). Note that the y-axis doesn't start at zero to better show the change.

Personal Consumption Expenditures Click on graph for larger image.

The dashed red lines are the quarterly levels for real PCE.

Personal income was above expectations and PCE were at expectations.
Inflation was slightly below expectations.

10 Friday AM Reads

The Big Picture -

My end-of-week morning train WFH reads:

The age of AI layoffs is already here. The reckoning is just beginning: Job cuts are hitting knowledge workers from entry-level to management, from tech-forward companies to more staid corners of Corporate America. (Quartz)

Why Investors Are So Nervous About Japanese Bonds: Global bond jitters are spilling into Japan, a corner of the market that for decades experienced barely any volatility — and it’s worrying investors already spooked by frictions in US Treasuries. (Bloomberg)

Plastic Spoons, Umbrellas, Violins: A Guide to What Americans Buy From China: The things the U.S. imports a lot, the things it doesn’t and everything in between. (Upshot)

• This New Investing Idea Isn’t Right for Your Retirement Plan: Why don’t ‘alternative assets’ like private credit belong in your 401(k)? Let us count the ways (Wall Street Journal)

• Target learns that bowing to anti-DEI backers can be costly, a lesson for those bowing to Trump: Target may have thought it was tacking toward consumer preferences, or that DEI was a craze that had faded out. But here’s the punch line: Target’s sales have cratered, at least in part because consumers were angry about its reversals. The company’s management has been a little vague about the impact of all this. (Los Angeles Times)

What Are People Still Doing on X? Imagine if your favorite neighborhood bar turned into a Nazi hangout. (The Atlantic)

As Trumps Monetize Presidency, Profits Outstrip Protests: The president and his family have monetized the White House more than any other occupant, normalizing activities that once would have provoked heavy blowback and official investigations. (New York Times)

How Ice Sculpted Canada: Why did the Russians sell Alaska to the US? Because the land was too far away, and expansionist Americans and British were about to take it over anyway. They decided to sell it to the US because it was the weaker country and Russia’s bigger enemy at the time was the UK—a European competitor and the most powerful country at that time. (Uncharted Territories)

10 Things NOT to do in the Hamptons: Unless You Want to Out Yourself as a Tourist. (Off-Camera)

He’s the Best Playmaker in the NBA—and He Never Has the Ball: Indiana point guard Tyrese Haliburton has led the Pacers to the brink of the NBA Finals. He hasn’t needed the basketball in his hands to do it. (Wall Street Journal)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Tom Barkin, Richmond Federal Reserve President & CEO and voting member of the the Federal Open Market Committee. He previously spent 30 years at McKinsey & Company , eventually becoming Chief Risk Officer and Chief Finaacial Officer.

 

Do we need to rethink the 60/40 paradigm?

Source: @TimmerFidelity

 

Sign up for our reads-only mailing list here.

The post 10 Friday AM Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

Nuclear Making A Comeback In US, Europe

Zero Hedge -

Nuclear Making A Comeback In US, Europe

Authored by Andrew Topf via OilPrice.com,

  • A resurgence in nuclear energy is now underway, fueled by rising energy security concerns, climate goals, and soaring uranium prices.

  • The U.S. and parts of Europe are embracing a nuclear revival, with President Trump targeting a quadrupling of U.S. nuclear capacity by 2050.

  • European nations such as Denmark, Spain, and Germany are signaling renewed openness to advanced reactor technologies.

The Fukushima disaster soured the world on nuclear energy and the uranium industry after tsunami waves inundated Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex on March 11, 2011.

The tsunami, triggered by a major offshore earthquake, disabled the plant's cooling systems, causing three reactors to overheat and partially melt down, with subsequent releases of radioactive materials into the air and ocean.

As the world watched in horror, public and government confidence in nuclear power plummeted, leading some countries to phase out or halt nuclear power development plans.

Germany, Belgium and Italy decided to phase out nuclear power or halt planned expansions, while Spain and Switzerland elected not to build new plants.

The accident led to stricter safety requirements and more thorough assessments of existing nuclear plants.

In Japan, nuclear power's contribution to electricity generation dropped dramatically, with coal-fired plants filling the gap.

The accident spurred increased focus on alternative energy sources like gas, coal, and renewables, as well as a push for new reactor designs with improved safety features.

The event also took its toll on the uranium market and companies that explore for and mine the nuclear fuel. Post-Fukushima, the slump in demand cratered uranium prices, with the market bottoming out near $30 a pound in mid-2014.

Fast-forward to 2022, and the story changes. Spurred by renewed demand for nuclear energy and a leap in yellowcake prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, uranium miners began reviving mothballed uranium projects.

Uranium hit a 10-year high of $105.49/lb on Jan. 29, 2024, and closed out last year with a spot price of $72.63 and a long-term price of $80.50, according to Canadian uranium miner Cameco.  

Uranium futures rose to $72 per pound in late May, the highest in nearly three months, and extending the rebound from 18-month lows in March as the possibility of political support for the nuclear sector outweighed the view of ample supply, said Trading Economics.

Despite skepticism from some quarters on the safety of nuclear, there are just as many who believe it is a relatively benign form of baseload power that is necessary for the transition from fossil fuels to renewables. Nuclear, the argument goes, is emissions-free but does not suffer the intermittency problem of wind and solar.

One of the more recent cheerleaders of nuclear is Donald Trump.

Last Friday the US president signed executive orders pledging to expand American nuclear energy capacity from approximately 100 gigawatts in 2024 to 400 GW by 2050.

"Swift and decisive action is required to jumpstart America’s nuclear energy industrial base and ensure our national and economic security by increasing fuel availability and production, securing civil nuclear supply chains, improving the efficiency with which advanced nuclear reactors are licensed, and preparing our workforce to establish America’s energy dominance and accelerate our path towards a more secure and independent energy future," World Nuclear News quoted from the executive order ‘Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base’.

Fox News article posted on the White House website states:

Through a series of executive orders signed this week, President Trump is taking action to usher in an American nuclear renaissance. For the first time in many years, America has a path forward for quickly and safely testing advanced nuclear reactor designs, constructing new nuclear reactors at scale, and building a strong domestic nuclear industrial base…

This week’s executive actions will help us reach that goal in four ways.

First, we are going to fully leverage our DOE national laboratories to increase the speed with which we test new nuclear reactor designs. There is a big difference between a paper reactor and a practical reactor. The only way to bridge that gap—understanding the challenges that must be surmounted to bring reactors to the market, and building public trust in their deployment—is to test and evaluate demonstration reactors. 

Second, for our national and economic security, we are going to leverage the Departments of Defense and Energy to build nuclear reactors on federally owned land. This will support critical national security needs which require reliable, high-density power sources that are invulnerable to external threats or grid failures.

Third, to lower regulatory burdens and shorten licensing timelines, we are asking the NRC to undergo broad cultural change and regulatory reform, requiring a decision on a reactor license to be issued within 18 months. This will reduce regulatory uncertainty while maintaining nuclear safety. We will also reconsider the use of radiation limits that are not science based, impossible to achieve, and do not increase the safety of the American people. 

There are currently 54 nuclear power plants operating in the United States, with 28 states having at least one reactor. According to the Energy Information Agency (EIA), Unit 3 at the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia entered serviced on July 31, 2023 as part of a two-unit expansion project. It has 1,117 megawatts (MW) of net summer electricity generation capacity.

Unit 4, a Westinghouse AP1000 pressurized light water reactor, began commercial operations in April 2024. It is now the largest nuclear power plant in the United States, with four reactors and a total of 4,536 MW net summer electricity generation capacity.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the birthplace of the anti-nuclear movement, there has also been a rethink of nuclear power as countries pursue more energy independence.

As CNBC reportsIn just the last few weeks, Denmark announced plans to reconsider a 40-year ban on nuclear power as part of a major policy shift, Spain reportedly signaled an openness to review a shutdown of its nuclear plants and Germany dropped its long-held opposition to atomic power.

Denmark banned the use of atomic energy in 1985. It is important to point out that the Danish government is not considering a return to traditional nuclear power plants. Rather, The renewables-heavy Scandinavian country said in mid-May that it plans to analyze the potential benefits and risks of new advanced nuclear technologies, such as small modular reactors, to complement solar and wind technologies.

Spain’s Environmental Transition Minister said in late April that, while the government is proceeding with plans to retire nuclear reactors over the next decade, extensions beyond 2035 could not be ruled out.

The statement by Minister Sara Aagesen followed a catastrophic power outage affecting much of Spain, Portugal and southern France.

Germany, which closed the last of its three remaining nuclear plants in 2023, recently dropped its objection to French efforts to ensure that nuclear power is treated on a par with renewables in EU legislation, the Financial Times reported on May 19, citing French and German officials.

Tyler Durden Fri, 05/30/2025 - 05:00

Peter Thiel's Visions Of Apocalypse: Is AI The Antichrist?

Zero Hedge -

Peter Thiel's Visions Of Apocalypse: Is AI The Antichrist?

Authored by Jacob Howland via UnHerd.com,.

Peter Thiel is a big thinker, and these days he’s been thinking about Doomsday.

In a series of four lectures he’s given three times, at Oxford, Harvard, and the University of Austin, he’s tried to understand human history, and particularly modernity, within the framework of biblical prophecies of the End of Days.

Thiel believes that the Antichrist, whose identity is uncertain - is it a person, a system, a global tyranny? - is “not just a medieval fantasy”.

His free-ranging lectures, moving rapidly between disparate texts (Gulliver’s Travels; Alan Moore’s graphic novel Watchmen) and topics (sacred violence; high-velocity global financial systems), defy easy summary.

But their leading themes include the Antichrist’s relationship to Armageddon and the roles of technology and empire in the Antichrist’s rise. It’s an ambitious, thought-provoking attempt to weave, from seemingly unrelated strands of meaning, a theological/anthropological/historical narrative that aims to make sense of the whole of human experience.

Some will find Thiel’s project very odd.

How could an enormously successful, mathematically-gifted, philosophically-educated tech entrepreneur seriously entertain Bible-thumping myths from the Apocalypse of John?

Here’s a better question: how could he — and we — not take them seriously?

As Dorian Lynskey writes in his bookEverything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About the End of the World, “apocalyptic angst has become a constant: all flow and no ebb.” Contemporary culture has long been saturated with post-apocalyptic novels, comic books, films, TV series, and video games. Zombie end-times fantasies do particularly well in all formats. The mindless, mechanical mob of the undead, who hunger insatiably for the brains of the living, has become a primary and pervasive cultural symbol — one that resonates with a widespread sense of impending catastrophe that’s been building steadily since the 2020 Covid lockdowns. And if bioweapons, climate change, nuclear bombs, or AI don’t drive the human species to extinction, drastic measures deemed necessary to forestall such dangers, such as the establishment of a single world government, might themselves bring an end to politics, morality, spiritual life, and culture. Thiel is driven to find a way between the binary alternative of No World or One World, the whirlpool of planetary destruction or the many-headed monster of global totalitarianism.

Thiel’s insight is that, unlike most contemporary imaginings of global catastrophe, the Bible’s prophecies do more than pluck our inner strings of existential dread.

They help us to understand our chaotic times. Matthew 24:24 predicts that “[T]here shall arise false Christs and false prophets … [and] they shall deceive the very elect.” In other words, the Antichrist will attempt to appear more Christian than Christ himself, even as it works to accomplish the wholesale destruction of the Christian underpinnings of Western civilisation. The Nazis pursued this strategy, but were hampered by the limited appeal of their antisemitic ideology. German theologians fashioned a new myth of Jesus as a spirited warrior who strove to destroy Judaism, and they elevated Hitler to the status of the second coming of Christ, who would finish the work Jesus failed to complete: the total extermination of Jews and Judaism. A more successful Antichrist would, like the French revolutionaries and the Marxists, promote values that seem more consistent with the Judeo-Christian foundations of civilisation, such as universal liberty, equality, and justice.

While the past displays a seemingly endless cycle of civilisational rises and falls, Thiel believes that modern science and technology have turned history into a linear progression, as the Bible teaches, with a beginning and a final, irreversible end. From its inception, technology — a political project as much as one of engineering — has dangled before us the shimmering promise of godhood, with which the serpent tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Francis Bacon and René Descartes, the project’s 16th- and 17th-century founders, rightly understood it to be an anti-Christian endeavour that needed to be cloaked with a veil of religious orthodoxy.

Bacon’s New Atlantis, which describes a secretive, ostensibly Christian community of scientists devoted to the experimental investigation of the properties and uses of all material things, features a prototype of the modern research university called the College of Six Days’ Works. Descartes’ Discourse on Method, which advances (with a similar veneer of piety) the bold promise of making human beings “the masters and possessors of nature”, has six parts in imitation of the first six days of God’s creation. In both books, the Sabbath — the seventh day devoted to God — falls by the wayside. The frontispiece of Bacon’s Great Instauration further hints at the transgressive nature of technology. It features a ship passing beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the Strait of Gibraltar), a landmark the divine hero established to warned ancient sailors not to exit the Mediterranean into the unnavigable Atlantic. And the book’s epigraph, “Many shall go to and fro and knowledge shall be increased,” is from the prophecy of the End of Days in Daniel 12, as if to suggest that the expansion of technological power would bring history to its apocalyptic conclusion.

An early modern conceit that has in many respects become a late modern curse, technology underlies virtually every apocalyptic anxiety of our time. But Thiel is unsure of the role of advanced technology, and in particular AI, in the big picture of history he’s trying to work out. Is it the Antichrist? Does it prepare the way for the Antichrist? Or is it a katechon, the mysterious force mentioned at 2 Thessalonians 2:6 that forestalls the Antichrist (the Greek word katechein means “to hold down”)? The katechon plays a major part in Thiel’s analysis, because things capable of opposing the Antichrist can also advance its aims, and vice-versa. In the absence of the existential threat of Communism, for example, Western countries like the US and UK, aided by advanced digital technology, have turned psychological operations and disinformation tactics developed to fight foreign adversaries against their own citizens. This suggests deep cultural sickness, a crisis of confidence in the values that defeated totalitarianism in the 20th century.

Thiel nevertheless thinks that worries about AI taking over the world are more dangerous than AI itself, because the fear of existential threats plays directly into the cold hands of deracinated elites who are working to establish a global managerial state. Even so, there is something satanic about AI, a ghostly entity that is increasingly capable of hacking human minds on a very large scale. What Thiel said of Bacon seems to apply to the developers of Large Language Models (LLMs): they’ve “summoned a demon they don’t believe exists”.

The Antichrist is, by definition, negative and dependent. It rejects Christ and Christian values while offering a spurious imitation of them. AI is a similarly dependent being. It is a simulacrum of human intelligence and language, capacities of thought and speech the Greeks called logos. But AI lacks essential elements of human logos: its embeddedness in the world through birth in a body bound for death, and the moral and intellectual interiority that makes the human being an image of God. Speech is a living voice that springs from the soul — to give interiority its biblical name — embedded in body of an existing individual. But AI is not a living being, and it replaces inner plenitude with mechanical, algorithmic emptiness. Embeddedness in space and time expresses itself as concern for, and responsiveness to, the actual conditions of existence, the biblical paradigm of which is Adam’s naming of the animals who live alongside him in Eden. But while AI requires material substrates — servers and other hardware — it inhabits them in purely occasional and contingent ways, like the demons that beg Christ to pass from the mad Galilean to the herd of pigs. Its relationship with actuality is equally contingent. It exists in a digital cloud of pure possibility, where it arranges information according to no criterion of truth besides probability and the rules of logic. That’s why ChatGPT and other LLMs are so prone to hallucinations, like citing books that exist only in Borges’s fictional, virtually infinite Library of Babel.

Yet, like the sham philosopher and bad citizen Plato calls “the sophist”, who is equally indifferent to truth, AI has a seemingly divine ability to imitate virtually anything with lifelike plausibility and vividness, and in multiple media. The market, whose whims have for decades guided the world’s best software engineers, has made this soulless capacity of representation, tailored to the tastes of the individual consumer, available to almost everyone on the planet. It has taught us to spend hours every day in its virtual reality, entertaining or distracting ourselves with the shadows it casts on the walls of our own private caves. Yet, using AI for more serious purposes is no less a Faustian bargain. Every advance AI makes in serving our desires degrades fundamental human capacities and gives it more mastery over human beings. Using AI to navigate makes us less capable navigators. Using AI to write makes us less capable writers. Using it to make decisions weakens our executive capacities of judgement and action. Peak AI, ministering to the inner emptiness and boredom of atomised, directionless selves, will mean peak human debility and enslavement. Aren’t these the goals of the Antichrist — which, whatever form it may take, always seeks to remake human beings in its own image?

Not so fast: perhaps AI is really a katechon. That is the argument of Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska in The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West. Karp (a classmate of Thiel’s at Stanford who also studied philosophy and, with Thiel, founded Palantir Technologies) and Zamiska, his longtime deputy, insist that the enemies of the West will prevail unless software developers work in close collaboration with the American government to produce AI-powered military capabilities superior to that of our adversaries, as Palantir has done using LLMs. They acknowledge that this will require a massive cultural shift among our technological and cosmopolitan elites, who’ve embraced an “ethereal”, “post-national”, and “disembodied” morality that scorns patriotism, and who’ve learned “that belief itself, in anything other than oneself perhaps, is dangerous and to be avoided”. Yet it is the market’s deployment of advanced technology, including AI, that has above all promoted this “Hollowing Out of the American Mind” (the title of the book’s second part), not least by rapidly dissolving social bonds, encouraging pathological self-absorption, and making possible — even incentivising — digital swarms of doxxing and online cancellation.

Considered in the context of Karp’s and Zamiska’s urgent call to arms, the revelation of this contradiction is genuinely apocalyptic. Whether it will accelerate or slow the advent of the Antichrist and the bang or whimper of the world’s end depends on our individual and collective capacities to make informed decisions that call for moral courage — capacities that have been eroded by technologically-induced oblivion, historical, moral, and metaphysical forgetfulness, and our ingrained habit of “ced[ing] direction over our interior lives, the development of our moral selves, to the market”. Contemplating our predicament, it is hard not to feel discouraged. Hope alone remains in the Pandora’s box our clever man-gods have constructed — hope, without which the understanding (at least, for those whose prayers delivers no consolation) would be plagued by the perplexity and fear that have flown therefrom. It’s time to take it out of the box and hold it close to our hearts and minds, where it might inspire new growths of wisdom.

*  *  *

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/29/2025 - 23:25

"Punished For Living Debt Free": Canadian Man's Credit Score Wiped By Equifax After He Avoids New Debt

Zero Hedge -

"Punished For Living Debt Free": Canadian Man's Credit Score Wiped By Equifax After He Avoids New Debt

David Tregear, a Victoria man, saw his Equifax credit score unexpectedly drop to zero, leaving him unable to access loans or credit. He had stopped using credit to avoid debt but never expected to be penalized, according to CBC.

"I was just stunned," Tregear said. "What do you mean I don't have credit?"

Equifax only explained the issue after CBC’s Go Public got involved, citing a rarely publicized policy: credit scores may be reset to zero after long inactivity.

Tregear's score was around 700 before it vanished, and now he must rebuild it from scratch — a catch-22, as lenders reject him without an existing score.

Go Public found no law governs how credit scores are calculated in Canada, giving private agencies like Equifax unchecked control.

CBC writes that consumer advocate Geoff White called this lack of transparency a major flaw in the system, saying, “A credit score is a very important piece of information. It shouldn't be arbitrarily wiped out through lack of use of credit.”

Tregear spent over a year filing complaints with multiple regulators, only to be referred in circles. It was only after media attention that B.C. consumer agencies agreed to investigate — after previously turning him away due to jurisdictional confusion.

"I'm being punished for living debt-free," Tregear said, as he continues to face major barriers without a credit score.

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/29/2025 - 23:00

Liberals Embrace Islamic Extremism In Canada

Zero Hedge -

Liberals Embrace Islamic Extremism In Canada

Authored by William Barclay via RealClearPolitics,

When FBI director Kash Patel condemned Canada allowing Islamic terrorists to gain a foothold in North America, Canadian politicians and pundits, including new Prime Minister Mark Carney, dismissed Patel’s assertions as baseless fearmongering.

Unfortunately, it is clear that the Trump administration is correct: Radical Islamic ideology has become endemic in Canada over the past decade.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service itself has confirmed that, since 2015, radical Islamic ideology has become commonplace throughout Canadian society, as a result of the porous borders and the Liberal government’s unwillingness to effectively regulate the influx of international migration into Canada. Numerous terrorist leaders and those with intimate connections to terrorist organizations such as Samidoun and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine have been permitted to migrate within the Canadian state and promote their own nihilistic ideology over the past decade.

Islamic schools in Canada are not compelled to abide by a standardized curriculum and, consequently, covertly promote radical Islamic ideology and extremism to vulnerable children in Canada. At one prominent Islamic school in Canada, the East End Madrassah, administrators were recently pressured to issue a public apology after it was exposed for “… teaching children that treacherous Jews conspired to kill the Islamic Prophet Mohammed.”

Since 2015, explicit Islamic terrorist acts have become increasingly prevalent in Canada.

According to data from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, “[N]early a dozen terrorism-related incidents [have occurred] in Canada or abroad involving Canadians” since Oct. 7, 2023, alone. In addition), “The number of terrorism charges laid in Canada jumped 488% last year” and “Canadian police have foiled six terrorist plots in the last 12 months alone, with arrests spanning from Edmonton to Ottawa to Toronto.” The Liberal government recently publicly downplayed a report from the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth, & Development Office that a “terror attack attempt in Canada is very likely.”

The globally renowned Counter Extremism Project has recently reported that “within the past few decades, several hundred Canadian civilians have been killed or injured in incidents related to violent extremism,” and that, in spite of the glib posturing and “apparent policy shifts in the Trudeau government, Canada has historically viewed violent Islamist extremism as one of the leading threats to its national security.”

In addition, the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre recently warned the Canadian government that Canada will likely “experience a lone-wolf terror attack soon ... and antisemitism is overwhelmingly the motivating factor.”

And to Kash Patel’s point, over the past decade Canada’s porous borders and the Liberal government’s tolerance of Islamic extremism have functioned in concert to enable various terrorists to transgress from Canada into America to commit crimes and even mass murder.

In 2024, Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, a longtime resident of Canada, attempted to carry out a mass shooting in support of ISIS in New York City, and Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the ISIS terrorist who committed the horrific “Bourbon Street Attack” in New Orleans, was also previously permitted to travel freely between Canada and the U.S. Furthermore, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service itself has long recognized Canada’s modern transformation into an exporter of Islamic terrorism and for years has attempted to “monitor and respond to the threat of Canadian extremist travellers (CETs).”

According to Director Patel and the FBI, “over 300 known or suspected terrorists crossed into this country last year illegally … 85% of them came through [Canada and] the northern border,” and “This year, 100 known or suspected terrorists have crossed into this country illegally, 64 or so from the north.” Even Justin Trudeau, Canada’s previous prime minister, was recently forced to admit that “bad actors … have been exploiting [Canada’s] immigration system for their own interests.”

Despite all this, the Canadian political establishment and the media have stubbornly denied any suggestion that Islamic extremism has successfully entrenched itself within Canada.

More importantly, it is readily apparent that until the Liberal government starts to earnestly secure Canada’s borders and begins to excise Islamic extremism from within Canadian society, Canada will continue to serve as a womb for Islamic extremism in North America and a constant source of terrorism in the U.S.

William Barclay is a political theorist and private consultant, as well as a Contributor for Young Voices. William’s work has been published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Palgrave-Macmillan, The Hill Times, and the Journal of Liberty and International Affairs, among others. Follow William on Twitter/X @WillBarclayBBC.

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/29/2025 - 20:55

China Drowning In Soaring Coal Inventories Amid Sinking Power Demand, Crashing Coal Price

Zero Hedge -

China Drowning In Soaring Coal Inventories Amid Sinking Power Demand, Crashing Coal Price

China's overarching central planning model, meant to keep the economy from keeling over, has become so tangled up it is next to impossible to keep track of fake supply and even faker demand. It is also starting to dangerously resemble late stage USSR, when supply-side economics covered up the rot in the economy until the absolute end.

According to Reuters, with its economy slowing, if not contracting, China is pressing its coal-fired power plants to stockpile more of the fuel and import less in an effort to shore up domestic prices, but traders are skeptical the measures will help to stop the slide.

The coal industry in China faces rising coal stockpiles after a massive expansion of output following shortages and blackouts in 2021 is churning out more coal than even the world's largest thermal power fleet can consume.

To support money-losing miners whose profits are under growing pressure, the state planner has asked power plants to prioritize domestic coal and increase thermal coal stockpiles by 10%, setting an overall target of 215 million metric tons by June 10, the sources said. However, with inventories piling up along the supply chain, the guidelines would be unlikely to spur much buying or support prices.

Mine stockpiles are up 42% from a year ago, while northern Bohai area port inventories are up 25% annually, the state-run China Energy Daily has said. Buyers are also being asked to procure coal from northern ports to chip away at high port stockpiles, three Reuters sources said.

The NDRC's moves follow months of calls from industry groups and companies to curb coal imports and output. Chinese coal prices have marched steadily downwards, however. Prices for medium-grade coal with a heat value of 5,500 kilocalories per kilogram stood at 620 yuan ($86) per metric ton on Tuesday, the lowest since March 2021.

Prices have fallen so far that some buyers have tried to wiggle out of long-term contracts in favor of spot sales.

China imported a record 542.7 million tons of coal in 2024, but the total is expected to fall this year. Coal imports slid 16% in April on the year.

Chinese mine production continues to grow despite the collapse in prices, with a government haunted by the shortages and blackouts of 2021 and 2022 unlikely to consider output cuts.

"I think they're very mindful to avoid a repeat of that," said LSEG lead coal analyst Toby Hassall. "They will tolerate a period where some domestic production is really struggling."

China's coal production rose 6.6% on the year during the period from January to April, to stand at 1.58 billion tons.  At the same time, industry profits fell 48.9% year-on-year for the same period, official data showed on Tuesday.

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/29/2025 - 20:30

Israeli Foreign Minister Says Arms Embargoes Will Lead To 'Second Holocaust' & End Of Israel

Zero Hedge -

Israeli Foreign Minister Says Arms Embargoes Will Lead To 'Second Holocaust' & End Of Israel

Via Middle East Eye

Israel’s foreign minister has said that an arms embargo on his country would lead to the elimination of the Israeli state and "a second Holocaust". 

Gideon Saar was speaking on Tuesday at an international conference on antisemitism in Jerusalem.  "If, God forbid, the calls and actions of countries and politicians for an arms embargo on Israel succeed, the result will be the destruction of Israel and a second Holocaust," he said. 

via Moncloa, "The Diplomat in Spain" news site.

The comments came as Spain this week called on European countries to suspend arms shipments amid Israel’s ongoing siege on Gaza. 

At a meeting of the “Madrid Group”, Spain’s foreign minister called for an immediate suspension of Europe’s cooperation deal with Israel and an embargo on arms shipments. 

Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Morocco and Brazil were among those present at the meeting.

"What is the meaning of actions or statements - by politicians or countries - to impose an arms embargo on Israel?" said Saar, in response. "If such moves succeed, Israel will simply be destroyed. There will be another Holocaust - on the soil of the land of Israel."

"This is essentially a way to deprive the Jewish people of the means to defend themselves. Means that they so lacked during the long years of exile and during the Holocaust."

The largest suppliers of weapons to Israel are the United States, Germany and Italy. Several nations, including France, Spain and the UK, have either paused the supply of some weapons, or have suspended export licenses

report earlier this month found that the UK continued to send a wide range of arms to Israel even after the government suspended 30 arms export licenses in September. 

The UK, France and Canada have threatened Israel with sanctions if it fails to stop its military operations in Gaza and immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter.

"We will not stand by while the Netanyahu government pursues these egregious actions," the countries said jointly on 20 May. "If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response."

Opinions on the Gaza war have begun to drastically shift even in Conservative circles...

The three countries also urged Israel to halt settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying they are "illegal and undermine the viability of a Palestinian state and the security of both Israelis and Palestinians".  

In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the three governments of emboldening Hamas and being "on the wrong side of justice".  Israeli attacks on Gaza have reportedly killed more than 54,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 120,000 since October 2023. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/29/2025 - 20:05

Libya At Risk Of Declaring Force Majeure On Oil Production After Militia Attacks

Zero Hedge -

Libya At Risk Of Declaring Force Majeure On Oil Production After Militia Attacks

Libya's eastern government has warned of potential disruptions to oil production and exports following an attack by a Tripoli-based militia on the state-owned National Oil Corporation's (NOC) headquarters. The threat of a force majeure declaration reintroduces the possibility of a geopolitical risk premium in Brent crude markets already contending with oversupply concerns. 

"Repeated attacks" on the NOC and its affiliates may prompt "precautionary measures, including declaring force majeure on oil fields and terminals," or relocating the company's headquarters to a "safer city," Libya's eastern government said in a statement quoted by Bloomberg.

The crisis reflects deepening tensions between Libya's rival governments—one in the west led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and another in the east backed by military commander Khalifa Haftar.

Libya produces 1.3 million barrels per day, most of which is exported across the Mediterranean and European markets. Any curtailment of exports could immediately tighten global supply in the region

Libya's fragile political situation reminds us of the August 2024 oil shutdown (courtesy of The Libya Observer):

The incident revives fears of renewed oil shutdowns in Libya, which has struggled to stabilise production amid political turmoil. In August 2024, the country lost more than 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) in output as rival factions clashed over central bank control, disrupting exports for over a month.

NOC has tried to maintain neutrality amid Libya's civil conflict but is often caught between the East and West governments, each seeking control over oil revenues.

NOC rejected the eastern government's allegations of an assault on its headquarters as fake news. 

"The corporation continues its vital operations without interruption," NOC stated, describing the recent incident as a "limited personal dispute" that was swiftly resolved.

"Prime Minister Dabaiba is fighting for his political survival amidst protests in Tripoli, a fractured government, and the constant risk of renewed clashes with rival forces," Fernando Ferreira, Rapidan Energy Group’s director of geopolitical risk, told Zero Hedge.

Ferreira said, "Libyan National Army commander Haftar smells blood in the water and is adding another element of pressure by threatening to disrupt oil exports, hoping that it will prompt the US and others to push Dabaiba to step down. The threat is real, but the LNA is still weighing whether to move past the rhetoric and take barrels offline."

Traders did not price in a geopolitical risk premium when the report hit the wires earlier this morning. In fact, Brent crude remains under pressure as investors weigh progress in U.S.–Iran negotiations, which could eventually bring additional barrels to market, alongside expectations that OPEC+ may proceed with another output increase in July. 

The situation in Libya is certainly something to watch, while the market focus now shifts to the upcoming OPEC+ decision in the days ahead.

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/29/2025 - 19:40

How Lies And Hubris Caused An Awakening

Zero Hedge -

How Lies And Hubris Caused An Awakening

Authored by Pat Fidopastis via The Brownstone Institute,

In March 2020, the phrase “Fifteen days to slow the spread” was transmitting faster than SARS-CoV-2. At the time, it seemed reasonable to want to buy our health care workers a few weeks to prepare. Contemporaneously, Dr. Anthony Fauci reasonably summarized decades of research in his 60 Minutes interview by saying that masks are not an effective way to block respiratory viruses. 

In a Snapchat interview, Dr. Fauci reasonably interpreted timely data on Covid-19 outcomes to conclude that young people could decide for themselves if they wanted to meet strangers on a dating app during the pandemic. As Dr. Fauci put it: “Because that’s what’s called relative risk.” 

Even the authors of the “proximal origin” opinion piece in Nature Medicine made reasonable points in support of a natural origin of SARS-CoV-2 (despite revealing their cards by calling “lab leak” implausible): “..it is likely that SARS-CoV-2-like viruses with partial or full polybasic cleavage sites will be discovered in other species” and “More scientific data could swing the balance of evidence to favor one hypothesis over another.” 

Five years later, thousands of animals have been sampled, millions of genomic sequences have been analyzed, and still there is nothing remotely close to a non-human adapted, animal version of SARS-CoV-2; back in 2003, using “stone tools” compared to today’s technology, they found the animal version of that SARS virus in a few months. 

Unfortunately, the honeymoon of reason was brief. Overwhelming evidence that SARS-CoV-2 was not natural became a “destructive conspiracy,” and if you spoke about it, you were somehow racist

Surgeon General Jerome Adams instructed us on how to make a life-saving mask from an old t-shirt. Dr. Fauci used the bizarre excuse that he lied in his 60 Minutes interview to explain why he abruptly reversed himself and began promoting the epidemiological theater of wearing several masks at once. 

Not to be outdone, Dr. Deborah Birx summed up the futility of her leadership with this pearl: “We know that there are ways that you can even play tennis with marked balls so you’re not touching each other’s balls.” This sounded more like a punchline than worthwhile public health advice. Perhaps most egregious of all, we learned that “Two weeks to slow the spread” was not meant to be taken literally. 

For me, a professor of microbiology for nearly 25 years, the moment of reason ended when I stepped into an elevator on my campus and saw a floor sticker telling me where to stand (Fig. 1). I simply could not keep quiet and pretend that this was sound public health advice. 

Fig. 1

Before long, businesses were inundated with pandemic rules. I was hired by one of the lucky ones deemed “essential,” and therefore allowed to open, to assist with “safe” operation plans

When I arrived to conduct my inspection, the business looked more like an Ebola field hospital than a furniture store (Fig. 2). Masked customers were herded in the parking lot by ropes and signs. One by one, they were greeted by an attendant, grateful to still have a job, standing behind Plexiglas, wearing a mask and face shield. 

The friendly attendant was instructed to ask uncomfortable questions about symptoms like diarrhea. If a customer responded “yes” to any of the symptoms or refused to answer, they could not shop for furniture. If “no,” then their temperature was measured. 

It was nearly 100 degrees that day so almost everyone had to be scanned multiple times. Inside the store was a maze of one-way arrows, warning signs, Plexiglas, hand sanitizer stations, and boxes of masks and disposable couch covers. They even had a video monitor reporting the number of customers per 400 square feet of store. Sadly, the epidemiological version of “over-medicating the patient” did not stop with onerous business rules.  

Fig. 2

Drunk with power, public health officials in California felt ordained to protect the unwashed masses from Thanksgiving dinner. Unsurprisingly, these farcical dining rules did not apply to everyone

Who actually believed “singing, chanting, shouting, and physical exertion” at a family dinner was too risky? Who decided that we needed to bulldoze a skate park to prevent kids from congregating? Why was it necessary to arrest a lone paddleboarder in Santa Monica Bay for “flouting coronavirus closures?” 

In the LA Times article on the paddler’s arrest, a professor from the prestigious Scripps Institute of Oceanography opined, “SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could enter coastal waters and transfer back into the air along the coast. I wouldn’t go in the water if you paid me $1 million right now.”   

I tried laughing off the ridiculous, unenforceable Thanksgiving rules, those stickers in the elevators, and other nonsense that at the time was happening somewhere else. But I could not get past the frightening reality that so many of my highly educated peers actually believed nonsense like SARS-CoV-2 was leaping out of the ocean. 

Anyone paying attention could compile government data on Covid-19 outcomes and assess risk for themselves (Table 1). The message was always the same – the vast majority of deaths attributed to Covid-19 were people over 65 years old with severe comorbidities, especially obesity.   

Table 1

By signing the Great Barrington Declaration and discussing its premise of “focused protection” in my advanced microbiology courses, I received an avalanche of vitriol. 

Among the most shocking responses were accusations of “ageism” and “fat-shaming” for discussing hard facts about the pandemic. 

Just like that, the “Science doesn’t care about your feelings” crowd started prioritizing their feelings. The university newspaper asked for an interview. I was warned not to accept, but I wanted to start a bigger conversation. I regret my decision because the article they wrote did not represent the views I articulated. 

Instead, I was accused of promoting a “power imbalance” by supposedly forcing my “junk science” views on students. I used to think the cries of “fake news” were just a lazy argument by people that could not support their position, until I read that article about me. 

Ironically, these same people who attacked me had completely accepted the made-up “six-feet rule,” which was the root of so much collateral damageHeavily biased news sources like NPR defended this unscientific rule by stating, “distance still protects you.” However, if the cure is not even remotely feasible, despite the best efforts of authoritarians, then it’s not really a cure.                

Apparently I crossed the line when I discussed in class how politicized the pandemic had become. How is it that President Trump’s rallies were spreading “coronavirus and death” but BLM protests had no effect on coronavirus cases? The sampling bias was baked in, given that contact tracers were being told not to ask people if they had been to a protest

Why was it acceptable for CNN to use phrases such as “Wuhan virus” and “Chinese coronavirus,” but when President Trump did it, he was called “racist?” Was it actually “racist” to discuss the obvious signs of genetic manipulation in the SARS-CoV-2 genome with my students in an Emerging Infectious Diseases class? 

My campus newspaper and many of my colleagues thought so, as did an Asian American and Pacific Islander group calling for my resignation.  When the admonitions about masks became aggressive (Fig. 3), and draconian, unscientific outdoor mask fines were being implemented, I analyzed some data and conducted a few experiments to find out for myself if masks were worth all the anger.

Fig. 3

I looked at “cases” in places like New York City and pointed out when the mask mandate and fines were applied (Fig. 4). Notably, the NYC mandate was instituted after cases had already begun to fall, and coercive fines did not prevent the second wave, which was longer and reached a higher peak than the first wave.

Fig. 4

I had my allergy-prone daughter sneeze onto petri-plates with and without the CDC-approved masks we wore to enter locations that enforced the mask mandate (Fig. 5). The saliva spray patterns, illustrated by microbial growth on the plates, were virtually indistinguishable.

Fig. 5

In the 60 Minutes interview, Dr. Fauci stated that “…often there are unintended consequences…people keep fiddling with the mask and touching their face…” implying that germs collect on masks, making them a source of contagion rather than a barrier. 

Indeed, after the sneeze experiment, I stamped the outside of my daughter’s mask onto a petri-plate. The resulting dense microbial growth supported Dr. Fauci’s argument against mask wearing – “fiddling with the mask” probably does spread microbes (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6

At the time, I stated in the campus newspaper that “the science on masks was mixed at best.” However, the third-year journalism student apparently knew better and decided I was pushing “junk science.” Was I naïve to expect an apology after “the science” started catching up to what I was saying?   

During the pandemic, my lab was responsible for measuring SARS-CoV-2 levels in wastewater (Fig. 7) to use this information as a means of tracking community transmission. We learned two important lessons from this approach. 

First, peak levels of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater (orange line) provided a few weeks’ lead to when we could expect to see peak levels of people testing positive for the virus (i.e., “cases;” blue line). Second, we learned that the mask mandate (red line) did not stop the virus from doing what it wanted. Despite the mask mandate, transmission of SARS-CoV-2 reached unprecedented highs.

Fig. 7

Taken together, my findings were supported by decades of research showing that masks are not effective against respiratory viruses, regardless of the quality. Still, the counterargument persisted that wearing an N95 mask suctioned to your face, and constantly replacing it, would have stopped the pandemic. 

Again, if the cure is not feasible, then it’s not really a cure, is it? The reality is that there are no convincing data supporting mask mandates, none that even remotely support children being forced to wear saliva-soaked masks, and especially none that would justify people being choked and beaten for opposing them. 

The “follow the science” crowd was honing their authoritarian skills in preparation for mandatory vaccinations. The motivation for these mandates was summed up perfectly: “During the Sars crisis in 2003 pharma companies answered the WHO’s call for vaccine research. They invested hundreds of millions of dollars, but then — when the outbreak died away — governments and charities lost interest.” According to epidemiologist Dr. Osterholm “The companies were left holding the bag.” 

How could Big Pharma avoid “holding the bag” on a vaccine they hoped would stop a virus that had repeatedly ripped through the world’s population? Not surprisingly, their first order of business was to drop the concept of “natural immunity” into the memory hole, centuries of science be damned. The subtext was if regular people knew that natural immunity was real, they probably would not want the vaccine, especially if they already had Covid-19 a few times. 

Leading up to the vaccine rollout, I tested myself regularly using PCR, antibody, and antigen assays. I eventually tested positive and had mild flu-like symptoms. While well-educated friends of mine had gone to such lengths as to move out of their homes to distance themselves from their children and wait for the vaccines, my family chose a different tack. Instead, we huddled, got mild infections (except for my wife, who seemed to be immune), shared some level of natural immunity to the latest version of the virus, and tracked our infections (Table 2).

Table 2

When I shared the “herd immunity” story with my small social media following, most appreciated hearing something other than doom and gloom. However, others showed a level of vindictiveness that should not have surprised me, given how acceptable it became to wish death on the unvaccinated

A colleague attempted to shame me in the campus newspaper, while others wondered out loud whether Child Protective Services should be notified. How dare you give your children the sniffles! How dare you use this time of ridiculous “virtual learning” mandates to provide your children with some hands-on experience performing quantitative PCR! 

Predictably, my SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels were extremely high after over two weeks of PCR-positivity. While still overflowing with SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, I was scheduled to receive mandatory shots in order to return to campus. 

If the world had actually followed the science, my recent PCR positivity and elevated antibody titers should have been a reasonable exemption. Unfortunately, there was no such exemption. Having seen the terrible treatment of my colleague Dr. Kheriaty, I decided we would play the role of guinea pigs and take what would be an all-risk-and-no-reward shot, especially for my kids. That is, there was nothing in it for us except a few days of high fever and injection site swelling, but definite financial reward for everyone in the vaccine supply chain. 

As a member of the “laptop class,” the “lockdowns” made my life easier in many ways. While small business owners struggled, I was getting full pay to upload instructional videos to my university students, and occasionally engage with them online. My wastewater epidemiology work was deemed “essential,” so I was permitted to go to my lab to perform those duties for additional compensation. 

However, the ad hominem attacks and threats caused me to disengage from further attempts to start a discussion on pandemic policy, which no doubt was their goal. While the world was fighting over toilet paper and shaming each other for “killing grandma,” we tuned out for a while (Fig. 8). 

Fig. 8

I was surrounded by so much anger that I truly believed I was alone in my heretical views on pandemic policy. However, I officially tuned back in when Dr. Scott Atlas invited me to join a small group called The Academy for Science and Freedom

Our meeting at the Hillsdale College Kirby Center in Washington, D.C. was the first time I had hope since the pandemic started. We were professors, medical doctors, publishers, and journalists, all united by a common belief that the people in charge abandoned a basic tenet of public health: voluntary instead of coercive measures would protect public trust and induce cooperation. 

Despite all the great minds in the room, it was hard to imagine we would ever get to where we are right now. But here we are. Many of the people responsible for lockdowns, forced vaccinations, and covering up the unnatural origin of SARS-CoV-2 are gone. 

In their place, are Academy members such as Dr. Tracy Beth Høeg, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Dr. Matt Memoli, Dr. Vinay Prasad, Dr. Martin Kulldorff, and Dr. Marty Makary. All of whom were treated far worse than me. The overwhelming rejection of “The Fauci School” of public health policy is vindicating. However, recent headlines suggest there are holdouts refusing to accept that they were fooled: Dr. Høeg is a “vaccine skeptic,”  Dr. Memoli “is known for questioning vaccine mandates,” and Dr. Prasad is an “anti-science MAHA extremist.” 

The people I trusted probably fooled me on a lot of things I voted for, like the benefits of a 20,000-page health care policy. Who has time to actually read that stuff? However, they were never going to succeed at fooling me about the science of the pandemic. 

Their lies and hubris caused an awakening, reminiscent of the scene in The Matrix when Neo emerged from the virtual world to a brutal reality. I just hope the people I trust who are now running the major institutions will allocate all resources to programs that will actually improve human health. In doing so, they should have no problem convincing those holdouts not only that they had been fooled, but who fooled them.    

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/29/2025 - 17:40

California Grid Operator Increasingly Curtailing Solar And Wind-Powered Electricity Generation

Zero Hedge -

California Grid Operator Increasingly Curtailing Solar And Wind-Powered Electricity Generation

The California Independent System Operator (CAISO), the grid operator for most of the state, is increasingly curtailing solar- and wind-powered electricity generation as it balances supply and demand amidst rapid renewables capacity growth, EIA reports.

Grid operators must balance supply and demand to maintain a stable electric system. The output of wind and solar generators is reduced either through price signals or, rarely, through an order to reduce output during periods of:

  • Congestion, when power lines don’t have enough capacity to deliver available energy
  • Oversupply, when generation exceeds customer electricity demand

In 2024, CAISO curtailed 3.4 million megawatthours (MWh) of utility-scale wind and solar output, a 29% increase from the amount of electricity curtailed in 2023.

Solar accounted for 93% of all the energy curtailed in CAISO in 2024. CAISO curtailed the most solar in the spring, when solar output was relatively high and electricity demand was relatively low, because moderate spring temperatures meant less demand for space heating or air conditioning.

In 2014, a combined 9.7 gigawatts (GW) of wind and solar photovoltaic capacity had been built in California. By the end of 2024, that number had grown to 28.2 GW.

CAISO also curtails solar generation to leave room for natural gas generation. A certain amount of natural gas generation must stay online throughout the day to comply with North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) reliability standards and to have generation online in time to ramp up in the evening hours.

Solar energy supplies almost half of CAISO’s electricity demand between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., but demand increases in the later evening hours when people come home from work and turn up air conditioners or electric heaters and turn on lights, ovens, computers, and televisions. This need is especially apparent on hot summer evenings after the sun has set and no longer produces solar power overnight.

CAISO is trying to reduce curtailments in several ways:

  • Trading with neighboring balancing authorities to try to sell excess solar and wind power
  • Incorporating battery storage into ancillary services, energy, and capacity markets
  • Including curtailment reduction in transmission planning

In addition, starting this year, companies are planning to use excess renewable energy to make hydrogen, some of which will be stored and mixed with natural gas for summer generation at the Intermountain Power Project’s new facility scheduled to come online in July.

The Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) is a real-time market that allows participants outside of CAISO to buy and sell energy to balance demand and supply. In 2024, more than 274,000 MWh of curtailments were avoided by trading within the WEIM, equivalent to about 8% of the electricity curtailed that year. The Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM) is expected to be operational by May 2026 and will allow CAISO another outlet to sell solar energy.

To further reduce renewable curtailments and increase the stability of the grid, CAISO is promoting the addition of flexible resources that can quickly respond to sudden increases and decreases in demand. Battery storage, recently the key flexible resource to come online, allows some renewable energy to be stored and used 4-8 hours later in the day. Batteries can charge using excess solar power at midday and then discharge that energy when the sun is going down, providing electricity during hours when it is most needed. Battery capacity in CAISO increased by 45% in 2024, from 8.0 GW in 2023 to 11.6 GW in 2024 according to our survey of recent and planned capacity changes. However, in the spring, more solar energy than can be used within a day is often produced. Without more transmission capacity or a long-term storage solution, high curtailments during this time of year can still occur.

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/29/2025 - 17:20

Democrats And Their DEI Albatrosses

Zero Hedge -

Democrats And Their DEI Albatrosses

Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

A few Democrat officeholders, activists, and pundits are finally coming to their senses that their brand is toxic to a majority of the American people.

The Biden administration killed what was left of it in a number of ways.

First, it serially lied to Americans about the cognitive decline and cancerous condition of President Joe Biden, both while in and after office.

Only when caught did the complicit media fess up that the Biden inner circle serially misled the American people about Biden’s inability to fulfill the duties of the presidency.

Second, left-wing politicos used Biden as a waxen effigy. His job was to pose as a “moderate” cover to push through the most radical and unpopular agenda in the last half century.

Only that way could “Old Joe Biden from Scranton” and his backroom handlers ram down the throat of the American people unpopular policies that nearly wrecked the country: hyperinflation and $7 trillion in new debt, weaponization of the government, and partisan lawfare, an open border and 12 million illegal aliens, a racialist DEI commissariat, a crackpot Green New Deal, defunding the police, biological men competing in girls’ sports, and two theater-wide wars abroad.

Third, without either a functional president or viable initiatives, the new hard-left Democrats sought to brand Donald Trump as “Hitler” and half the country who supported him as “fascists.”

For nearly nine years, the Democrats launched one failed hoax after another on the American people: “Russian collusion,” “laptop disinformation,” and the lying so-called “51 intelligence authorities.” They proved quite willing to undermine the rule of law by manipulating the court system in efforts to destroy their bogeyman, Donald Trump.

Never had the American people seen a political party engineer 93 bogus indictments of a rival candidate and ex-president. Two dozen states tried to take Trump off their presidential ballots. And the Biden Department of Justice sicced an FBI SWAT team to barge into Trump’s home.

The people finally got tired of all the potty-mouthed Democrat videos, the congressional stunts and meltdowns, the pampered rich kids rioting on elite campuses, the knee-jerk obsessions with racial slurs, the firebombing of Tesla dealerships, the romanticization of left-wing political murderers—and always the adolescent tantrums over Donald Trump.

The Democrats had mostly given up on democracy some 13 years ago.

That was the last time they transparently and democratically nominated Barack Obama a second time as their presidential candidate.

Ever since, their nominations have been rigged.

In 2020, party insiders—terrified of the left-wing crazy primary field—forced out all the leading contenders.

Then they coronated the debilitated but still supposedly useful moderate Joe Biden as their COVID-era candidate. Biden then bragged that he would pick his vice president on the basis of race and gender.

What followed was the most bizarre campaign in history.

Biden stayed put in his basement and outsourced his candidacy to the partisan media.

Party activists changed long-standing voting laws in the key swing states. For the first time in American history, 70 percent of Americans did not vote in person on Election Day—the majority of them by design Democrats.

Next, in 2024, they forced the now no longer useful Biden off the ticket, nullifying his 14 million primary voters.

Then, without a vote, they rammed in inept Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee. As a failed candidate in 2020, she had never won a single delegate.

Some in the party now concede it must roust out its radicals.

But Democrats will not.

AOC and her Squad, the unhinged Jasmine Crockets of the party, and the ossified socialist Bernie Bros would demonize any Democrat who offered a sane reboot.

A few fossils in the party may think they know how to save it. But they are terrified that the medicine would be considered far worse than the illness that prompted it.

Would Democrats consider embracing measured and legal-only immigration?

No—the crazy base would scream “xenophobe!”

A return to meritocracy and the Martin Luther King notion of race as incidental, not essential, to who we are?

Again, that would be called “racist!”

Maybe reforms to fix failed schools with vouchers, school choice, and charter schools?

Again, “racist!”

How about developing gas and oil reserves and nuclear power to lower energy costs for the struggling middle class?

That would be condemned as “destroying the planet!”

Restore police forces, end critical race and legal theory, and deter criminals with tough sentencing?

Again, “racist!”

How about ceasing the whiny fixations with “white privilege” and “white rage?” Or quit seeing a “white supremacist” under every bed?

Again, “racist!”

The left created DEI—the use of race to adjudicate every political issue.

And like any addictive, toxic drug, they now can neither survive with DEI—nor without it.

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/29/2025 - 17:00

Senator Chuck Grassley Declassifies FBI Files On Nellie Ohr, Including Lies Told To Congress

Zero Hedge -

Senator Chuck Grassley Declassifies FBI Files On Nellie Ohr, Including Lies Told To Congress

Via the Conservative Treehouse,

Eight years ago, I created a simple graphic to help readers and researchers understand how Nellie Ohr was connected to the construct of the Steele Dossier, the core source material that underpinned the Title-1 FISA surveillance warrant used against the Donald Trump 2016 campaign and President Trump administration.

In addition to outlining how Nellie Ohr took Ham radio operator classes (May 2016) during her employment with Fusion GPS (began Dec 2015), the graphic shows the circular process of how the Steele Dossier (technically Nellie Ohr’s dossier) was constructed.  Additionally, the graphic is also a timeline showing how Nellie Ohr interacted with the overall ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ investigation, which eventually evolved to the Mueller investigation.

A CTH review of the Nellie Ohr research activity proved Nellie Ohr’s work aligned with the content of the Dossier, and the Nellie research was used as verification of the dossier. [See the release of verification documents (SEE HERE)] In essence the source information for the Dossier was used to validate the dossier conclusions because it’s the same damn material. That’s why Nellie Ohr took the Fusion-GPS header off the top of the material she provided to congress. NOTE: This graphic is almost eight years old.

Nellie Ohr was far more important than Chris Steele.

It was Nellie Ohr’s work product that Steele used in his dossier assembly.

In addition to publicly publishing all of the research material on Nellie Ohr, including how she falsified her testimony to congress, I have personally hand-delivered all of the Nellie Ohr research files to Washington DC, repeatedly, including the FCC License which contradicted her testimony.

Today, Senator Chuck Grassley declassified and released the FBI research files into Nellie Ohr [SEE FILE HERE], proving everything CTH previously asserted in our research. Chuck Grassley’s press release IS HERE.

[SOURCE]

Notice the Ham radio license (May 2016) corresponds to the timeline when the Clinton campaign officially hired Fusion-GPS as for the Trump “Dossier” research (Ohr training March-April 2016).  Notice also this is immediately after the time when NSA Director Mike Rogers discovered FISA abuse and shut down contractor access to the NSA database (April 2016).

Today, Chuck Grassley notes:

  • In direct contradiction to her congressional testimony, Nellie Ohr took six ham radio classes and an exam during her time as a Fusion GPS employee (pg. 37). Ham radios can facilitate international communication without the use of a cell signal. 
    • Nellie Ohr claimed her ham radio training occurred before she was employed by Fusion GPS. However, per records from the Fairfax Fire and Rescue Department and Federal Communications Commission, Nellie Ohr’s entire ham radio training occurred between March to May 2016, while working at Fusion GPS.  [LINK]

When you overlay the timeline with the demonstrable activity, it becomes transparently easy to see exactly what was taking place.

Daniel Jones left the SSCI as Dianne Fienstein’s lead staffer and began working with Glenn Simpson at Fusion-GPS.  Fusion-GPS contracted with Nellie Ohr in “late 2015”.  This is the exact same time when thousands of unauthorized “contractor searches” were taking place within the NSA/FBI database.  This is where the Ham radio comes in handy to transmit “international communication.”

Nellie Ohr then sends her research outcomes to Chris Steele for the dossier assembly; and the dossier is then laundered back to Bruce Ohr and FBI for use in their operation against the Trump campaign.   Meanwhile Glenn Simpson and Dan Jones are leaking to the media who are writing articles.  Nellie Ohr then captures those articles to validate material in the dossier, puts the citations on a thumb-drive and gives it to Bruce.  Again, it’s the same damn origin.

All of this activity originates back in late 2015 when the FBI was allowing “contractors,” many of whom were likely in contact with journalists -via Dan Jones and Glenn Simpson- to have access to the databases within the NSA.

This is not conspiracy theory, this is a factual conspiracy.

All of the key details are outlined in the newly released 43-PAGE FBI Report on Nellie Ohr.

Grassley Press Release Here

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/29/2025 - 16:20

California's High Costs, Low Incentives Are Scaring Away Film & TV Producers, Report Says

Zero Hedge -

California's High Costs, Low Incentives Are Scaring Away Film & TV Producers, Report Says

Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,

Low incentives and complicated state regulations, combined with high housing and business costs, have rendered California unable to keep Hollywood from moving production to other states and countries, according to an entertainment industry report released on May 27 by the Milken Institute, a California-based think tank.

Hollywood’s in-state production has dropped in the past two years as other states and international destinations continue to increase industry incentives, according to the report’s authors, Kevin Klowden, executive director for the Milken Institute Finance, and Madeleine Waddoups, a graduate teaching assistant in the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California–Los Angeles.

The industry has contributed for more than a century to the state’s cultural and physical exports, has a huge impact on tourism, and has also boosted the fields of design, technology, and innovative manufacturing, according to the report, adding that numerous other industries depend on the movie and television business and its contribution to the state’s identity, jobs, and exports.

The industry has seen many highs and lows in California over the past 100 years or more, but has never faced the “wide ranging” threat now posed to production after television reached its peak in 2021, the authors said.

“The consequences for California have been significant,” the institute said.

The Golden State lost $4.14 billion in industry output and more than 17,200 jobs from 2019 to 2023.

“While most states other than New York cannot compete with California’s combination of skilled workers and filming infrastructure, California’s base 20 percent incentives, combined with dramatically higher housing and business costs, have left the state uncompetitive,” the institute found.

A “base 20 percent incentive” means the tax credit in California starts at 20 percent of a film producer’s in-state spending, up to a specified amount.

Previous disruptions to the entertainment industry in California have involved the advent of television in the late 1940s, a strong dollar in the 1990s, and competitive film incentives in the early 2010s, the report said.

But Hollywood has never faced several issues at the same time, as it has recently, according to Milken.

“Combined with high levels of financial strain facing the studios in the wake of the 2023 strikes, driven by stagnating streaming growth and the loss of prior revenue streams in DVDs and broadcast television, the need to find less expensive locations has never been stronger,” the institute reported.

The consequent impact on the state’s workers and businesses—inside the industry and supporting it—“has never been felt more quickly and more severely,” according to the study.

The Hollywood sign in Los Angeles on Dec. 29, 2022. Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Streaming growth has slowed nationally. From 2019 to 2023, revenue from streaming content increased by 150 percent.

That growth is expected to slow significantly, however.

Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), which provides professional services to the global entertainment and media industry, projects only 30 percent growth in streaming revenue from 2023 to 2028, according to the Milken Institute.

“This growth has not been enough to offset the decline in revenue and demand from movies, broadcast, television, and cable,” the report authors wrote in the executive summary.

National entertainment jobs also decreased by nearly 14 percent from 2019 to 2023. The number of productions peaked around 2016, the institute reported.

From the spring of 2019 to the spring of 2024, entertainment jobs dropped by 15 percent in California, the institute reported. Adding to the pain, working hours and wages in California’s entertainment industry did not bounce back after the 2023 writers and actors strikes during the union-driven national “summer of strikes.”

The five-month writers strike was declared over in September 2023 after they reached an agreement with major studios that included significant multi-year pay raises, more health insurance contributions, regulations on the use of artificial intelligence (AI), and other production guarantees.

The actors settled their contract with studios two months later. The $1 billion contract also includes pay increases, AI regulations, and the introduction of streaming participation bonuses.

According to the Milken study, the entertainment industry had 28.5 average weekly hours and $30.84 average hourly earnings in 2023. In 2024, from January to November, that number dropped to 27.3 average weekly hours and $27.38 average hourly earnings.

“The problem is particularly noteworthy in filming activity within Los Angeles County,” the institute reported.

Since 2019, the number of on-location filming days has dropped by nearly 36 percent in Los Angeles, and soundstage filming days dropped by nearly 30 percent, according to FilmLA, a film office for the city and county of Los Angeles and other local jurisdictions.

Outside competition for production has strengthened since 2014. Other states are increasing incentives to attract productions. New York has grown its annual incentives funding from 2022 to 2025, raising the budget to $700 million per year and increasing the base credit rate to 30 percent.

Texas is also expected to increase its biannual incentives to nearly $500 million per year by the end of 2025, according to the report.

California allocates $330 million.

The Milken Institute recommended several actions to address the lack of work before the loss of talented workers, prop houses, costume shops, catering firms, camera rentals, and other businesses “becomes irrecoverable.”

The institute recommended increasing the state’s film incentive rates to a base of 30 percent and offering at least $700 million in production incentives per year. The changes would generate nearly $3 billion in more entertainment spending in California, and nearly $6 billion in total output to the state’s economy, according to the report.

Another idea was to address gaps in productions, include shorter-form shows under 40 minutes, and increase coverage for independent films and mid-budget productions that provide consistent streams of regular local work.

An entrance to Universal Studios in Los Angeles County on May 2, 2023. Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

The institute also suggested moving to a year-round schedule for allocating tax incentives and improving the state’s regulatory processes for applying for the credits.

The report also mentioned streamlining and improving local filmmaking permits and easing restrictions on the use of local buildings.

Local, state, and federal officials have responded to the entertainment industry crisis in California in the past few months.

In May, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued an executive directive to support local production and boost jobs. The order aims to lower costs, streamline city processes, and increase access to iconic city locations.

In October, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a plan to expand the tax credit program for the film and television industry to $750 million—more than double the current $330 million allocation.

And President Donald Trump also announced on May 4 that he authorized his administration to impose a 100 percent tariff on movies produced outside the United States as a way to protect the industry.

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/29/2025 - 14:45

Watch: American Contractors Throw Stun Grenades At Gazans Outside Aid Site

Zero Hedge -

Watch: American Contractors Throw Stun Grenades At Gazans Outside Aid Site

The United States government has distanced itself from Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's (GHF) operations, after the aid group's initial attempts to distribute food in a famine zone outside Rafah in the Gaza Strip turned to chaos.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce made clear in fresh statements that "This is not a state department effort. We don’t have a plan." She added that "I'm not going to speculate or to say what they should or should not do."

Screenshot of video showing starving Palestinian crowds overrunning an aid distribution checkpoint.

There's tension and a bit of a standoff between the GHF and UN groups, with the latter fiercely criticizing the lack of experience or track record of the former, which appears to have been authorized by Israel based largely on the founder's close relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The use of American mercenaries to protect GHF aid sites inside Gaza has also proven ultra-controversial. And matters aren't going to be helped by the new footage which has emerged showing US contractors throwing stun grenades at Palestinians along a security fence

"Footage circulated by Palestinian media purportedly shows members of an American security company throwing stun grenades at Gazans outside an aid distribution site in the Netzarim Corridor area," TOI reports.

It seems to have been part of a separate chaotic incident, afer we reported Tuesday: Shots Fired, American Contractors Flee, As Starving Palestinians Overrun Aid Distribution Site. Watch the below footage which has been confirmed by the Times of Israel and other regional outlets:

"Come back tomorrow!" a voice can be heard shouting from the other side of the fence in American-accented English.

The report identifies the location of the stun grenade incident as to the south of Gaza City, and it is the third compound being operated by the Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. GHF did not comment on the stun grenade incident.

GHF has since said it is temporarily suspending operations "due to disorder" - in an announcement that was made Wednesday. Israel has meanwhile rejected the charge of the whole scheme being a failure, instead blaming unruly Palestinian masses, Hamas, and criminal gangs who have long looted aid stores in the Strip.

Regardless of who's to blame, the optics American mercenaries with 'boots on the ground' inside Gaza - and hurling explosive devices at starving Palestinians who've gathered at a metal fence in desert environs is some proverbial late stage Roman empire sh*t.

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/29/2025 - 13:40

Stellar 7Y Auction Sees Highest Stop Through Since 2022, Record Low Dealers

Zero Hedge -

Stellar 7Y Auction Sees Highest Stop Through Since 2022, Record Low Dealers

It's only fitting that a week of impressive coupon auctions would conclude with what was the strongest 7Y auction in years.

Moments ago, with the nervous bond market still on edge over the recent bond collapse in Japan, the Treasury concluded the week's final auction when it sold $44 billion in 7Y paper. It was spectacular.

The high yield was 4.194%, which while 7bps higher than last month, stopped through the When Issued 4.216% by 2.2bps, the biggest stop through since Dec 22.

The bid to cover rose from 2.55 to 2.70, the highest since December and well above the six-auction average of 2.64.

The internals were most remarkable, however, with Indirects surging from 59.3% to 71.5%, the highest since December's record 87.9%. And with Directs taking down 23.6%, down modestly from 25.4% in April, Dealers were left holding just 4.85%, the lowest on record.

Overall, this was one of the best 7 Year auctions in a long time...

... with stellar results even as yields hit session lows just around the time of the auction. Not surprisingly, 10Y yields dripped to fresh session lows just around 4.42 after the results hit, although they recovered some of the move in the minutes since.

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/29/2025 - 13:31

Rickards On Gold Leasing: Is It All There?

Zero Hedge -

Rickards On Gold Leasing: Is It All There?

Authored by Adam Sharp via DailyReckoning.com,

Our friend and colleague Jim Rickards has the energy and drive of a 20-year old. I try to read everything he writes, and watch all his media appearances. But sometimes a gem slips through the cracks.

Two months ago, Jim was featured on Daniela Cambone’s Youtube show. This was a gem, and luckily a reader alerted us to it.

The provocative title is “Jim Rickards: Is the Gold Gone? Did the U.S. Treasury Lease it? This Would Break the System”.

The interview took place during the beginning of the trade war tensions, so the first 7:00 minutes of the discussion can be skipped (unless you want a recap).

At the 7:40 minute mark, Daniela and Jim get deep into the fundamentals of gold. How it’s priced, delivered, and traded internationally.

Jim explains that the vast majority of gold is traded as paper contracts.

Only about 1% of gold traded on futures exchanges like the COMEX is ever physically delivered.

Mr. Rickards goes on to explain that exchanges like the COMEX can change the rules whenever they please. For example, when the Hunt Brothers cornered the silver market in 1980, COMEX did not allow them to take physical delivery.

Tampering With The “Primal Forces”

When the topic of Fort Knox gold comes up, Jim says that the gold is all there. However, his concern is whether that gold has been leased (on paper, not physically) to the bullion banks.

“You can have a hundred tonnes of paper gold transactions supported by one physical tonne that got leased by the Treasury to JPMorganChase.”

Gold bugs have long suspected that bullion banks, such as JPMorganChase and Goldman Sachs, have “leased” gold from the U.S. Treasury. And it’s possible that gold has been “rehypothecated” many times, meaning that multiple individuals believe they own the same piece of gold.

Jim notes that when we ask questions about gold leasing, we are essentially “tampering with the primal forces”.

He goes on to explain the difference between allocated and unallocated gold, and how the rehypothecation process works.

This interview is a must-watch for all Jim Rickards fans.

And here is further reading on this fascinating and controversial topic:

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/29/2025 - 13:20

For First Time Since 2019, Trump Invites Powell To White House To Discuss Economy

Zero Hedge -

For First Time Since 2019, Trump Invites Powell To White House To Discuss Economy

The day after we posted this on X: 

President Trump invited Fed Chair Powell to The White House for the first time since 2019.

Earlier this month, Powell indicated he would not seek a meeting with Trump, unless the president sought one.

"I've never asked for a meeting with any President, and I never will," Powell said in a news conference.

"I wouldn't do that. There's never a reason for me to ask for a meeting. It's always been the other way."

The Fed reported that at the President's invitation, Chair Powell met with the President today at the White House to discuss economic developments including for growth, employment, and inflation.

Chair Powell did not discuss his expectations for monetary policy, except to stress that the path of policy will depend entirely on incoming economic information and what that means for the outlook.

Finally, Chair Powell said that he and his colleagues on the FOMC will set monetary policy, as required by law, to support maximum employment and stable prices and will make those decisions based solely on careful, objective, and non-political analysis.

So, they didn't discuss what's different this time and why Powell didn't cut rates?

Weak macro data (red arrow), collapse in financial conditions (orange oval), and recovery in macro surprises (green arrow)... prompted a 50bps cut in September (six weeks before the election). But this time... 'pause' is the message.

...but, but, but remember, they are apolitical!!

 

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/29/2025 - 13:00

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