China Reportedly In Talks With Iran For Safe Passage Through Hormuz, As WH Scrambles To Contain Rising Energy Prices Summary: China in talks for safe passage through its vital Iran crude transit point Strait of Hormuz, which may immediately nullify reported ‘blockade’ (a blockade which Iran officially denies, but which has been heavily threatened) Treasury Expected To Announce Measure As Soon As Thursday To Combat Rising […]

The Passive Aggressive Market: Bogle’s Warning Came True Authored by Michael Lebowitz via realinvestmentadvice.com, Since the pandemic, the line between passive investing and aggressive speculation has blurred. The current bout of speculative fervor extends beyond financial markets. For instance, we see the same impulse in the explosion of sports betting and the surge in event-betting sites like Kalshi and Polymarket. In the […]

China Guides Down: Beijing Drops Economic Growth Target To Lowest Level In 35 Years China just admitted what we’ve been reporting for years: the old growth engine is sputtering, and the world’s second-largest economy is officially shifting into a lower gear. At the opening of the National People’s Congress (NPC) on Thursday, Premier Li Qiang unveiled a 2026 GDP growth target of 4.5% to 5% – the lowest benchmark since 1991 and the […]

Oil Is “Beginning To Flow” From Venezuela, Trump Says Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times, Oil is “beginning to flow” from Venezuela, with the United States and Venezuela engaging in a professional and dedicated manner on the issue, President Donald Trump said in a March 4 post on Truth Social. “Delcy Rodríguez, who is the President of Venezuela, is doing a great job, and working with U.S. Representatives […]

Blacklisted: Anthropic Officially Deemed ‘Supply Chain Risk’ As Dario Crawls Back To Negotiating Table Update (1430ET): While Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is begging the Trump administration to reconsider dumping them over ethical concerns regarding military applications of their AI, the Pentagon just put one more nail in that coffin – officially deeming the company a supply chain risk, Bloomberg reports. “DOW officially […]

White House Crypto Advisor Counters Jamie Dimon’s Stablecoin Yield Logic Authored by Danny Park via The Block, Patrick Witt, the executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, made a statement in response to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s recent comment on stablecoin yields. Earlier this week, Dimon said in an interview with CNBC that platforms that pay yield on stablecoins should be regulated like […]

Tampons In Netflix Men’s Room Torpedo’d Bid To Takeover Warner Bros: Report Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Netflix’s aggressive bid to swallow Warner Bros. Discovery hit a wall last week, with a “tampon incident” playing a key role in turning Republican lawmakers against the deal. As details emerge, it’s clear the virtue-signaling stunt of stocking men’s restrooms with feminine hygiene products […]

“Pissed” Trump Fires Kristi Noem, Replaces With Markwayne Mullin Aaaaaand, she’s gone… Moments ago Bloomberg reported that Trump has named Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) to replace Noem.  Trump posted the following on Truth Social: “I am pleased to announce that the Highly Respected United States Senator from the Great State of Oklahoma, Markwayne Mullin, will become the United States Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), […]

Oracle Prepares To Axe Thousands Of Jobs In New Layoff Round Shares of Oracle moved lower in New York shortly after lunchtime after Bloomberg News reported that the company is preparing to lay off thousands of workers as it spends aggressively on AI data center buildouts. The timing is not ideal: credit markets are starting to crack, concerns about Blue Owl are mounting, and the data center CapEx boom is looking increasingly […]

Stocks Tumble On Report US Plans Licenses For Global Chip Exports In addition to real war with Iran, Trump appears set to restart the simmering trade war with China.  According to Bloomberg, US officials have written draft regulations that would restrict AI chip shipments to anywhere in the world without American approval, giving Washington broad control over whether other countries can build facilities for training and running […]

Energy Expert Warns UBS Just How Many Weeks A Hormuz Shutdown Would Send Markets “Out Of Control” It is only the sixth day of Operation Epic Fury, and roughly the fourth or fifth day that commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has been paralyzed (except for one Chinese-linked bulk carrier), whether by IRGC drone threats or by insurers suspending vessel coverage, and already energy economist Anas Alhajji warned on a webinar […]

Kharg Island Back In Focus As Seizure Talk Enters Mainstream Media Debate Update (Thursday): On the sixth day of the U.S.-Israeli Operation Epic Fury against Iran, seizing Iran’s main crude export hub has entered the discussion in corporate media. Former U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Gen. Keith Kellogg joined Fox News and discussed the seizure of the single biggest energy and financing choke point of Iran: Kharg Island. “What I […]

The Spell Of Woke Is Broke: Let’s Keep It That Way Authored by Thomas F. Powers via American Greatness, It is too early to know with any precision what the long-term effects of the Trump administration’s anti-DEI efforts will be. We might take our bearings on that score by considering the fate of essays written by prominent law professors in the 1950s and 1960s touting this or that discrete step in the unfolding of the civil […]

Israel Targets Iran’s Protest-Crackdown Forces With New Airstrikes Israel is striking Iran’s internal security apparatus in an effort to weaken the regime’s ability to suppress dissent and potentially open the door to a popular uprising, according to the Wall Street Journal. Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday targeted figures and facilities tied to domestic repression, including members of the Basij paramilitary and senior […]

Wall Street Desperately Seeks Details On Trump’s Plan To Unclog Hormuz Chokepoint It’s been wild ride in crude over the past few days with Brent crude futures were capped near $84 a barrel on Tuesday afternoon before sliding down to the $81 level late Wednesday afternoon, only to surge back up to $84 this morning… …as shipping industry insiders and Wall Street analysts await exact details on the Trump administration’s […]

Debate: What Should Trump Do Now In Iran? Tonight at 7pm ET on the ZH homepage, we host a debate on the ongoing war with Iran. Joining the discussion: Curt Mills, executive director of The American Conservative, the magazine founded by Pat Buchanan and a prominent voice for the original America First right.   Max Abrahms, Northeastern University professor and widely cited scholar on terrorism and international security. […]

There Is A Growing Willingness By Europe To Contribute To Regional Security By Elwin de Groot, head of macro strategy at Rabobank Losing One’s Innocence A degree of calm seemed to return to energy and financial markets yesterday, helped by tentative signs – reinforced by US and Israeli statements – that intensified military operations against Iranian targets are degrading Iran’s air defense, missile, and drone capabilities. […]

Iran War Puts Ukraine Peace Talks On Hold, As Gulf Venue Under Attack The Russia-Ukraine war, having just last month entered its fifth year, continues experiencing spillover effects from the Trump-ordered Operation Epic Fury in Iran. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has newly announced (overnight) that trilateral peace talks with Russia and the United States are on hold due to the Iran war. In his nightly address, Zelensky […]

Good Riddance, Jasmine Crockett Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance The results of Tuesday’s Democratic primary in Texas delivered a clear political message: voters are tired of listening to Rep. Jasmine Crockett. And thank f**king god she lost, because I am too. Crockett, who spent much of her short national career cultivating a reputation as the politician who can constantly be wrong the loudest and with the most attitude, […]

Iran Says Strait Of Hormuz Open As China-Linked Ship Transits Maritime Chokepoint “Some are criticizing us [Iran], saying that we have closed the Strait of Hormuz. We do not believe in closing the Strait of Hormuz at all,” Iranian military commander Amir Heydari told Iranian state TV on Thursday. Iran military says it has not closed Strait of Hormuz. “We do not believe in closing the Strait of Hormuz at all,” military commander […]

Erratic Futures, Oil Jittery As Iran Newsflow Drives Markets US futures are mixed, first dropping overnight to session lows after Iran vowed to escalate its retaliation against US strikes and avenge the US sinking of an Iranian warship as the conflict entered its sixth day, before spiking to session highs after Bloomberg reported that Iran had previously signaled a willingness to eliminate its uranium stockpiles in return for […]

‘No Hire, No Fire’ Economy Rolls On As Job Cuts Plunge, Jobless Claims Hover Near Multi-Year Lows U.S.-based employers announced 48,307 job cuts in February, down 55% from the 108,435 job cuts in January. It is down 72% from the 172,017 cuts announced during the same month last year, according to a report released Thursday from global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “February’s dip is […]

Precious Metals Plunge As Poland Weighs Gold Sales To Fund Defense Poland’s central bank chief laid out a proposal to generate as much as 48 billion zloty ($13 billion) from the sale of gold reserves to finance defense spending as part of a plan backed by the nation’s president, according to people familiar with the matter. Bloomberg reports that Governor Adam Glapinski outlined the proposal in a meeting with President Karol […]

In “Historic Day For Nuclear Industry”, Novel Technology Reactor Gets First Federal Permit In A Decade To Start Building In a move that’s got America’s energy bureaucrats finally moving at something approaching market speed, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has handed TerraPower – the Bill Gates-backed outfit pushing the Natrium advanced reactor – the first commercial nuclear construction permit issued in nearly a decade. After […]

Macron Declares Attacks On Iran Violate International Law, Spanish MEP Calls For Spain To Leave NATO Via Remix News, French President Emmanuel Macron, while initially supporting the war in line with Germany and the United Kingdom, has since declared the attacks outside of international law while also committing to support Cyprus and increase its own nuclear arsenal. “The United States of America and Israel decided to launch […]