US F-35 Damaged By Iranian Fire In First of War; Israeli Refinery Targeted, Iran’s Caspian Fleet Destroyed Summary F-35 stealth jet takes on Iranian fire, emergency landing: CNN Trump dials up threat, seeking leverage, denies approving Israeli Pars strikes; however, reports from The Wall Street Journal and Axios say the White House was aware. US sending more troops to region. Energy war hits breaking point:  Qatar’s […]

Leaks Allege Drones Spotted Over Base Where Rubio, Hegseth Live Unidentified drones were allegedly detected above the Washington Army base where Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth live, according to three insiders who leaked the information to the Washington Post. Officials were unable to determine where they originated, two of the leakers said.  Multiple drones were allegedly spotted […]

Some US Airports Face Possible Closure If Government Shutdown Prolongs: TSA Official Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times, Some U.S. airports may be forced to close down if lawmakers fail to reach a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and end the partial government shutdown, a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) official said on March 17. Acting Deputy TSA Administrator Adam Stahl told Fox […]

Another 2008 Analog: Goldman, JPM Offering Hedge Funds Ways To Short Private Credit The big story last week, a narrative which we may have inadvertently started, was the recurring comparison across various sellside desks (and quite a few buysiders) of the current double crisis (private credit as an analog to the subprime crisis of 2007/2008 coupled with soaring oil prices which peaked at just below $150 in the summer of 2008 before […]

US Energy Sec Confirms No Plans For Oil Or Gas Export Bans Update (1335ET): US Energy Secretary Chris Wright has confirmed, through a statement he posted on X that the US will not be baning oil or gas exports… Thanks to @POTUS, the United States is the world’s top oil and natural gas producer. We are also the largest natural gas exporter and a top oil exporter. To be clear, the Trump administration has no plan to […]

Kent Tells Tucker: ‘Imminent Threat’ Was From Israel, Not Iran; Ordered To Halt Charlie Kirk Investigation Joe Kent, former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center who was President Trump’s principal counterterrorism advisor, appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show to explain his side of the story after stepping down from the administration. Kent announced his resignation Tuesday, citing his opposition to the ongoing U.S. […]

China Buys Gold For 16th Straight Month, Wall Street Sells As Retail Loads The Bullion Boat For the 16th month in a row, China bought gold into reserves in February even as bullion prices hovered near record highs. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) added another 30,000 troy ounces last month, lifting official reserves to approximately 2,309 metric tonnes (74.22 million ounces), valued at $388 billion. This represents roughly 9-10% […]

Senate Again Rejects Effort to Restrict Trump’s Iran War Powers Authored by Kimberley Hayek via The Epoch Times, The U.S. Senate on Tuesday once again rejected a motion to discharge S.J. Res. 118, a joint resolution to withdraw American armed forces from military actions in Iran sans Congressional approval. The motion was shot down in a 47–53 vote. The measure, introduced by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), is an attempt to invoke […]

US-Japan Announce $40 Billion Nuclear Deal; Trump Cracks Awkward Pearl Harbor Joke Update (1226ET): President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi announced a roughly $40 billion collaboration to build advanced small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) in the United States. The project, involving U.S.-based GE Vernova Inc. and Japan-based Hitachi Ltd., targets sites in Tennessee and Alabama. Officials described it as […]

Iran Oil Exports Soar As Bessent Floats Unsanctioning Iranian Oil Already-At-Sea If the unstated intention of the Iran war was to give far more leverage to Russia, and – paradoxically – to Iran, by legitimizing their sanctioned oil exports in a world suddenly starved of energy, then mission accomplished. Just days after the US “temporarily” lifted sanctions on Russian oil stored on sanctioned tankers, Secretary Scott Bessent said […]

BABA Shares Crash Most In Six Months As Net Income Plunge Overshadows AI Progress Alibaba ADRs suffered their sharpest drop in six months during the US cash session after quarterly results revealed a massive tumble in net income and sluggish top-line growth, overshadowing yet another quarter of triple-digit expansion across its cloud and AI businesses. Third-quarter results showed that Alibaba’s core retail business remained […]

CBS News Investigation Uncovers Massive Medicare Hospice Fraud In L.A. County Authored by Bryan Hyde via American Greatness, An investigation by CBS News has discovered massive Medicare fraud at more than 700 out of 1,800 licensed hospice providers in Los Angeles County. The scam utilizes stolen Medicare numbers to fraudulently enroll healthy seniors in hospice with fake terminal diagnoses, billing Medicare an average of […]

MMT Vs Austrian Economics: Deficits, War, & Markets The Keynesian-Austrian debate has raged for over a century. Questions of deficits, taxes, money printing, and their impact on inflation are at the center of the disagreement. War breaking out in the Middle East means we will see more of these three inputs, so how will they show up as inflation: in assets, consumer goods, everywhere? Tonight, two opposing economists will […]

Another Depraved Leftist: Many Such Cases… Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, An Oregon high school principal placed on leave for celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk has been sentenced to five years in prison for possession of child abuse material. Jeremy P. Williams, former head of Rainier Junior-Senior High School, now joins a disturbing list of leftists in education and politics whose public […]

US New Home Sales Collapse By Most In 13 Years In January Despite falling mortgage rates, analysts expected December’s drop in new home sales to accelerate in January… and accelerate they did… crashing a stunning 17.6% MoM (-2.7% MoM exp) – the biggest MoM drop since July 2013. This huge MoM drop dragged sales down 11.3% YoY – the worst slide in three years… Source: Bloomberg This huge drop dragged the new home sales SAAR […]

Escalate To Immolate? By Michael Every of Rabobank Escalate To Immolate? It takes a pretty big development to push the BOC, the FOMC, and the upcoming BOJ, BOE, and ECB meetings off the financial front pages – but yesterday’s and this morning’s news does in some eyes and headlines.  We’ve warned the Iran War would ‘escalate to de-escalate’, and crucial regional desalination plants had briefly looked to become targets. […]

Trump Eyes Boots On The Ground Along Hormuz Shoreline Several reports this week into Thursday say the Trump administration is quietly weighing a major escalation – potentially deploying thousands of additional troops to the Middle East as the White House struggles to map out an end game in Iran, according to Reuters. Interestingly, the Reuters report doesn’t include the phrase that Trump strongly campaigned against: ‘boots on the […]

Euro, Bunds Slide After ECB Warns Of Stagflation The European Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged, warning that the war in Iran could shift its expectations for inflation and the economy. The deposit rate was left at 2% on Thursday – as predicted by all analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Officials said that leaves them well positioned, reiterating in a statement that they’ll act one meeting at a time. “The war in the […]

Ukraine Peace Talks Are Suspended, Likely Indefinitely, Thanks To The Iran War Since the opening of Trump’s Operation Epic Fury and America’s escalating war in Iran, now soon to reach three weeks, Moscow and Kiev have several times confirmed there’s been a pause in peace talks. The last instance the three parties met was in February in Geneva, soon before the Iran conflict began. Days into US-Israeli Iran operations, a new round […]

Civil Rights Icon Cesar Chavez’s Family, Officials React To Sexual Assault Accusations Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times, The family of Cesar Chavez said they were devastated by allegations of sexual abuse that surfaced against the American civil rights icon in a report published March 18, as officials began canceling celebrations and holidays in honor of him. “This is deeply painful for our family,” the Chavez […]

US Stock Futures, Global Markets Plunge As Energy Prices Explode Global stocks are in freefall after a fresh surge in oil and gas prices deepened concerns that the war in the Middle East will fuel inflation and hit growth. We saw clear escalation in Iran conflicts yesterday given the South Pars gas field strike and Qatar LNG facilities strike, both of which have effectively shut down all hope for a quick resumption of LNG flows […]

‘No Hire, No Fire’ Economy Rolls On With Jobless Claims Back Near Record Lows The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the first time fell to just 205k last week (well below the 215k expected and down from 213k prior). This is back near the lowest reading for initial claims ever having gone nowhere for five years… Continuing jobless claims also remain below the 1.9 million Maginot Line, showing no sign of […]

UK Gilt Yields Explode Higher On Surprise BoE Rate-Hike Threat The Bank of England shocked markets this morning, signaling that it is prepared to raise rates to counter a pickup in inflation driven by the conflict in the Middle East. Specifically,t he BoE said it would act to counter the pickup in inflation if it threatened to become persistent, but faced high levels of uncertainty about the outlook and would seek greater clarity […]

WTI-Brent Spread Explodes As Trump Mulls Export Ban; Iran’s Attack On Qatar’s LNG “Worse Than Nord Stream” Summary:  WTI-Brent Spread Blows Out as Traders Price In U.S. Export Restrictions Iran Targets Qatar LNG Plant, Saudi Red Sea Refinery Trump Urges De-Escalation After Iranian Strikes on Qatari Energy Assets Middle East Conflict Escalates Dangerously Overnight Into Direct Strikes on Upstream Energy Assets […]

US Naval Escort Won’t “100% Guarantee” Tanker Safety In Hormuz Chokepoint: Report The paralyzed Hormuz chokepoint is becoming the worst disruption to global energy flows ever, as actual barrels quickly disappear from oil markets, driving prices sharply higher in Asia toward $150 per barrel and potentially setting the stage for demand destruction in the weeks ahead. The oil market has fragmented: Oil is now trading for $150/bbl in […]