Speak Your Mind 2 Cents at a Time
Note: Mortgage rates are from MortgageNewsDaily.com and are for top tier scenarios.
How did a layoff lead to a revolution in financial data? Mike Bloomberg shares the story behind the Bloomberg Terminal, lessons from serving as NYC Mayor, and his philosophy on risk-taking and leadership:
Step inside Bloomberg’s New York headquarters for a conversation with the man who built it all. Nicolai Tangen sits down with Michael Bloomberg to explore his journey from Wall Street to founding Bloomberg LP, his approach to leadership and risk-taking, and the values that fuel his extraordinary philanthropic work. Bloomberg shares stories of creating the Bloomberg Terminal, transforming New York City as mayor, and why he still works almost every day at 83. An insightful look at a life devoted to building, improving, and giving back.
I have been trying to get Mike on MY Podcast now for many years, but he is reluctant to show up on his own air…
The post Michael Bloomberg: Building an Empire & Giving Away Billions appeared first on The Big Picture.
Authored by André Beganski via decrypt.co,
In briefTether moved to establish a new unit of account for gold on Tuesday, as the stablecoin industry leader argued that transactions denominated in “Scudo” could simplify the precious metal’s use in everyday payments.
Under the stablecoin issuer’s definition, one Scudo would equate to one-thousandth of a troy ounce of gold—as well as its XAUT token, which is valued at $2.3 billion, according to CoinGecko. The token’s market cap has nearly quadrupled over the past year.
In a blog post, Tether acknowledged that demand for gold has been bolstered worldwide by “persistent inflation concerns, heightened interest-rate uncertainty, record central bank purchases, and growing demand for safe-haven assets.”
Although a lion’s share of the firm’s products are pegged to the U.S. dollar, it described those factors as an “opportunity to restore gold” to its former status: a universally accepted medium of exchange that can’t be devalued by a government’s ability to print money. The company added that its wallet developer kit can help support XAUT on virtually any device.
Tether noted that “satoshi” is already used in a similar way to Scudo, as a way to refer to the smallest unit of Bitcoin, or one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin. One satoshi is currently worth around $0.001, while one Scudo would be worth roughly $4.48.
Tether’s term dates back to the 16th century, more than 400 years before the first version of the internet was developed. Scudo was used to describe a variety of coins in Italy, likely hammered from metal blanks. The term was derived from the Latin word for shield.
Introducing Scudo.
— Tether Gold (@tethergold) January 6, 2026
A new way to measure the value of gold on-chain. Scudo is a simple, intuitive unit that makes Tether Gold ( XAU₮) easier to use, track, and transact.
1 Scudo = 1/1000 of an XAU₮ (Gold Ounce), giving you a practical and accessible way to send and receive gold… pic.twitter.com/JLbhuUYTk2
The parallel with Tether’s logo may be coincidental, but CEO Paolo Ardoino and CFO Giancarlo Devasini were both born in Italy. Last year, Tether acquired a minority stake in football club Juventus, one of Italy's most storied soccer clubs. An all-cash offer to buy a majority stake in the team was rejected last month.
Tether said that its introduction of Scudo does not change the fact that gold backing its XAUT tokens is “held in secure vaults.” If an individual would like to redeem their tokens, the company’s website says it can deliver gold bars to “any physical address in Switzerland.”
According to Tether’s website, XAUT is backed by 1,329 gold bars equivalent to 16.2 metric tons. The firm published its first attestation report from BDO Italia for the token last April, which did not comply with international financial reporting standards because it did not include primary disclosures and statements from the stablecoin issuer. Tether’s critics have called on the industry’s leading stablecoin issuer to receive independent audits for a decade.
In April, Ardoino said on X that XAUT was “gaining important traction in emerging markets.”
Tether also offers a token called Alloy, which it bills as a “Tethered Asset.” By pledging XAUT tokens, the company says customers can receive a lesser amount aUSDT tokens, which mirror the functionality of its $187 billion stablecoin and are also pegged to the U.S. Dollar.
A few months before Tether’s XAUT debuted, stablecoin issuer Paxos began offering PAXG, the first digital asset that could be redeemed for gold. That token’s market cap stood at $1.7 billion on Tuesday, while tripling over the past year, according to CoinGecko.
Paxos, which also issues PayPal’s PYUSD stablecoin, said PAXG would become “the only institutional-grade gold token issued under federal regulatory oversight,” following the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s approval of a national banking charter last month.
Tether’s XAUT may be worth $2.3 billion, but the stablecoin issuer says it owns much more gold than that. The firm said it held 116 tonnes of gold as of the end of Q3 2025, with that tally valued at nearly $17 billion as of Tuesday.
Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 16:25Authored by Alasdair Macleod via VonGreyerz.gold,
Stagnating economies, together with high government debt loads, inevitably create funding crises and debt traps. Nowhere is this problem more destructive than for the fiat dollar.
But it’s not just the dollar. Economies in the Eurozone and the UK have insufficient growth to support their colossal mountains of government debt. In this article, I explain the mechanics of a debt trap. And how a combination of rising interest rates reflecting growing risk and stagnating economies bring on debt traps, leading to yet higher interest rates making the situation even worse.
My memory is of the sterling crisis in 1976, when the IMF bailed out the British government, and the Bank of England had to fund medium-term debt with gilt coupons of over 15%. The Labour government was forced to cut its spending to resolve the situation. So I have a question for today: who is going to bail out first, the US Government, then the UK and Eurozone, and who is going to force them to cut spending on the edge of a recession?
Only the markets will do it: crisis first, and only if we are lucky, the solution follows.
Read on…
IntroductionUnderstanding debt, the counterpart of credit, is of increasing importance. For example, it is the other side of bank credit, and when banks become overleveraged, there comes a time when their managers become concerned about the risk to their balance sheets. In any economy, the risk is conventionally understood to be in private sector lending, and a recession is part and parcel of the withholding of further credit, leading to corporate and personal insolvencies. Under these circumstances, banks redirect their balance sheet assets from private sector loans and corporate bonds to government debt, which is seen as the risk-free asset in any currency.
There are signs that, with respect to some jurisdictions, these views are evolving, with the outlook for government debt being examined more closely. There is also little confidence in economic prospects for all the major economies, improving government budgets.
Given mounting government debts, debt is a problem no longer confined to private sectors which have suffered from the generally unexpected rise in interest rates over the last few years. And governments in the advanced economies appear to have little sense of the debt trap being sprung upon them, too. As well as the rate of nominal GDP growth, the interest rate matters and a combination of slowing economies moving into recession together with high interest rates is a lethal combination for government finances.
More specifically than growth in GDP, what matters is the growth in tax revenue required to fund the pace at which the combination of debt and interest is being rolled over. In Europe and the UK, tax rates are already so high that attempts to obtain more revenue by increasing them will almost certainly lead to lower revenues due to the Laffer curve effect. The US is probably not at that point yet tax-wise, but economic stagnation has the same effect.
The following table illustrates government indebtedness relative to GDP for the G7 nations and also relative to private sector GDP, which produces the revenue for governments upon which debt credibility depends.
Various papers have been written on this problem, all concluding that a debt trap occurs when the rate of GDP growth falls to below the rate at which the cost of funding the debt increases. But it is surely more correct to compare the rate of increase of tax revenues with the rate of increase of the debt: do tax revenues increase more rapidly than the debt, or does the compounding debt increase more rapidly than revenues?
How did governments cut the debt-to-GDP ratio following WW2?Much of the complacency over government debt levels arises from the fact that high WW2 debt levels were reduced over the following two decades to manageable levels, fuelling a belief that it can be done again. America’s government debt to GDP in 1946 peaked at 120%, below current peace-time levels, falling to 35% in 1971 when Nixon suspended the Bretton Woods Agreement. The relevant figures are shown in the table below.
The increase in gross Federal debt was 142%, but the increase in GDP was 483%. And the increase in revenue, which ultimately pays for the debt, was slightly more than the increase in GDP. Therefore, revenue growth outpaced debt growth nearly three and a half times, leading to a significant reduction in debt to GDP. This was how the war debt relative to GDP was reduced, before the discipline of gold on government spending and interest rates was finally abandoned.
The common belief that debt reduction was due to financial repression, that is to say, the cost of funding was suppressed by central bank interest rate policies and yield curve control, is incorrect. To understand why, we need to address another point. And that is what happened to prices. The dollar and through the dollar all other currencies were tied to gold at $35 for the whole 25 years, but the CPI for Urban Consumers rose from 22 to 40, nearly doubling at an average annual rate of about 0.7%. Yet, measured in gold there should have been no inflation, because the expansion of economic activity under a gold standard is expected to lead to better manufacturing processes, product improvements, and a tendency towards falling prices.
The problems with a CPI measure are many. Logically, there is no such thing as a statistical measure of price inflation, the subjectivity of which has been clearly demonstrated in more recent decades by wildly differing estimates. Government intervention in the economy distorts outcomes, and the savings rate fluctuated, but not enough to explain the disparity between a steady gold standard and a statistical outcome.
A cleaner price comparison is found in commodity prices. Oil was pegged at $2.57 per barrel, increasing to $3.56, which held until 1973: that’s a 38% increase compared with a near doubling of US consumer prices. Copper was similarly more stable priced in gold, as the next chart demonstrates.
That both copper and oil did increase in price by either measure in the post war years can be explained by demand increasing for these commodities more rapidly than supply. But this does not get round the fact that with the dollar supposedly acting as a gold substitute at a fixed value of $35 per ounce there is an unexplained disparity in consumer price performance. The answer is that the Bretton Woods system ended up suppressing the value of gold, evidenced by the selling down of US gold reserves from 21,828.2 tonnes in 1949, representing over 70% of global official reserves and 45% of total above-ground stocks, to 9,069.7 tonnes, less than 25% of global official reserves and only 12% of above-ground stocks in 1971.
The suspension of the Bretton Woods Agreement in August 1971, far from removing gold from the monetary system, had the effect of releasing gold from its increasing suppression by US economic policies in the post-war years. It is important to understand this relationship in its proper context, now that in this new millennium US Government debt is spiralling out of control.
This millennium is different from the post-war yearsThe next table replicates the first table in this article, but for the 25 years of this current millennium.
Here, we can see that gross debt has been rising nearly three times faster than GDP, and even more so measured in the federal government revenues which are behind the sustainability of the debt. With the increase in revenue badly lagging the debt increase, the US Treasury is in a classic debt trap, a condition which has been accelerating, particularly since the pandemic of 2020. It is a fact which is increasingly recognised by foreign central bankers who are getting out of dollars and into gold.
The second element of the debt trap – soaring interest ratesSo far, we have seen that in the first 25 years of this new century, the increase in tax revenue has failed lamentably to keep pace with the increasing growth of debt. For the US Government, this has not mattered too much while the Fed was able to suppress interest rates even to the zero bound and therefore contain the compounding cost of funding. Additionally, with the dollar being everyone’s reserve currency, foreign buyers were always demanding them and investing in the regulatory “risk-free” status of US Treasury debt. It is this combination which has extended the dollar’s life as a fiat currency, pushing it even further into a debt trap waiting to be sprung by higher interest rates.
Interest rate suppression is less evident today, at least not to the degree of recent years. The sharp rise in interest rates and bond yields between2021—2023 have only partially been corrected in the belief that inflation has receded as a problem. This is an error, because the inflationary consequences of a $2+ trillion budget deficit and a decline in the personal savings rate will continue to feed into a falling purchasing power for the currency. And geopolitical factors encourage members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and BRICS, representing a large majority of the world’s population, to reduce their dollar exposure as well.
Both these factors are feeding into an inevitable funding crisis for the US Government, as foreign buyers of US Treasury debt stay away, and in some cases are actually selling. And instead of interest rates and bond yields being under the control of the Fed, they will be exposed to the brutal consequences of falling market demand. A buyers’ strike by foreign investors at the margin is already forcing the US Treasury to fund itself in short-term T-bills, with auctions for longer maturities being generally avoided. Increasingly, the $38.6 trillion debt mountain sees longer maturities being replaced by T-bills as well. The whole maturity structure of US Treasury debt is changing, and it is not for the good.
The yield curve has begun to price in maturity risk, with the 30-year long bond yielding 68 basis points more than the 10-year note, and 127 bp more than the 6-month T-bill. But there is a further problem: in a debt trap, the higher the funding cost, the less attractive an investment proposition becomes, because the compounding pace at which the debt rises accelerates.
The consequences for the credit bubbleFor every debt, there is a credit and in recent years significant quantities of this credit, has found its way into financial instruments, particularly equities. As the interest cost on this debt increases, the credit side of the bubble will burst. Today, the disparity between the returns on long maturity bonds and equities is at an all-time record, illustrated by the chart below:
It is worth taking time to study this chart closely. Not only is the excessive value of the S&P over the long bond greater than it has ever been, but it shows signs of going higher due to rising bond yields. This will only be resolved by an equity crash to rival or even exceed anything seen in history.
It is hardly a surprise that gold measured in dollars is rising at an accelerating rate. It reflects and signals that a final collapse in the dollar’s credibility as a currency is underway.
Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 15:40AI systems are moving from novelty to infrastructure. They write, code, search, and increasingly act on our behalf.
That speed has put a spotlight on a harder question: how seriously are AI companies managing the risks that come with more capable models?
This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte, visualizes and compares the safety scores of major AI companies using data from the AI Safety Index published by the Future of Life Institute, which scores companies across six key metrics.
Based on the scores across six key metrics of AI safety, Anthropic, the creators of Claude, scored highest overall with a C+.
Anthropic was the only company that scored an “A” grade in two categories, with an A- in both governance and accountability along with information sharing.
The table below shows the overall grade of each AI company in terms of safety, along with their grades in specific safety categories.
Following Anthropic was OpenAI, creators of ChatGPT, which received a C grade overall. The only category it scored higher than Anthropic in was in the current harms category, partially thanks to the fact that OpenAI was the only company with a published whistleblowing policy at the time of the report’s publication.
Chinese companies Zhipu.AI and DeepSeek both received failing grades overall, though the report notes that China’s stricter national AI regulations may explain their weaker performance on Western-aligned self-governance and transparency metrics.
Understanding “AI Safety” and Why it MattersA useful AI safety program is more than a promise to “be responsible.” It shows up as concrete processes: documented evaluations, clear thresholds for when to pause or limit deployment, and a trail of public reporting that lets outsiders understand what was tested and why.
Companies that score well tend to communicate more about how they handle model behavior, misuse risks, and incident response.
In contrast, lower-rated firms often appear opaque—either disclosing less overall or providing safety statements that are hard to verify.
In highlighting companies’ weak points when it comes to AI safety, the report from the Future of Life Institute notes that the AI industry is both fundamentally unprepared for its stated goals of reaching artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Along with this, it states that AI capabilities are accelerating far faster than risk management practices, and the lack of a regulatory floor means companies can cut corners on safety in order to get ahead in the race towards AGI.
To learn more about AI companies, check out this graphic on Voronoi that charts the skyrocketing revenues of Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI.
Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 13:55Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,
The Trump administration has launched what officials described as the largest immigration enforcement operation ever Tuesday in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area, initiating the deployment of federal agents and officers in a crackdown tied to widespread fraud investigations allegedly involving mainly Somali residents.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem participating in an immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on Jan. 6, 2026, that resulted in the arrest of Tomas Espin Tapia, a fugitive wanted for murder and sexual assault in Ecuador. (DHS)DHS
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was on the ground early Tuesday as the sweep started, adding to the number of top federal officials focused on the state as federal investigations expand this week.
The Department of Homeland Security has made more than 1,000 arrests of illegal immigrants, many with criminal convictions, in Minnesota, including 150 in Minneapolis Monday, the agency reported.
“We have the largest immigration operation ever taking place right now,” acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons told Newsmax on Tuesday.
Federal agents and officers were going door to door at businesses in the area suspected of being involved in illegal hiring and fraud, Lyons said.
“We’re not leaving until the problem is solved,” DHS wrote on X Tuesday.
DHS and ICE did not return requests to confirm how many agents and officers were involved in the operations.
According to Noem, Minnesota authorities are not allowing immigration officers to access state detention centers to detain illegal immigrants with pending deportation orders. A large number of federal officers was needed after a lack of local support, Noem indicated in a social media post Tuesday.
“You won’t steal from Americans or break our laws and get away with it,” Noem said.
Included in Tuesday’s arrests was Tomas Espin Tapia, a fugitive wanted for murder in Ecuador, DHS reported.
Tapia illegally entered the U.S. in October 2022 and was released into the country by the Biden administration, according to the agency.
Tapia’s criminal history also includes sexual assault in Connecticut and previous convictions in Ecuador for robbery and extortion.
Mong Cheng, a criminal illegal immigrant from Laos who was convicted of homicide, vehicle theft, possession of stolen property, assault, and arson, was also among those arrested Tuesday, DHS reported.
Immigrant rights groups and elected officials in the Twin Cities area reported an increase in sightings of federal agents, especially around St. Paul.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz blasted the immigration operation, calling it “ridiculous.”
“Nobody is fooled into thinking this bafoonery [sic] is a reasonable use of taxpayer dollars,” Walz wrote on X. “It should not take 50 ICE agents to arrest one guy in a library.”
Walz dropped his reelection bid Monday as federal agencies expanded investigations into alleged systemwide social services fraud in the state.
The former vice presidential candidate said he needed time to concentrate on combating fraud.
Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 13:35In a new iteration of a seemingly self-defeating tactic, President Trump's latest social media rant against Republican Rep. Thomas Massie has triggered a deluge of contributions to the man Trump has targeted for a primary challenge in May. However, with three billionaires on his side, Massie's challenger is building a formidable war chest, making this -- at least in dollar terms -- the most serious challenge he's faced to date.
On Monday, Trump used a lengthy Truth Social post to reiterate his endorsement of Massie's primary challenger, Ed Gallrein, a donor to Sen. Lindsey Graham and former Navy SEAL. Trump called Massie "the Worst 'Republican' Congressman we have had in many years...a Weak and Pathetic RINO." In his parting shot, Trump accused Massie of insufficient affection for a foreign country, calling him "a true hater of Israel."
It happened again today! Why do I get attacked weekly? Because I’m the only Republican who refuses to rubber stamp foreign aid, endless deficits, and unnecessary wars. I’m also exposing sex traffickers.
— Thomas Massie for Congress (@MassieforKY) January 6, 2026
My primary is in May. Please help if you can: https://t.co/AgJY01IWPL pic.twitter.com/AAHNPtCU8H
Though Trump urged "all MAGA Warriors" to rally behind Gallrein, money immediately started flowing into the Massie campaign. In a Tuesday evening post on X, Massie celebrated having received over $41,000 in donations from 667 people in 24 hours. "Maybe we schedule a tweet from Donald Trump every week ... because every time he does it, it boosts my fundraising," Massie previously told the Cincinnati Enquirer.
If past remarks in the ZeroHedge comment section are any indication, there are people for whom each Trump attack on the libertarian-minded Kentuckian is something akin to the Bat-Signal, spurring them to chip in a little more money to Massie's re-election campaign. "I donate to Massie every time I learn about a new attack on his House seat by Trump or the Israel-Firsters," one such commenter wrote after the Trump team launched a SuperPAC focused solely on ousting Massie. The commenter likened his donations to the "Money Bomb" events used to solicit large numbers of small-dollar donations to Ron Paul's presidential campaigns.
Though it's called the "MAGA Kentucky" PAC, federal filings revealed the anti-Massie PAC was funded entirely by three Israel-backing billionaires who live somewhere else: Miriam Adelson, John Paulsen and Paul Singer initially poured in a combined $2 million. On top of that PAC stash, Gallrein's campaign last week announced it raised $1.2 million in 2025's fourth quarter.
On the other side of the board, Massie's campaign had a little over $2 million on hand as of Sep 30, and Massie now has his own out-of-state billionaire in his corner: Jeff Yass, co-founder and managing director of trading-and-tech firm Susquehanna International Group, gave the Massie-backing Kentucky First PAC $1 million on Oct. 23.
Thomas Massie tonight says DOJ is citing laws that don’t apply to hide key parts of the Epstein files: “They’re still trying to protect billionaires, politically connected people, and trying to obscure the involvement of our own intelligence agencies.” pic.twitter.com/kmuOg6QPWJ
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) January 7, 2026
Massie has clashed with Trump on a variety of issues. He's been leading the drive to force the release of the Epstein files -- which Trump now calls a "Democrat hoax." He has routinely opposed US aid to Israel and condemned Trump's decision to join Israel's war on Iran in June. He first notably triggered Trump's wrath in March 2020, when Massie tried to derail the $2 trillion Covid relief bill, and he's continued to resist Trump's other big spending initiatives, such as 2024's Big Beautiful Bill. A fiscal hawk, the MIT graduate built his own digital lapel pin that tracks the growing national debt in real time.
The Kentucky primary is 132 days away -- on May 19. While there are no recent, credible, public polls on the race, Massie says he'd confident he'll win, and that, in the face of what's shaping us a grim midterm for the Republican Party, the Trump Team is squandering scarce resources:
Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 13:15There’s still time for him to tell his henchmen not to spend millions against me that they could otherwise spend to keep the majority.
— Thomas Massie for Congress (@MassieforKY) January 6, 2026
In a new iteration of a seemingly self-defeating tactic, President Trump's latest social media rant against Republican Rep. Thomas Massie has triggered a deluge of contributions to the man Trump has targeted for a primary challenge in May. However, with three billionaires on his side, Massie's challenger is building a formidable war chest, making this -- at least in dollar terms -- the most serious challenge he's faced to date.
On Monday, Trump used a lengthy Truth Social post to reiterate his endorsement of Massie's primary challenger, Ed Gallrein, a donor to Sen. Lindsey Graham and former Navy SEAL. Trump called Massie "the Worst 'Republican' Congressman we have had in many years...a Weak and Pathetic RINO." In his parting shot, Trump accused Massie of insufficient affection for a foreign country, calling him "a true hater of Israel."
It happened again today! Why do I get attacked weekly? Because I’m the only Republican who refuses to rubber stamp foreign aid, endless deficits, and unnecessary wars. I’m also exposing sex traffickers.
— Thomas Massie for Congress (@MassieforKY) January 6, 2026
My primary is in May. Please help if you can: https://t.co/AgJY01IWPL pic.twitter.com/AAHNPtCU8H
Though Trump urged "all MAGA Warriors" to rally behind Gallrein, money immediately started flowing into the Massie campaign. In a Tuesday evening post on X, Massie celebrated having received over $41,000 in donations from 667 people in 24 hours. "Maybe we schedule a tweet from Donald Trump every week ... because every time he does it, it boosts my fundraising," Massie previously told the Cincinnati Enquirer.
If past remarks in the ZeroHedge comment section are any indication, there are people for whom each Trump attack on the libertarian-minded Kentuckian is something akin to the Bat-Signal, spurring them to chip in a little more money to Massie's re-election campaign. "I donate to Massie every time I learn about a new attack on his House seat by Trump or the Israel-Firsters," one such commenter wrote after the Trump team launched a SuperPAC focused solely on ousting Massie. The commenter likened his donations to the "Money Bomb" events used to solicit large numbers of small-dollar donations to Ron Paul's presidential campaigns.
Though it's called the "MAGA Kentucky" PAC, federal filings revealed the anti-Massie PAC was funded entirely by three Israel-backing billionaires who live somewhere else: Miriam Adelson, John Paulsen and Paul Singer initially poured in a combined $2 million. On top of that PAC stash, Gallrein's campaign last week announced it raised $1.2 million in 2025's fourth quarter.
On the other side of the board, Massie's campaign had a little over $2 million on hand as of Sep 30, and Massie now has his own out-of-state billionaire in his corner: Jeff Yass, co-founder and managing director of trading-and-tech firm Susquehanna International Group, gave the Massie-backing Kentucky First PAC $1 million on Oct. 23.
Thomas Massie tonight says DOJ is citing laws that don’t apply to hide key parts of the Epstein files: “They’re still trying to protect billionaires, politically connected people, and trying to obscure the involvement of our own intelligence agencies.” pic.twitter.com/kmuOg6QPWJ
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) January 7, 2026
Massie has clashed with Trump on a variety of issues. He's been leading the drive to force the release of the Epstein files -- which Trump now calls a "Democrat hoax." He has routinely opposed US aid to Israel and condemned Trump's decision to join Israel's war on Iran in June. He first notably triggered Trump's wrath in March 2020, when Massie tried to derail the $2 trillion Covid relief bill, and he's continued to resist Trump's other big spending initiatives, such as 2024's Big Beautiful Bill. A fiscal hawk, the MIT graduate built his own digital lapel pin that tracks the growing national debt in real time.
The Kentucky primary is 132 days away -- on May 19. While there are no recent, credible, public polls on the race, Massie says he'd confident he'll win, and that, in the face of what's shaping us a grim midterm for the Republican Party, the Trump Team is squandering scarce resources:
Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 13:15There’s still time for him to tell his henchmen not to spend millions against me that they could otherwise spend to keep the majority.
— Thomas Massie for Congress (@MassieforKY) January 6, 2026
Shares in Blackstone cratered on Wednesday after President Donald Trump announced that he would be 'immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes,' and will be calling on Congress 'to codify it.
"For a very long time, buying and owning a home was considered the pinnacle of the American Dream. It was the reward for working hard, and doing the right thing," Trump posted on Truth Social. "but now, because of the Record High Inflation caused by Joe Biden and the Democrats in Congress, that American Dream is increasingly out of reach for far too many people, especially younger Americans."
Trump said he would discus the topic - along with other cost-of-living initiatives, during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos later this month.
"People live in homes, not corporations," Trump said in his post.
The US president said last month he was planning to unveil “some of the most aggressive housing reform plans in American history” in the coming year.
The cost of housing has soared in recent years due to a historic supply shortage, after construction rates fell in the wake of the global financial crisis. A pandemic boom exacerbated the problem: As of August, the S&P Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index had risen 68% since January 2020.
Both parties have been keen to show they take the housing problem seriously heading into the November midterms. -Bloomberg
Shares of Blackstone, widely considered the nation's largest landlord, were off to the tune of 9.3% on the news.
Developing, stay tuned for more...
Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 13:05Shares in Blackstone cratered on Wednesday after President Donald Trump announced that he would be 'immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes,' and will be calling on Congress 'to codify it.
"For a very long time, buying and owning a home was considered the pinnacle of the American Dream. It was the reward for working hard, and doing the right thing," Trump posted on Truth Social. "but now, because of the Record High Inflation caused by Joe Biden and the Democrats in Congress, that American Dream is increasingly out of reach for far too many people, especially younger Americans."
Trump said he would discus the topic - along with other cost-of-living initiatives, during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos later this month.
"People live in homes, not corporations," Trump said in his post.
The US president said last month he was planning to unveil “some of the most aggressive housing reform plans in American history” in the coming year.
The cost of housing has soared in recent years due to a historic supply shortage, after construction rates fell in the wake of the global financial crisis. A pandemic boom exacerbated the problem: As of August, the S&P Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index had risen 68% since January 2020.
Both parties have been keen to show they take the housing problem seriously heading into the November midterms. -Bloomberg
Shares of Blackstone, widely considered the nation's largest landlord, were off to the tune of 9.3% on the news.
Developing, stay tuned for more...
Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 13:05Authored by Victor Davis Hanson (get well soon) via American Greatness,
As the 1992 campaign approached, incumbent president George H.W. Bush was seen as a shoo-in for reelection.
The First Gulf War ended in 1991 with a spectacular U.S. victory at the head of a coalition that had expelled Saddam Hussein from Kuwait with few losses.
For much of 1991, Bush’s approval ratings hovered between 90 and 70 percent.
By February 1992, an obscure Arkansas governor, Bill Clinton, emerged as the favorite Democratic nominee. But he was written off as having little chance to knock off the popular Republican incumbent president with far more foreign affairs experience.
Bush, however, had just lost his brilliant 1988 campaign manager, Lee Atwater, to cancer. And third-party prairie-fire candidate Ross Perot had entered the race, drawing off conservative Bush support.
Most importantly, in 1990, the U.S. economy had experienced a mild recession that had bottomed out in early 1991.
By the 1992 election, the U.S. was headed to full recovery.
In the last six months of 1992, GDP rebounded at over an astonishing four percent.
The inflation rate in the months before the election was often less than three percent.
Even stubborn unemployment was starting to fall to 7.3%.
The eight-month recession officially ended in March 1991, followed by continual positive economic growth.
No matter. The brilliant Clinton campaign still ran on the directive “It’s the economy, stupid” and the slogan “Putting people first.”
The Clinton theme song was the upbeat Fleetwood Mac hit “Don’t Stop,” highlighting the young Clinton-Gore ticket in supposed contrast to the 68-year-old Bush.
Key to the Clinton campaign rhetoric was the false charge of “the worst job growth since the Great Depression.”
By November 1992, Clinton had convinced voters that the prior year’s recession was still in full force.
The doom-and-gloom, near-depression “recession,” together with Perot’s third-party candidacy and Bush’s sluggish campaign, won Clinton the presidency with 43% of the popular vote.
In response, the Bush campaign had tried to trumpet the administration’s many foreign policy successes.
The Berlin Wall fell in November 1989.
The Cold War ended in a U.S. victory.
Germany was reunified in October 1990.
In December 1989, Bush successfully removed the narco-dictator Manuel Noriega of Panama, who threatened the viability of the Panama Canal.
The Gulf War was won brilliantly by February 1991.
The nuclear START treaty was signed with the Soviet Union in July 1991, just before the USSR itself collapsed in December.
By any normal reckoning, Bush should have been a shoo-in: spectacular foreign policy successes and a rebounding economy after a brief recession that had ended 15 months before the November 1992 election.
Instead, the pseudo-recession of 1992 dominated the campaign.
Indeed, Bush’s many achievements overseas were cleverly distorted by Clinton as proof that the globe-trotting president was more interested in the world abroad than “putting people first” at home.
As in Bush’s prior 1988 campaign, Lee Atwater would have torn the Clinton campaign apart as inexperienced and disingenuous. Atwater would have ordered Bush to talk nonstop about virtually no inflation, robust four percent economic growth, and declining unemployment.
Instead, the lackluster Bush campaign team never caught on and was crushed by Clinton, with help from the economic populist Ross Perot.
The pseudo-recession of 1992 should remind the Trump people not to repeat the same mistake in the 2026 midterms.
Trump’s first ten months of foreign policy achievements are almost as impressive as Bush’s entire four years.
He neutered the feared Iranian nuclear bomb project. He ensured Israel could devastate the terrorist cabals of Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, as well as their sponsor, theocratic Iran.
Instead of a trade war, increased tariff revenue and fair trade agreements were signed.
The border was closed shut.
Military recruitment rebounded to near record levels.
NATO was strengthened, and the intractable Ukraine war may end in a ceasefire.
Compared to the prior moribund Biden economy, Trump’s has set new precedents: record energy production and falling gas prices; inflation now below the three percent he inherited; and third-quarter GDP growth at a remarkable 4.3%.
But more importantly, 2026 may see even stronger economic growth, given a historical $10 trillion in foreign investment, tax cuts, deregulation, ever-greater energy production, huge investment in new technologies like AI and nuclear fusion, and dozens of favorable trade deals.
Yet, the left, like the Clinton campaign of old, is talking nonstop bout “affordability”—both ignoring the Democrats’ own dismal 2021-2025 economic record and claiming Trump, like Bush, cares more about those overseas than at home.
Whether the pseudo-recession of 2025-2026 works as well as the fake 1992 recession now hinges on whether the Trump campaign learns from the past and from now on fixates on the economy.
Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 12:55Authored by Victor Davis Hanson (get well soon) via American Greatness,
As the 1992 campaign approached, incumbent president George H.W. Bush was seen as a shoo-in for reelection.
The First Gulf War ended in 1991 with a spectacular U.S. victory at the head of a coalition that had expelled Saddam Hussein from Kuwait with few losses.
For much of 1991, Bush’s approval ratings hovered between 90 and 70 percent.
By February 1992, an obscure Arkansas governor, Bill Clinton, emerged as the favorite Democratic nominee. But he was written off as having little chance to knock off the popular Republican incumbent president with far more foreign affairs experience.
Bush, however, had just lost his brilliant 1988 campaign manager, Lee Atwater, to cancer. And third-party prairie-fire candidate Ross Perot had entered the race, drawing off conservative Bush support.
Most importantly, in 1990, the U.S. economy had experienced a mild recession that had bottomed out in early 1991.
By the 1992 election, the U.S. was headed to full recovery.
In the last six months of 1992, GDP rebounded at over an astonishing four percent.
The inflation rate in the months before the election was often less than three percent.
Even stubborn unemployment was starting to fall to 7.3%.
The eight-month recession officially ended in March 1991, followed by continual positive economic growth.
No matter. The brilliant Clinton campaign still ran on the directive “It’s the economy, stupid” and the slogan “Putting people first.”
The Clinton theme song was the upbeat Fleetwood Mac hit “Don’t Stop,” highlighting the young Clinton-Gore ticket in supposed contrast to the 68-year-old Bush.
Key to the Clinton campaign rhetoric was the false charge of “the worst job growth since the Great Depression.”
By November 1992, Clinton had convinced voters that the prior year’s recession was still in full force.
The doom-and-gloom, near-depression “recession,” together with Perot’s third-party candidacy and Bush’s sluggish campaign, won Clinton the presidency with 43% of the popular vote.
In response, the Bush campaign had tried to trumpet the administration’s many foreign policy successes.
The Berlin Wall fell in November 1989.
The Cold War ended in a U.S. victory.
Germany was reunified in October 1990.
In December 1989, Bush successfully removed the narco-dictator Manuel Noriega of Panama, who threatened the viability of the Panama Canal.
The Gulf War was won brilliantly by February 1991.
The nuclear START treaty was signed with the Soviet Union in July 1991, just before the USSR itself collapsed in December.
By any normal reckoning, Bush should have been a shoo-in: spectacular foreign policy successes and a rebounding economy after a brief recession that had ended 15 months before the November 1992 election.
Instead, the pseudo-recession of 1992 dominated the campaign.
Indeed, Bush’s many achievements overseas were cleverly distorted by Clinton as proof that the globe-trotting president was more interested in the world abroad than “putting people first” at home.
As in Bush’s prior 1988 campaign, Lee Atwater would have torn the Clinton campaign apart as inexperienced and disingenuous. Atwater would have ordered Bush to talk nonstop about virtually no inflation, robust four percent economic growth, and declining unemployment.
Instead, the lackluster Bush campaign team never caught on and was crushed by Clinton, with help from the economic populist Ross Perot.
The pseudo-recession of 1992 should remind the Trump people not to repeat the same mistake in the 2026 midterms.
Trump’s first ten months of foreign policy achievements are almost as impressive as Bush’s entire four years.
He neutered the feared Iranian nuclear bomb project. He ensured Israel could devastate the terrorist cabals of Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, as well as their sponsor, theocratic Iran.
Instead of a trade war, increased tariff revenue and fair trade agreements were signed.
The border was closed shut.
Military recruitment rebounded to near record levels.
NATO was strengthened, and the intractable Ukraine war may end in a ceasefire.
Compared to the prior moribund Biden economy, Trump’s has set new precedents: record energy production and falling gas prices; inflation now below the three percent he inherited; and third-quarter GDP growth at a remarkable 4.3%.
But more importantly, 2026 may see even stronger economic growth, given a historical $10 trillion in foreign investment, tax cuts, deregulation, ever-greater energy production, huge investment in new technologies like AI and nuclear fusion, and dozens of favorable trade deals.
Yet, the left, like the Clinton campaign of old, is talking nonstop bout “affordability”—both ignoring the Democrats’ own dismal 2021-2025 economic record and claiming Trump, like Bush, cares more about those overseas than at home.
Whether the pseudo-recession of 2025-2026 works as well as the fake 1992 recession now hinges on whether the Trump campaign learns from the past and from now on fixates on the economy.
Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 12:55Last year (2025) might have seen the lowest number of existing home sales since 1995. It will be close! Even if sales beat 2024 sales, these will be the two lowest sales years since 1995. Sales will be worse than any year during the housing bust.There is much more in the article.
Most readers probably don’t remember 1995, but I do! If I went to an open house ‘95, I was frequently the only person to visit all day. Just me and the crickets.
December sales will be mostly for contracts signed in October and November, and mortgage rates averaged 6.25% in October and 6.24% in November (lower than for closed sales in November). ...
In December, sales in these early reporting markets were up 2.5% YoY. Last month, in November, these same markets were down 10.8% year-over-year Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA).
Important: There was one more working days in December 2025 (22) as in December 2024 (21). So, the year-over-year change in the headline SA data will be less than the change in NSA data (there are other seasonal factors).
...
This was just several early reporting markets. Many more local markets to come!
It's only fitting that two days after we got the weakest US Manufacturing ISM print in over a year, earlier this morning we got a diametrically opposite report from the Service sector, which according to the Institute for Supply Management expanded in December at the fastest pace in more than a year, fueled by solid demand growth and a pickup in hiring. As the chart below shows, while the Service sector grew at the fastest pace since October 2024, the Manufacturing sector contracted at the fastest pace since November 2024.
The Institute for Supply Management’s index of services rose 1.8 points to 54.4, the highest since October 2024 (recall readings above 50 indicate expansion in the largest part of the economy). The December figure exceeded all projections in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Ironically, it printed at the exact same time as the latest JOLTs report which as we noted earlier, printed below all Wall Street estimates.
New orders expanded by the most since September 2024 and a measure of business activity, which parallels the ISM’s factory output gauge, climbed to a one-year high. Export bookings grew at the fastest pace in more than a year. Meanwhile, ISM’s index of prices paid for services and materials showed the slowest growth in nine months. The supplier deliveries index fell 2.3 points from the highest level in a year.
Inventories expanded at the fastest pace since October 2024, based on the ISM’s gauge. Even so, a measure of inventory sentiment fell for a third month, suggesting fewer service providers saw their stockpiles as being too high.
The pickup in demand helped spark the biggest growth in services employment since February, and comes just days before the December jobs report out Friday is projected to show moderate payrolls growth in December and a slightly lower unemployment rate than a month earlier.
“The broad-based strength in the headline index suggests that conditions in the services sector are picking up, hinting at the potential for some more broad-based economic growth,” Alexandra Brown, North America economist at Capital Economics, said in a note.
Eleven industries reported growth last month, led by retail trade, finance and insurance, and accommodation and food services. Five contracted, including management of companies and support services.
Below we share Select ISM survey respondent comments:
Commenting on the report, Bloomberg economist Alex Tanzi said that "the December ISM Services PMI reflects the economic turnaround since the government shutdown ended in November. Despite the sizable improvement, however, the tone of commentary remained uneasy, a warning sign for the future."
Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 12:28Authored by Rob Smith via RealClearMarkets.com,
Now that Epiphany has begun and Christmas is over, perhaps it’s time to stop being so excessively nice to “groups” that do the most damage to an orderly and civilized world. The greater good requires us to hurt some feelings. Remember in Star Trek when the Klingons attacked the USS Enterprise and Captain Kirk raised a force field so enemy weapons couldn’t penetrate the ship? That is precisely what the clever jackals on the Left have done to public discourse.
A generation ago, importing 100,000 Somalis into Minneapolis would have been rejected outright, because Westerners were still permitted to speak plainly about Somalis, their culture, and Islam. Today, that conversation is impossible. The Left has erected a rhetorical force field to shield its political interests from its most dangerous enemy: the truth.
No societal problem can be solved unless the remedy addresses reality. Speak a truth—no matter how calmly or sincerely—and you are instantly branded a racist, homophobe, white supremacist, misogynist, fatphobe, xenophobe, and bigot. Yet by every objective metric, certain groups of people simply aren’t very smart—100% demonstrable through IQ data, test scores, and long histories of non-achievement. Men and women are biologically, emotionally, and cognitively different. But the force field forbids me from saying that liberal white women are clinically insane due to biological brain differences, or that saving the Republic may require repealing the 19th Amendment. Oops—I said it. Instead of screeching “misogyny” and shutting down speech, how about a debate? Prove me wrong. In New York, ninety percent of them voted for Mamdani!
Spare me the Indian land acknowledgements and the performative inability to acknowledge who actually founded this country. By modern standards, every living American is a white supremacist. The Western world created virtually everything of value. Anyone here not living in a grass hut, speaking a language without an alphabet, and eating grasshoppers has voluntarily assimilated into Western European culture because they recognize it as—yes—supreme.
So can we finally discard “intersectionality,” that pathetic framework where every group that sucks demands handouts while blaming the groups that don’t suck for their failures? The only way to help groups that suck is to tell them they suck—and that improvement requires emulating those who don’t. What, exactly, is wrong with being xenophobic when the culture in question is a rotten, thieving, low-IQ Islamic culture that has been terrorizing the West for 1,400 years?
The wizards atop Leftist orthodoxy make the rules for everyone else—rules designed to insulate themselves from criticism and preserve political hegemony. If you tell dysfunctional groups the truth and then leave them alone, they tend to improve. Anyone who has spent time among the liberal elite knows their public virtue signaling about forbidden language is a sham. In private, they readily admit the truths they forbid others from stating. Somehow, they’ve convinced their hordes of useful idiots to believe what they themselves do not.
Acknowledging objective reality—things that are undeniably true—is not hate speech. We’ve been bullied into silence by the threat of being labeled a hater. And yes, there are plenty of things I hate—crime, waste, stupidity, fraud, dishonesty, Duke University—but I don’t hate people. Thinking liberal white women shouldn’t vote is not hatred. It’s recognition that they lack Aristotelian logic, the cornerstone of sound government and durable civilizations. I’m trying to protect them—from destroying the country and from having their suburban homes confiscated by red-star-wearing commissars, or worse, being sold into sex slavery by neighborhood mullahs. Calling insanity what it is an act of love.
Every day on social media we see videos of inner-city youths bum-rushing retail stores and looting with impunity. Total mayhem. Yet the force field prevents criticism—let alone identification of the culprits. Something is profoundly wrong with this culture, and the only cure is ruthless denunciation and an end to enabling dystopia. That, too, is love.
As one of the world’s great wordsmiths, I resent being told what words I may or may not use. Imagine if, during World War II, the Japanese informed MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz that they couldn’t deploy the Marines or aircraft carriers—or else be called a bad name—and our leaders complied. Wars are not won by surrendering your most effective weapons. Sometimes the forbidden word is le mot juste. It says exactly what needs to be said—and with style.
Take the word RETARD. I enjoy it mostly because I’m told I can’t say it. I use it sparingly, but with precision.
Donald Trump used it to describe Tim Walz.
He didn’t apply it cruelly to a child with Down syndrome, yet the MSM and the Left lost their minds. Heads exploded. It was glorious.
The Somali community managed to pull off a $9 billion scam right under Tim Walz’s nose.
“Tampon Tim” claims ignorance. If that’s true, there is no more accurate word in the English language than retard.
Speech codes lead to national self-destruction. Truth—especially when delivered in sharp, colorful tones—is the best weapon in the war of woke insanity.
Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 12:15Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang emphasized in his Monday CES keynote that memory will be a major value driver across the AI universe, a view that aligns with our observation in 2H25 that data-center buildouts are aggressively absorbing DRAM and HBM capacity. With supply already tight and pricing soaring, this environment is translating into earnings tailwinds for memory producers, prompting UBS to say last week that the current memory upcycle could "turbo-charge" Samsung Electronics' profits.
"For storage, that is a completely unserved market today," Huang told the audience at CES on Monday. "This is a market that never existed, and this market will likely be the largest storage market in the world, basically holding the working memory of the world's AIs."
Chipmakers led gains on Tuesday after Huang highlighted storage as an "unserved market," with SanDisk soaring as much as 28%. Storage companies Western Digital and Seagate Technology also posted double-digit percentage gains.
Mizuho trading-desk analyst Jordan Klein told MarketWatch that Huang's comments are "bullish" for memory companies. He noted that Huang discussed "how important memory will be for AI use cases and inferencing, such as long reasoning and [key-value] cache to recall all user inquiries with agentic AI."
SanDisk and other memory and storage companies are "key beneficiaries" of the push for "AI inferencing and AI at the edge" in 2026, Bank of America analysts led by Wamsi Mohan told clients recently.
Chatbots: soaking up all the world's power, water and memory pic.twitter.com/L2mcdcLSko
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 24, 2025
Mohan expects tech firms to retain large amounts of data for training, analytics, and compliance purposes, with demand for storage "skyrocketing in tandem." In particular, he noted the growing demand for EVs, drones, surveillance, and sports technology.
Also, last week, UBS analyst Nicolas Gaudois highlighted to clients the uptick in memory is expected to "turbo-charge earnings" for Samsung's memory business. The report is available in full here.
The latest DDR5 DRAM pricing on Amazon!
Last month, Goldman analyst Maho Kamiya told clients that mounting concerns about soaring memory prices pose new risks for Nintendo, which manufactures consumer electronics such as the popular Switch 2.
The great memory crunch has arrived.
Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 11:55Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has revised the naturalization tests that all applicants must pass to officially become citizens, the agency said in a Jan. 5 post on X.
Children participate in a U.S. citizenship ceremony at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) district office in New York on Jan. 29, 2013. John Moore/Getty Images
“Our new version of the test will ensure all new citizens understand the privilege of citizenship and what it means to be an American,” the agency said.
USCIS did not provide more details regarding the specific changes it has made in the tests.
There are two naturalization tests administered by USCIS to applicants—one for English language skills and another for civics knowledge.
On the agency’s Naturalization Interview and Tests resource page, last updated on Oct. 31, 2025, USCIS said it was implementing an updated 2025 naturalization civics test to align with a Jan. 20 national security presidential action from President Donald Trump.
“During the civics test, you will answer important questions about American history, U.S. government, and civics,” the agency said.
“The 2025 naturalization civics test is an oral test consisting of 20 questions from the list of 128 civics test questions. You must answer 12 questions correctly to pass the 2025 test. You will fail the test if you answer nine of the 20 questions incorrectly.”
The new 2025 civic test is applicable to people who filed Form N-400 for naturalization after Oct. 20, 2025. Individuals who applied prior to this date will be administered the 2008 naturalization civics test, which requires applicants to correctly answer six out of 10 questions from a list of 100.
Some of the questions asked in the 2025 civics tests include the form of government in the United States, the number of amendments in the U.S. Constitution, explanation of rule of law, parts of the U.S. Congress, number of seats on the Supreme Court, the individual who wrote the Declaration of Independence, the war that ended slavery in the United States, and the name of an American Indian tribe, according to the test document.
There are special exemptions for lawful permanent residents aged 65 or older who have been residents for 20 or more years.
Such individuals need to study a set of 20 questions rather than the usual list of 128. Moreover, “you may also take the civics test in the language of your choice. The USCIS officer will ask you to answer 10 out of the 20 civics test questions with an asterisk. You must answer at least six out of 10 questions (or 60 percent) correctly to pass the 2025 version of the civics test,” the document said.
Official Language TestThe language test for naturalization requires that the applicant “demonstrate an understanding of the English language, including the ability to read, write, and speak basic English,” according to the USCIS.
Speaking and understanding skills will be determined by a USCIS officer during the eligibility interview.
In the reading test, an applicant has to read aloud one out of three sentences provided to demonstrate their ability. And for writing, they must write one out of three given sentences accurately.
On March 1, Trump signed a presidential action that designated English as the official language of the United States.
“From the founding of our Republic, English has been used as our national language. Our Nation’s historic governing documents, including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, have all been written in English,” Trump wrote.
“It is therefore long past time that English is declared as the official language of the United States. A nationally designated language is at the core of a unified and cohesive society, and the United States is strengthened by a citizenry that can freely exchange ideas in one shared language.”
On Feb. 28, before the Trump action, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) criticized the move, arguing it contradicts the nation’s founding principles and marginalizes millions of Americans.
“America is stronger when we embrace multilingualism. Over 350 languages are spoken in the U.S., expanding our global influence in trade, diplomacy, and business. Bilingual and multilingual individuals give our economy a competitive edge and strengthen our communities,” Roman Palomares, LULAC national president, said.
“Limiting language access is not just exclusionary—it harms our future. We must uplift, not restrict, the diversity that has made this nation a global leader.”
According to a March 17 report from Pew Research Center, 82 percent of U.S. adults in a survey said it was “extremely/very” or “somewhat” important to make English the official language of the United States.
Responses were split along political lines. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning individuals, 73 percent said it was “extremely/very” important for English to be a national language, compared to just 32 percent among Democrats and Democrat-leaning individuals.
Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 11:35The China-Japan spat now seems to be accelerating by the day, with Tokyo warning in the aftermath of Tuesday's dual use export curb announcement by China's commerce ministry that the fresh action could "impact more than 40% of Chinese exports to Japan" - according to Bloomberg.
In unveiling its fresh punitive measures Tuesday, marking a serious escalation, a Chinese government spokesperson railed against Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's "erroneous" comments from last November where she suggested her forces could defend Taiwan in a future invasion by China.
"These comments constitute a crude interference in China’s internal affairs, seriously violate the one-China principle and are extremely harmful in nature and impact," the statement said, followed by a warning that any entity or individual which violates the export ban will be held legally accountable. These new controls on 'military-civilian' dual use are likely to affect shipments of semiconductors and rare earth materials to Japan's Self-Defense Forces and defense industry firms - which is without doubt the intent, and signals that greater punishment and damage could be further implemented at any time.
Within hours of Beijing unveiling these measures, Masaaki Kanai, secretary general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, had "strongly protested and demanded the withdrawal of these measures."
Anadolu Agency
Kanai conveyed the formal diplomatic protest to the Chinese embassy's deputy chief of mission in Tokyo, Shi Yong. Kanai said the measures "deviate significantly from international practice, is absolutely unacceptable and deeply regrettable."
But Beijing isn't backing down, also after its sought-for formal retraction and apology from Takaichi has failed to materialize. Instead, Japan is bracing for continued incremental punitive measures. The latest includes China's Commerce Ministry further announcing an anti-dumping probe into Japan Dichlorosilane imports. According to the new statement and press release:
China's Ministry of Commerce announced on Wednesday that it has initiated an anti-dumping investigation into imports of dichlorosilane originating from Japan. Dichlorosilane is a chemical critical to the manufacture of semiconductor chips.
The investigation is not scheduled to conclude until January next year, and could be extended for an additional six months if deemed necessary, according to a ministry statement. On Tuesday, the ministry announced control measures on the export of dual-use items to Japan.
According to a ministry spokesperson, the investigation was initiated after requests by domestic manufacturers in China.
"The preliminary evidence submitted by the applicant indicates that from 2022 to 2024, the volume of dichlorosilane imported from Japan showed an overall increasing trend, with its cumulative price decline reaching 31 percent," the spokesperson said.
But some analysts consider that there still a chance for de-escalation and walk-back, with Global risk consultancy Teneo describing that the lack of clarity in China’s announcement may be deliberate.
"The brief statement by China’s commerce ministry is vague, and the impact of the new measures could range from almost entirely symbolic to highly disruptive," the consultancy said. "By triggering concern in Japan about the ongoing availability of critical Chinese industrial inputs, the announcement puts immediate pressure on Takaichi to offer concessions," Teneo added.
"A plausible scenario is that the commerce ministry initially rejects a small handful of license applications, creating only minor supply-chain disruption but signaling potential for broader damage in future unless Tokyo takes conciliatory action."
Bloomberg noted overnight that shares tied to rare earths rose across Asia-Pacific markets within the day after the announcement. It reviews that Tokyo trading, Toyo Engineering Corp - which develops technology to extract rare earths from the seabed - surged 20%. And Cerium producer Daiichi Kigenso Kagaku-Kogyo Co jumped as much as 27%. Australian-based companies surged as well, with Lynas Rare Earths Ltd climbing as much as 16%, its biggest gain since July, and Australian Strategic Materials Ltd advancing nearly 10%.
On Wednesday a fresh Bloomberg headline further noted: "The Japan-China squabble is causing some jitters after a strong start to the year for the region’s stocks." It added: "The rally had also started to show signs of overheating. The 14-day relative strength index for the MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed above 70 this week, entering technical overbought territory for the first time since early October."
Despite the open question of just how the export controls will be implemented, China Daily has indeed confirmed that the restrictions will extend to rare earth-related products.
China had already been steadily retaliating through measures related to curbing trade, cultural exchanges, and tourism - coupled with threats of more punitive action to come. There have lately been some serious military 'close calls' as well.
Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 11:15By Elwin de Groot, Head of Macro Strategy at Rabobank
You may already have buckled yourself up, but an arctic chill may also require you to wear an extra vest these days. President Trump and some officials in his administration amplified threats to take Greenland. Preferably by “buying” it, but by force if necessary.
The White House yesterday said it is discussing options for acquiring Greenland, including potential use of the military. The key reason put forward in a statement is that it sees this action as neccessary to “deter our adversaries in the Arctic region”. "The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the U.S. military is always an option at the commander-in-chief's disposal," the White House said.
Several government officials did try to take the sting out of that last sentence. US special envoy to Greenland, Jeff Landry, told CNBC that Trump isn’t ready to seize the island and the President “supports an independent Greenland,” whilst the Wall Street Journal reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers during a classified briefing on Monday that recent administration threats against Greenland did not signal an imminent invasion and that the goal is to buy the island from Denmark.
Meanwhile US Senate Democrats have said they plan to introduce a resolution to block Trump from invading Greenland. The US has portrayed its action in Venezuela as support for the ‘arrest' of Maduro, which -some argue- offered the president more leeway. But the Greenland case may not be so easy to fit into that category.
Still, the threat remains wide open on the table now. And that this risks driving a big wedge between the US and its allies is clear. Earlier this week, Denmark’s Premier Mette Frederikson had already warned that, while she is taking the threats by the Trump administration seriously, “everything stops, including NATO and thus the security that has been established since the end of the Second World War”, should the US choose to attack another NATO country.
What is interesting, is that the US has long neglected its military presence on Greenland. Since 1951 it has had a Defense Agreement with Denmark, establishing the operation of Pituffik (Thule) Air Base on the island. During the Cold War this hosted up to 6,000 US personnel across several camps; today that presence has shrunk dramatically to roughly 150 service members. Last June Denmark’s parliament expanded US access to the island through the 2023 Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA), giving it broad rights to station personnel, store equipment, conduct maintenance and exercises and have jurisdiction over US troops.
The reference to these existing arrangements was also a key feature in a (quite unusual) joint statement by the leaders from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the UK and Denmark yesterday. It notes that “Arctic security remains a key priority for Europe and it is critical for international and transatlantic security. NATO has made clear that the Arctic region is a priority and European Allies are stepping up. We and many other Allies have increased our presence, activities and investments, to keep the Arctic safe and to deter adversaries. The Kingdom of Denmark – including Greenland – is part of NATO.” The statement emphasizes NATO unity and collective security in the Arctic and the importance of adhering to UN principles: sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders. It also declares that Greenland’s future is for its people and Denmark to decide.
How the situation and diplomatic activity around Greenland evolves in the coming weeks could also have a bearing on that other – and much more acute – dossier, namely Ukraine. On that front there was actually some positive news yesterday. After meeting in Paris with Zelenskyy and European leaders from the ‘coalition of the willing’, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said that “significant progress” had been made on a security guarantee framework.
With their Paris Declaration – Robust Security Guarantees for a Solid and Lasting Peace in Ukraine, European leaders clearly wanted to project some rare Euro-Atlantic unity. The statement suggests, among other things, that the US would support a US-led ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism and that there will be binding commitments to support Ukraine in the case of a future armed attack by Russia. If approved by Washington this would be a significant step forward, although many details still need to be fleshed out. It is also very unclear how this would land in Russia and –if Russia dismisses the plan– how allies and particularly the US would respond.
So far, markets have remained largely unfazed despite the geopolitical landslides that have been taking place in recent weeks. The S&P 500 hit a fresh record high yesterday and so did the Eurostoxx 600 index. Whilst Treasury yields rose by 1 to 2 basis points, European yields slipped, as investors took their cues from mixed PMI surveys and relatively benign inflation data from the region. The euro also weakened vis-à-vis the dollar, with EURUSD falling below the 1.17 handle.
December PMI surveys for Spain and Italy showed contrasting developments, with Spain surprising positively (composite index up 0.5 points to 55.6) but Italy negatively (composite index down 3.5 points to 50.3). Together with small downward revisions in the French and German PMIs, the overall message is that the European economy likely entered a soft spot towards the end of 2025. This confirms our cautious view on the economy for the next several months.
Meanwhile, inflation data surprised to the downside. French inflation was down one notch in December, where expectations were for a slight rise. The headline print moderated to 0.8% from 0.9% whilst harmonized inflation eased to 0.7% from 0.8%. This print again underscores that France remains in the lower league when it comes to inflation in Europe. The fall in inflation was mainly attributed to a more pronounced decrease in energy prices, particularly petroleum, INSEE noted. Fresh food inflation accelerated, whilst the decline of prices in manufactured goods moderated to -0.4% y/y from -0.6% y/y. Services inflation stayed at 2.2% y/y.
In Germany, the fall in inflation was more pronounced. Harmonized inflation for December dropped no less than 0.6 percentage points to 2% (consensus: 2.2%). Although a fall in food and energy inflation added their bit, a significant fall in core inflation – in contrast to the French numbers – was a key driver for the German inflation rate. The national measure for core inflation dropped 0.3 percentage points. There were notable declines in prices of clothing and recreation. The latter tend to be volatile items and quite sensitive to distortions in seasonal patterns (such as the timing of holidays etc.), so not all of the drop in core inflation may stick as we head into 2026.
Overall, though, the benign inflation data from Germany and France shifted investor’s focus to the possibility that the ECB could still cut rates if both the economy and inflation were to slip further in the months ahead. The ECB doves have been relatively quiet of late, but these kind of numbers are sufficient to keep some speculation alive.
Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 10:15Update (1014ET):
"Donroe Doctrine" to clean up the Western Hemisphere was busy Wednesday morning, with the seizure of the Russian-flagged oil tanker Marinera (formerly Bella 1) in the North Atlantic, followed by U.S. forces seizing a stateless dark-fleet tanker in the Caribbean region.
The seizure of Marinera is the headliner this morning, given that Russian warships and a submarine are nearby, raising the risk that the situation could spiral out of control after Moscow warned the Trump administration in recent days to back off the tanker.
Within the last hour, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) wrote on X that U.S. forces "apprehended a stateless, sanctioned dark-fleet motor tanker without incident." SOUTHCOM said, "The interdicted vessel, M/T Sophia, was operating in international waters and conducting illicit activities in the Caribbean Sea. The U.S. Coast Guard is escorting M/T Sophia to the U.S. for final disposition."
SOUTHCOM concluded the post by signaling the Donroe Doctrine: "Through Operation Southern Spear, the Department of War is unwavering in its mission to crush illicit activity in the Western Hemisphere. We will defend our Homeland and restore security and strength across the Americas."
In a pre-dawn action this morning, the Department of War, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, apprehended a stateless, sanctioned dark fleet motor tanker without incident.
— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) January 7, 2026
The interdicted vessel, M/T Sophia, was operating in international waters and… pic.twitter.com/JQm9gHprPk
Welcome to the era of the Donroe Doctrine.
* * *
Update (0920ET):
U.S. European Command (EUCOM) confirmed on X that the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Department of Defense, seized the Russian-flagged oil tanker Marinera (formerly Bella 1) for violating U.S. sanctions.
"The vessel was seized in the North Atlantic pursuant to a warrant issued by a U.S. federal court after being tracked by the USCGC Munro," EUCOM said.
The @TheJusticeDept & @DHSgov, in coordination with the @DeptofWar today announced the seizure of
— U.S. European Command (@US_EUCOM) January 7, 2026
the M/V Bella 1 for violations of U.S. sanctions. The vessel was seized in the North Atlantic pursuant to a warrant issued by a U.S. federal court after being tracked by USCGC Munro. pic.twitter.com/bm5KcCK30X
EUCOM continued...
— U.S. European Command (@US_EUCOM) January 7, 2026
Read the earlier updates: Russian warships and submarines are nearby.
* * *
Update (0855ET):
NBC News reports that the U.S. Special Forces operation in the North Atlantic to seize a Russian-flagged oil tanker, the Marinera (formerly Bella 1), was successful.
U.S. officials told the outlet that the Marinera "has been secured" following a dramatic, weeks-long chase on the high seas.
The U.S. seized two oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela last month as part of President Trump's gunboat diplomacy. But why would a U.S. Coast Guard cutter and surveillance planes chase an empty, rusted, Russian-flagged tanker across the Atlantic unless there was potentially something far more valuable on board?
* * *
Update (0814ET):
The Russian outlet RT News has posted footage that appears to show U.S. military forces attempting to board the Russian-flagged tanker Marinera early Wednesday morning in the North Atlantic.
❗️ Military forces, presumably American, are attempting to board Russian-flagged civilian tanker 'Marinera' RIGHT NOW — RT source
— RT (@RT_com) January 7, 2026
RT has obtained first exclusive visual confirmation of the boarding attempt https://t.co/lWf62lN7hH pic.twitter.com/rn9xfLmNxi
Reuters reports that the U.S. is "attempting" to seize the Venezuela-linked oil tanker after a two-week chase involving a U.S. Coast Guard vessel and surveillance aircraft.
From like an hour ago or more, as the Americans got into position to attempt boarding.
— Lee Mitchell (@Lee_Mitchell91) January 7, 2026
A massive swarm of RAF jets were patrolling around the north sea, potentially shadowing the Russian Naval fleet on route to escort it. pic.twitter.com/DxxioNbLw6
More color on the operation from the outlet:
The officials, who were speaking on condition of anonymity, said the operation is being carried out by the Coast Guard and the U.S. military.
They added that Russian military vessels, including a submarine, were in the general vicinity when the operation took place.
Marinera made an abrupt heading change as the US MH-6 Little Bird, the 160th SOAR's smallest helicopter, approached the vessel.
MARINERA (9230880) just made a sudden southbound turn at 11:26 UTC at 60.9386, -16.37014. Decelerated from 9kn to 8kn speed. pic.twitter.com/dH8BnpF6r5
— TankerTrackers.com, Inc. (@TankerTrackers) January 7, 2026
This is what the "Donroe" doctrine to clean up the Western Hemisphere looks like. However, certainly appears that conflict fears are on the rise ...
* * *
In what can only be described as straight out of a Cold War techno-thriller, The Hunt for Red October vibes, the U.S. Coast Guard is chasing a rusting oil tanker formerly known as Bella 1, now renamed Marinera, flying the Russian flag about 300 miles south of Iceland as it heads toward the North Sea.
On Tuesday, Russian outlet RT News posted an exclusive video on X showing Marinera being chased by a U.S. Coast Guard cutter in the North Atlantic.
BREAKING WORLD EXCLUSIVE: RT obtains FIRST footage of Russian-flagged civilian Marinera tanker being CHASED by US Coast Guard warship in the North Atlantic https://t.co/sNbqJkm5O5 pic.twitter.com/XtbBML3a6j
— RT (@RT_com) January 6, 2026
The Wall Street Journal then reported overnight that Russia is countering the Trump administration's attempt to seize Marinera by deploying a submarine and other warships to escort the allegedly now-empty tanker.
The chase in the North Atlantic follows last month's incident near Venezuelan waters, when the tanker - then stateless and flying a false flag - was subject to a U.S. judicial seizure order. As the Coast Guard attempted to board, the crew switched the ship's registration to Russia, prompting Moscow to demand that the U.S. halt its pursuit.
Trump's gunboat diplomacy in the Caribbean, along with a broader push for Western Hemisphere defense - what some have called the "Don-roe Doctrine" - has set the tone for the year: U.S. forces intend to control the seas in the Americas, not China and not Russia.
One key question is why Washington is hyper-focused on this particular tanker, given that the global dark fleet numbers more than 1,000 tankers hauling sanctioned crude worldwide. The ship's quick registration in Russia, without inspection or formalities, may only suggest that the tanker, which departed Venezuelan waters, could be carrying other cargo bound for Russia.
Tyler Durden Wed, 01/07/2026 - 10:14
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