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Zero Rss

Globalism Seeks To Kill The Nation-State

Zero Rss
3 weeks ago
Globalism Seeks To Kill The Nation-State

Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker,

International government threatens the whole planet.

People are beginning to understand that those who rule in their name have long been working to eliminate the nation-state.

The United Nations is not neutral ground for national governments to discuss their differences; it is a governmental construct meant to replace national governments.  The World Health Organization is not an international body meant to coordinate complex responses to global health emergencies; it is an institution vested with vast power and authority to track and regulate every human on the planet.  The Bank for International Settlements, the World Bank Group, and the International Monetary Fund don’t exist to expand free trade, open markets, and assist developing nations; they exist to centralize control over all economic transactions in the world.

The onslaught of “green new deal” laws in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, and New Zealand have nothing to do with preserving the environment or “saving the planet”; they are part of a broader U.N. initiative to track every person’s so-called “carbon footprint” in order to monitor, tax, and regulate all human activity.  The U.N.’s “climate reparations” policy has nothing to do with “justice” or “science”; it exists to justify the redistribution of wealth from Western nations to non-Western nations under the guise of “international law.”

The message we have heard all our lives is loud and clear: Nations do bad things.  International organizations do good things.

The rhetorical war on “nationalism” didn’t begin because people who are proud of their nations magically became Nazis; people who are proud of their nations are called “Nazis” so that those who rule over us can demonize the nation-state.  If you go back through newspapers and scholarly essays before WWII, “nationalism” and “patriotism” are used interchangeably.  After WWII, there is an obvious linguistic break.  “Patriotism,” for the most part, survives as an acceptable civic virtue (How else can governments send men into battle if there are no patriots?).  “Nationalism,” however, becomes increasingly used through the decades as a derogatory term linked to fascism — as if the very organizing concept of a nation-state is inherently authoritarian and anti-democratic.

Thinking about this anti-nationalism campaign for more than a second reveals its silliness.  Why would a constitutional republic with representative democracy be “fascist” at the national level but “democratic” when organized internationally?  Why would the Executive leader of a nation such as Germany, France, or the United States be more “authoritarian” than the secretary-general of the U.N. or the president of the European Commission?  Why would an international governing body be considered more “democratic” than a town, region, or nation of people governing themselves?  Why should the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, be considered Europe’s “representative leader” when the European people never voted for her to “represent” them?

The U.N. has 193 member state ambassadors representing roughly 8.3 billion people.  Why should such a minuscule parliamentary assembly be considered “democratic” or “representative” at all?  At best, it uses the veneer of “democracy” to justify imposing its authoritarian will upon all of humanity.  Whether one dictator or 193 dictators working in concert — when humanity is forced to obey the edicts of rulers, it doesn’t matter if those edicts come from a national or international body.

Natural rights and freedoms do not become more natural because 193 people in New York City say so.  God-given liberties exist despite the existence of government, not because of government.  The more people over whom a government claims jurisdiction, the less likely that any one person’s natural rights will be respected and protected.  When a citizen cannot look his “representative” in the face, his “representative” is much less concerned about infringing that citizen’s natural liberties.

International governments are no less likely to become totalitarian than national governments.  Just as Hitler’s national socialism and Mussolini’s fascism did last century, international tyranny prefers to disguise itself as something peaceful, benevolent, and for the common good.  Had Hitler successfully conquered Europe, perhaps the German Empire would have been called the European Union.  Had Hitler conquered the world, perhaps the U.N.’s headquarters would be in Berlin.  National totalitarianism becomes international totalitarianism just as easily as national mask and vaccine mandates transform into “vaccine passports” and World Health Organization mandates.

The same people who hyperventilate about President Trump’s supposed “authoritarianism” roundly applaud the authoritarianism of global institutions such as the World Health Organization.  In fact, when the president withdrew the United States from WHO on his first day back in office last year due to the international body’s mishandling of the COVID pandemic and efforts to cover up the pandemic’s origin in Wuhan, China, critics in the press accused Trump of being “scientifically reckless” and called “global cooperation” a “biological necessity.”

That’s another part of internationalism’s linguistic magic trick: The same global corporate news machine that has spent the last eighty-plus years conditioning people to understand the word “nationalism” as something evil, militant, and barbaric has simultaneously conditioned the world to see anything “international” as inherently good, peaceful, and progressive.  The “national / international” dichotomy didn’t happen by accident; it’s been shoved down our throats all our lives.  But once again, if a rational person takes a moment to consider the semantic manipulation, it is quite absurd.

If the International Monetary Fund, headquartered in Washington, D.C., were more accurately renamed the “American Monetary Fund,” would the financial institution become more suspect?  If so, then how should we view the word “international” as anything other than a verbal ruse meant to project a false message that the IMF acts on behalf of all people on the planet?  American taxpayers have principally funded the World Health Organization since its formation in 1948.  If it had been called the American Health Organization, would the press have been as upset when “authoritarian” Trump decided to stop funding it?  If not, does this not suggest that words such as “world” and “global” distort the identity and purpose of these intrusive organizations?

“Internationalism” is a Trojan Horse or at least the camel’s nose under the tent for Big Government authoritarians who wish to impose their will on the whole planet.

When “international” agents or soldiers come knocking, their mission sounds downright “humanitarian,” doesn’t it?  The United Nations has a whole Department of Peace Operations.  That department sends out military and law enforcement personnel known as “peacekeepers.”  And for decades the “peacekeepers” from the Department of Peace Operations have raped women and girls all over the world.  The “internationals” have been abusing the “nationals,” and the international United Nations and the multinational corporate news organizations have spent decades covering up all of the “internationals’” prolific raping.  International organizations dedicated to “peace” can’t be seen doing things that only “fascist” nationals do.

Big lies expose internationalism’s true intent: Internationalists are building a global empire.  This empire is authoritarian (because it demands global compliance at the expense of personal freedom) and totalitarian (because it requires complete subservience to a centralized and dictatorial global government).  There is nothing “democratic” or “representative” about this international system of governance.  It has no interest in protecting an individual’s rights and freedoms.  It has no interest in respecting a nation’s sovereignty.  It will permit both individuals and nations to be raped in the name of “global peace.”

Therefore, it makes perfect sense why the United Nations encourages mass illegal immigration into the United States and Europe.  When you are in the business of destroying nations, you do not care if murderers and rapists destroy local families.  You do not care if Islamic terrorists burn down Christian churches.  You do not care if the “newcomers” to Europe and America have pledged to conquer the West.

For globalism to win, it must first kill the nation-state.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/25/2026 - 23:25
Tyler Durden

Healthcare Workers Dominate America's Highest-Paid Jobs

Zero Rss
3 weeks ago
Healthcare Workers Dominate America's Highest-Paid Jobs

Want to earn more than $300,000 a year in America? The clearest path is still a highly specialized medical career.

This ranking of America’s highest-paying occupations uses Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data to compare mean annual wages and total U.S. employment across the country’s top-paid roles.

As Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld details below, the results show how concentrated high pay is in healthcare. They also reveal another important pattern: many of America’s best-paid jobs are held by relatively small workforces, making them some of the rarest careers in the economy.

America’s Highest-Paying Jobs

The rankings below show the 30 highest-paying occupations in the U.S. based on mean annual wages, alongside total nationwide employment levels.

Why Doctors Dominate America’s Highest-Paying Jobs

Healthcare’s dominance reflects a powerful mix of high barriers to entry, limited specialist supply, and steady demand for complex medical care.

Most of the highest-paying medical specialties require more than a decade of education and residency training, limiting the pipeline of qualified professionals. At the same time, America’s aging population is increasing demand for specialists in cardiology, radiology, oncology, and surgery.

As a result, highly specialized physicians command some of the largest salaries in the economy. Adding to this, the U.S. is projected to face a shortage of more than 141,000 physicians by 2038.

America’s Highest-Paying Jobs Are Also Among Its Rarest

Many of America’s top-paying professions employ surprisingly small numbers of workers nationwide.

For example, there are only about 1,000 pediatric surgeons across the U.S., despite the profession ranking first overall in pay. Several other elite medical specialties, including prosthodontists (760) and oral surgeons (5,000), also have relatively small workforces.

This scarcity helps explain why wages remain exceptionally high. Limited supply continues to collide with growing healthcare demand and an aging population with rising rates of chronic illness.

The Highest-Paying Jobs Outside Healthcare

Outside of healthcare, only a handful of roles break into the upper tier of U.S. pay, led by aviation and executive management.

Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers ($280.6K) rank among the country’s highest-paid workers as aviation faces persistent pilot shortages. Meanwhile, chief executives ($262.9K), financial managers ($180.5K), and architectural and engineering managers ($175.7K) command high salaries due to their leadership responsibilities and oversight of complex operations.

Will America’s Highest-Paying Jobs Change?

Despite rapid advances in AI and automation, many of America’s highest-paying jobs remain difficult to replace.

Specialized surgeons, anesthesiologists, and pilots operate in highly regulated environments that require years of hands-on training and real-time decision-making. These barriers continue to shield many elite professions from automation pressures reshaping other parts of the workforce.

At the same time, healthcare spending is forecast to grow faster than the broader economy through 2033, helping sustain strong demand and high salaries for specialized physicians.

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on the best places to work in America in 2026.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/25/2026 - 22:50
Tyler Durden

Musk: SpaceX Is Actively Seeking More AI Compute Customers, After Anthropic Deal

Zero Rss
3 weeks ago
Musk: SpaceX Is Actively Seeking More AI Compute Customers, After Anthropic Deal

By Sebatsian Moss of Data Center Dynamics

SpaceX's xAI subsidiary is looking to score more data center compute lease deals, after it sold all of the capacity of Colossus I to Anthropic.

That deal will see Grok's competitor pay $1.25 billion a month over the next three years for the 300MW facility. The deal can be terminated by either party, with 90 days' notice.

"As the recently expanded partnership with Anthropic demonstrates, SpaceX is offering AI compute as a service at significant scale," CEO Elon Musk said.

"We are in discussions with other companies to do the same. "Over time, especially with orbital data centers, we expect to serve AI at extremely high scale."

In April, AI code editing startup Cursor announced that it would also be using space at xAI data centers - although SpaceX is set to acquire the business within 30 days of its IPO.

SpaceX is expected to go public on June 12, with the company looking to raise upwards of $75 billion. IPO documents reveal that xAI spent $12.7bn on AI infrastructure in 2025, and has already invested $7.7bn in the first quarter of 2026.

Alongside the first Colossus data center, xAI is developing Colossus 2. It acquired the land last March, and the data center came online in January. Despite Musk claiming it offered 1GW of capacity at launch, satellite imagery taken in January reportedly showed it had cooling equipment installed capable of managing 350MW.

The IPO document makes multiple mentions of the 1GW of data center capacity at SpaceX’s disposal, but describes it as “nameplate compute draw.” It explains this is calculated by taking “the number of GPUs installed in our data centers at the end of the period multiplied by their respective all-in power draw.

According to a chart in the IPO filing, the company’s nameplate compute draw was 1GW in March 2026, up from 300MW a year before. However, it also notes that this figure “reflects installed capacity and does not represent actual power consumption or utilization.” So while the GPUs are installed, they may not yet be powered up, suggesting the company’s actual useful compute power could be significantly less than 1GW.

How much capacity at the xAI data centers is actually reserved for Grok, the company's own generative AI effort, is unclear. The platform has seen dwindling usage, while increasing numbers of staff have left the company - including all non-Musk co-founders.

SpaceX, meanwhile, plans to launch up to one million space data center satellites in the years to come.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/25/2026 - 22:15
Tyler Durden

First Andreessen, Now Goldman CEO Shuts Down AI Job-Apocalypse Doomerism Narrative

Zero Rss
3 weeks ago
First Andreessen, Now Goldman CEO Shuts Down AI Job-Apocalypse Doomerism Narrative

Amid the flood of AI doomerism, from Pope Leo XIV's Monday warning that AI and the digital transformation of the economy could unleash "new forms of slavery" and mass job losses, to Bernie Sanders and unhinged socialists calling for a halt to data centers buildouts, a move that would conveniently cede compute power to communists in Beijing, a growing and emerging chorus of dystopian futurists is now trying to frame the AI boom as an existential labor-market crisis rather than the next productivity supercycle that arrives just in time as a demographic winter unfolds.

Adding to recent comments from Netscape co-founder and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) co-founder Marc Andreessen, who argued that AI-related job-loss fears are merely hysteria and that AI is actually arriving at the moment the nation needs it most:

"We're going to have AI and robots precisely when we actually need them [with populations shrinking] to keep the economy from actually shrinking."

...none other than Goldman Sachs CEO and occasional weekend DJ in the Hamptons, David Solomon, penned a recent opinion piece in The New York Times asserting that the AI-related "job apocalypse and mass unemployment ahead" hysteria is "overblown."

"I'm the C.E.O. of Goldman Sachs. The A.I. Job Apocalypse Is Overblown," Solomon titled the NYTimes op-ed, likely aiming for maximum media exposure with such an eye-catching headline.

Solomon's framing of the headline appears to be a direct response to growing resistance not only to AI chatbots but also to data centers nationwide, a backlash wave we pointed out many months ago as alarm bells ring loudly from the tech bro community. As AI infrastructure becomes the backbone of the next economic cycle, the anti-data-center movement is quickly gaining steam and becoming a political weapon by the doomerism community.

Solomon argues that AI will not eliminate jobs at an apocalyptic scale. Instead, he says it will allow workers to become more productive, shift to higher-value tasks, and create new roles focused on managing, implementing, validating, and regulating AI systems.

However, Solomon does acknowledge that there will be labor market disruptions:

Absolutely. This transition, like other significant moments in our history, will entail new challenges, especially as A.I. separates labor from productivity in magnitudes we haven't seen before.

He pointed out that the U.S. economy has seen this story before: it has repeatedly absorbed technological shocks, from electrification to automobiles to computers, while overall employment and living standards continued to rise.

Solomon said AI will likely follow the same pattern as previous technological shifts, eliminating some jobs while expanding others, such as the explosion in construction jobs tied to the $700 billion in capex that hyperscalers are set to deploy this year alone.

Solomon cites his economists, who recently forecast that AI could automate 25% of current work hours over the next decade, with white-collar sectors such as banking, law, accounting, software, and customer service most exposed.

Solomon said that if AI destroys jobs at an unprecedented scale, there should be a "joint effort" between the corporate world and government to help workers and institutions adapt to the new labor market.

"The U.S. economy can and will adapt to major advances in technology," he emphasized.

Solomon's comments were similar to those made earlier this year by venture capital guru Andreessen, who argued that fears of an AI-driven jobs apocalypse are overstated.

In his view, automation and robots are entering the picture at exactly the moment economies need them to offset labor shortages and prevent stagnation.

Read:

  • Marc Andreessen Calls AI Job-Loss Fears 'Fake', Expects Employment Gains

  • If You're Freaking Out About A Future Jobless AI Dystopia...

Elon Musk has been among the loudest and most vocal voices warning about the demographic winter consuming not only the Western world but many other countries as well. He has framed his Optimus robot as "great for Japan" because it could help offset a shrinking workforce.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/25/2026 - 21:40
Tyler Durden

Arab States Voice Outrage Over New 'Illegal' Embassy Opening In Jerusalem

Zero Rss
3 weeks ago
Arab States Voice Outrage Over New 'Illegal' Embassy Opening In Jerusalem

Via The Cradle

Fifteen Arab and Islamic countries condemned on Sunday the decision of the breakaway region of Somaliland to open an embassy in occupied Jerusalem. The foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Turkiye, Pakistan, Indonesia, Djibouti, Somalia, Palestine, Oman, Sudan, Yemen, Lebanon, and Mauritania denounced the move in a joint statement on Sunday.

The countries condemned "in the strongest terms the illegal and unacceptable step taken by the so-called 'Somaliland' region in opening a purported 'embassy' in occupied Jerusalem," according to the statement.

Newly opened embassy in Jerusalem, via X

The countries issued the statement one week after Israeli President Isaac Herzog welcomed Somaliland's first-ever ambassador to Israel, Dr. Mohamed Hagi, at the President's Residence in occupied Jerusalem. "This new and important partnership between our countries will lead to a future of cooperation in a variety of fields – for the benefit of both our peoples and the entire region," Herzog stated.

Seven countries have opened embassies in Jerusalem since the US, under President Donald Trump, recognized the city as Israel's capital in 2017.

The decision sparked widespread international condemnation, given that Israeli forces illegally occupied East Jerusalem during the Six-Day War in 1967, which Palestinians call the Nakba. Since then, Israel has colonized East Jerusalem in violation of international law by expelling indigenous Palestinian Muslims and Christians and facilitating the settlement of Jewish Israelis in their place.

The 15 countries rejected any unilateral measures to entrench "an illegal reality in occupied Jerusalem or conferring legitimacy on any entities or arrangements that contravene international law and relevant United Nations resolutions."

The statement reaffirmed the fact that "East Jerusalem has been occupied Palestinian territory since 1967" and said any measures seeking to alter its legal or historical status are "null and void."

The foreign ministers also expressed full support for the unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Somalia, rejecting any unilateral actions that undermine Somali sovereignty.

In April, Somalia condemned Israel's appointment of an ambassador to the breakaway region of Somaliland, calling the move a "breach" of its sovereignty and international law. "This action represents a direct breach of Somalia's sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity," the Somalian Foreign Ministry said, adding that it "undermines the established international consensus." 

Mogadishu added that the decision violates its territorial integrity and contradicts the UN Charter and African Union principles. The ministry stressed that Somaliland “remains an integral part” of Somalia, rejecting any attempt to grant it diplomatic recognition outside federal authority.

On December 26, 2025, Israel formally recognized what it termed the Republic of Somaliland, marking a significant shift in its policy toward the Horn of Africa. The move altered the political equation along one of the world's most sensitive maritime routes.

It consolidates a four-party alignment linking Israel, India, the UAE, and Ethiopia. This emerging axis focuses on securing maritime chokepoints in the Gulf of Aden and Bab al-Mandeb, while laying the groundwork for an alternative to China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in eastern Africa.

16 Arab Islamic Countries Condemn Somaliland’s Opening of Purported Embassy in Jerusalem

Doha | May 24, 2026

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Republic of… pic.twitter.com/F7gsx4Elsf

— Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Qatar (@MofaQatar_EN) May 24, 2026

The timing followed months of escalating regional pressure, including the 12-day Israeli–Iranian war in June 2025 and the Yemeni maritime blockade targeting vessels bound for Israeli ports following the beginning of Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

Securing these waterways became a core component of Israeli national security planning. Somaliland's geography explains its importance. Somaliland's territory overlooks one of the world's busiest maritime arteries, facilitating trade flows linking Asia, Africa, and Europe. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/25/2026 - 21:05
Tyler Durden

Debt Remembered And Debt Ignored

Zero Rss
3 weeks ago
Debt Remembered And Debt Ignored

Authored by Greg Marasca via AmericanThinker.com,

Memorial Day compels Americans to confront a word we avoid: debt.

Not the financial kind that Congress pretends will magically resolve itself, but the older, heavier meaning — the kind carved into headstones at Arlington and cemeteries across the country.

It is the debt paid in full by those who gave their lives, so the rest of us could live free.

No interest rate can measure it. No budget line can contain it. It is final, irrevocable, and sacred.

Every year, we pause, as we should, to acknowledge that liberty is no accident. Its purchase price is steep. Many stood a post, walked point, climbed into a cockpit, or sailed into hostile waters so that we could enjoy the ordinary luxuries of American life: arguing about politics, grilling in the backyard, complaining about work, raising families in relative peace. The fallen paid the ultimate debt, while the rest of us live on the dividends of their courage.

There remains another debt that all Americans must face, one far less noble and far more self-inflicted: the national debt that at $39 trillion is growing faster than the economy and its current path is unsustainable with interest payments amounting to $1 trillion a year — a figure most cannot comprehend.

Unlike the solemn debt honored on Memorial Day, this one grows not from sacrifice but from avoidance, avarice and unaccountability. It is the bill we keep pushing onto future generations because those elected lack the discipline and forbearance to make the difficult choices.

The contrast is stark.

On one side are the young Americans who never hesitated when their country asked for everything. On the other, a political culture that bemoans over the smallest act of fiscal restraint. The fallen gave their lives, while Washington can’t forego a spending increase.

Memorial Day reminds us that debts must be paid.

The laws of economics will not suspend themselves out of patriotic courtesy. We borrow to fund today’s comforts while expecting tomorrow’s citizens, many of whom are not yet born, to pay the bill.

Imagine explaining this to a Marine who never made it home from Fallujah or a soldier who fell in the Korengal Valley. They understood duty in its rawest form. They lived by the credo that you don’t hand your problems over to the next guy.  You handle them.  You carry your weight.  You complete the mission.

The contrast is telling and that is the point.

Memorial Day should not be reduced to a political talking point; rather it should remind us of the standards we once held. The men and women we honor this day lived with a clarity of purpose that our national budget sorely lacks. They understood that freedom requires responsibility. They knew that choices have consequences. They accepted that service is putting the country’s needs ahead of one’s personal initiatives.

If we truly want to honor their memory, we can start by adopting even a fraction of that discipline. We can demand leaders who treat the national debt as a real threat, not a distant abstraction. We can stop pretending that borrowing without limit is a harmless national pastime. And we can remember that the freedoms secured by the fallen are weakened when the nation they died for is weighed down by obligations it cannot meet.

The debt paid by America’s fallen is unpayable, but it is not unteachable. It is written in sacrifice, in folded flags, in names etched into stone.

One debt was paid in blood. The other is being charged to our children. 

And if we forget the difference, then we have learned nothing from those who paid the first.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/25/2026 - 20:45
Tyler Durden

China Moves To Shut Down Offshore Stock-Trading Channels Used By Mainland Investors

Zero Rss
3 weeks ago
China Moves To Shut Down Offshore Stock-Trading Channels Used By Mainland Investors

Authored by Arthur Zhang via The Epoch Times,

China’s securities regulator has opened enforcement actions against Futu, Tiger Brokers, and Longbridge Securities, accusing the offshore online brokerages of illegally serving mainland investors who used the platforms to trade U.S. and Hong Kong stocks.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said on May 22 that it had opened investigations and issued administrative penalty pre-notification letters against Tiger Brokers (NZ) Limited, Futu Securities International (Hong Kong) Limited, Longbridge Securities (Hong Kong) Limited, and their related onshore and offshore entities.

The regulator said the firms conducted securities brokerage and margin-financing services in mainland China without approval and also “illegally” engaged in public-fund sales and futures brokerage activities.

The action was announced alongside a broader campaign by eight Chinese agencies to “comprehensively rectify” cross-border securities, futures, and fund operations.

The agencies involved are the CSRC, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Security, People’s Bank of China, State Administration for Market Regulation, National Financial Regulatory Administration, Cyberspace Administration of China, and State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

2-Year Wind Down

The eight-agency implementation plan sets a two-year rectification period to phase out unauthorized mainland-facing services by offshore securities, futures, and fund institutions. During that period, offshore firms are barred from providing existing mainland investors with buy orders or fund-inflow services; only one-way selling and fund withdrawals are permitted. After the period ends, the firms must shut down mainland websites, trading software, and supporting servers.

The CSRC said investor property safety would not be affected by the rectification campaign and that affected overseas institutions must communicate with mainland investors and arrange account handling.

The policy effectively turns affected mainland-facing accounts into exit-only vehicles—investors can sell positions and withdraw funds, but cannot buy new purchases or add funds. It does not amount to confiscation of client assets, but it closes a private, app-based route that had allowed Chinese retail investors to trade overseas securities more directly than through Beijing-approved channels.

The implementation plan also extends beyond the brokerages themselves. It targets offshore institutions, mainland affiliates and partners, intermediaries, internet platforms, apps, and online self-media accounts that publish account-opening tutorials or other promotional materials for unauthorized cross-border trading.

Futu, Tiger Disclose Penalties

Futu Holdings, which is listed on Nasdaq, said it received a notice of investigation and an administrative penalty pre-notification letter from the CSRC and its Shenzhen bureau. The company said the regulator proposed ordering related entities to rectify or cease the activities, confiscate illegal gains, and impose fines totaling about 1.85 billion yuan, or about $271 million. The CSRC also proposed a personal fine of 1.25 million yuan, or about $183,575, against Futu founder and CEO Li Hua.

Futu said the proposed penalty remains subject to further proceedings and final determination by the CSRC. The company said it is entitled to submit statements, present defenses, and request a hearing. It also said mainland Chinese accounts accounted for about 13 percent of total funded accounts at the end of the first quarter of 2026, while business operations outside mainland China remain normal.

UP Fintech Holding, the Nasdaq-listed parent of Tiger Brokers, said in a Form 6-K exhibit that certain subsidiaries received notices from the CSRC’s Beijing Bureau on May 22. The company said the bureau accused the subsidiaries of conducting unlicensed cross-border securities business and fund and futures activities in mainland China. UP Fintech said the bureau imposed administrative penalties totaling about 308.1 million yuan (about $45.34 million) and confiscation of income totaling about 103.1 million yuan (about $15.17 million). It also said CEO and controlling person Wu Tianhua received a warning and a 1.25 million yuan penalty (about $183,965).

UP Fintech said retail client assets in mainland China under its consolidated accounts represented about 10 percent of total client assets at the end of 2025. The company said it accepts the penalty, is cooperating with regulators, and will implement required rectification measures.

The CSRC stated it intends to confiscate all “illegal gains” from Tiger, Futu, Longbridge, and related entities, but its public announcement did not disclose a combined illegal-income figure for all three firms.

The announcement triggered sharp selling in Futu and UP Fintech shares. Futu closed at $89.76, down $34.09, or 27.5 percent, after trading as low as $73.02 intraday. UP Fintech closed at $4.36, down $1.49, or 25.5 percent, after trading as low as $3.18 intraday.

Years in the Making

The May 22 enforcement action marks an escalation of a campaign that began more than three years ago. In its official Q&A, the CSRC said it began rectifying cross-border operations by offshore institutions on Dec. 30, 2022, to bar such institutions from “illegally” soliciting mainland investors and opening new accounts for them.

The latest plan expands the campaign from individual enforcement to full-chain governance. The CSRC said the new requirements cover marketing, account opening, processing trading instructions, fund transfers, internet platforms, apps, and independent content creators that guide mainland investors into unauthorized offshore accounts.

The regulator said offshore institutions and related mainland entities “violate Chinese law” if they conduct securities, futures, or fund business in mainland China without state approval, whether directly or through affiliates and partners. It also said related violations involving cybersecurity, personal information protection, anti-money laundering, and foreign-exchange rules are included in the state’s “rectification campaign.”

Tech-Linked Brokers in the Crosshairs

Futu, Tiger, and Longbridge built their appeal by offering digital brokerage platforms that made it easier for Chinese-speaking retail investors to trade U.S. and Hong Kong securities.

Futu’s founder, Li Hua, was a former Tencent employee, and Tencent has been a major shareholder of the digital brokerage firm. Tiger Brokers was founded by Wu Tianhua, a former NetEase executive, and has counted Xiaomi as a strategic investor. Longbridge is a newer online brokerage with a founding and investor background often associated with China’s internet sector, according to Chinese state media.

The official allegation by the CSRC did not frame the action as a campaign against those technology companies. Still, the cases fit a broader pattern in which Beijing has brought app-based financial activity under tighter state supervision, especially where online platforms touch securities trading, fund flows, investor data, and cross-border transactions.

Capital-Control Signal

The CSRC described the campaign as a move to protect investors, maintain financial-market order, and guide outbound investment through lawful channels. In its Q&A, the regulator said investors can use routes such as Hong Kong Stock Connect, Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) products, and Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect (Cross-boundary WMC) for overseas investment.

Those channels are more limited than direct app-based trading in U.S. and Hong Kong stocks. Stock Connect covers eligible Hong Kong-listed securities rather than the full U.S. market. QDII products are managed through approved institutions and quotas. Cross-boundary WMC is limited by geography, product scope, and eligibility rules.

That makes the policy more than a licensing dispute. Beijing is not banning all offshore investment by mainland residents, but it is closing a private route that made foreign securities more accessible to ordinary investors. The structure of the rule pushes capital back toward channels that regulators can monitor, limit, and adjust.

On Chinese social media, some users reacted with frustration, saying the move narrows ordinary households’ ability to diversify outside China’s domestic markets. Others doubted that money previously invested through offshore brokers could be redirected toward mainland A-shares.

There is a broader concern among retail investors that Beijing is reducing access to overseas assets while China’s domestic stock market continues to struggle with investor confidence.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/25/2026 - 19:55
Tyler Durden

'Weeks Inside Highly Fortified Bunkers': Report Details Painfully Slow Communication Within Iran's Leadership

Zero Rss
3 weeks ago
'Weeks Inside Highly Fortified Bunkers': Report Details Painfully Slow Communication Within Iran's Leadership

According to a Sunday CBS News report citing US officials, Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is still in hiding in a secret location with extremely limited communication to the outside world. Driven underground by a pervasive fear within Tehran's remaining leadership structure following relentless US and Israeli military strikes, the Supreme Leader is effectively isolated.

This information is nothing 'new' - but even as talks with the US are now little by little reportedly proceeding - and as a ceasefire has been extended by weeks - the Ayatollah is clearly not taking any chances. The CIA and Mossad have openly acknowledged that are actively looking for his hideout. But the report seeks to provide an explanation as to why Tehran's response to any specific updated draft peace deal often takes several days.

CBS detailed how the isolation is to keep Western intelligence from mapping his coordinates, which involves only being reached via a slow, archaic network of physical couriers designed to conceal his location.

The report further alleges that these heightened security measures have significantly disrupted communication lines within Iran's government, complicating active negotiations with the Trump administration and at times dragging responses to US peace proposals to a grinding halt.

But this is also to a large degree by design, to allow the different military units autonomy of command in the instance for more 'decapitation strikes' targeting governing centers in Tehran.

The end result, says CBS, is that "When the U.S. sends proposed details, the difficulty in reaching the supreme leader means there can be a long delay before the U.S. receives a response, two of the officials said."

Yet, it wasn't long ago that White House officials and mainstream pundits were insisting that the Ayatollah is not actually in charge of the country. But now assumptions have shifted back, apparently.

The report claims further:

At this point, most Iranian leaders don't see daylight, spending weeks inside highly fortified bunkers and avoiding speaking to each other unless absolutely necessary, the sources said. 

"Watching them try to figure out how to talk to each other is almost like watching a sitcom. They are completely exasperated," one official said. 

The most cautious measures are being taken by the supreme leader. 

By design, even officials at the highest levels of the Iranian government don't know where he is and have no way to contact him directly. 

One official followed with: "This is why you see people saying things like, 'The supreme leader has agreed to the framework,' or 'We're waiting to hear back on the final deal points.' Every piece of information he receives is dated and there's a lot of latency to his responses," one official said.

U.S. intelligence: Iran's Supreme Leader, Mujtaba Khamenei, is hiding in an undisclosed location with limited access to the outside world, relying on a network of couriers to send and receive messages. (CBS News)

Isn't that common sense?

— Pakistan Walli (@pakistanwalli) May 25, 2026

It has become obvious that the negotiations process has become painfully slow and confused, and so this narrative by anonymous US officials seems an effort to lay blame squarely on the Iranians, instead of Washington's own often shifting goals and conditions.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/25/2026 - 19:20
Tyler Durden

Democrats Using Black Athletes As Pawns In Redistricting War

Zero Rss
3 weeks ago
Democrats Using Black Athletes As Pawns In Redistricting War

The Congressional Black Caucus, aligned with the NAACP, is urging black college athletes to avoid Southeastern Conference schools in Southern states as a form of economic pressure against Republican-drawn redistricting maps that eliminate majority-black congressional districts. The campaign is called "Out of Bounds,” and is essentially asking young black athletes to forfeit their best shot at a professional sports career so Democratic lawmakers can make a political statement about redistricting.

NAACP calls for black athletes to boycott college sports in south

“Across the South, Black athletes have helped build some of the most profitable college athletic programs in America, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue,” the NAACP argues on its “Out of Bounds” campaign website. “At the same time, several southern state governments are moving to limit, reduce, weaken, or erase Black voting representation by creating new, unconstitutional voting districts.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries framed the redistricting fights as "an unprecedented attack on black political representation,” demanding "an unprecedented response." That response, apparently, involves steering eighteen-year-old football recruits away from Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Florida, Tennessee, Texas, and Texas A&M - programs that collectively represent the most direct pipeline to the NFL in American sports. Jeffries said black lawmakers are "standing in solidarity with NAACP in its call for athletes to boycott institutions within the SEC that belong to states that have unleashed these Jim Crow-like racially oppressive tactics, which is unacceptable, unconscionable and un-American,” he continued. “And we believe that the silence of these institutions is complicity, and we will not stand for it.” 

For a talented black athlete from anywhere in the country, an SEC scholarship is frequently the fastest and most visible route to a professional contract, financial security and generational wealth. Yet, Jeffries and CBC Chair Yvette Clarke are asking those athletes to set that aside. 

"The Congressional Black Caucus cannot support legislation benefiting major athletic institutions that continue to remain silent while black voting rights and black political power are being systematically dismantled across the South,” Clarke said.

The legislation in question is the SCORE Act, a bipartisan proposal backed by the NCAA that would establish national standards for compensating college athletes. The bill had been scheduled for a House floor vote before Republican leaders were forced to postpone it after CBC members signaled opposition. 

In other words, a bill designed to ensure college athletes get paid was delayed, in part, because black Democratic lawmakers blocked it to protest that Southern public universities are not taking a stand against redistricting. 

According to Jeffries, these universities "should feel compelled to speak up. Not because of their athletic programs; because it's the right thing to do." Clarke argued that "institutions that profit from black talent and black communities have a responsibility to stand with those communities when their fundamental rights are under attack," extending that logic beyond athletics to "corporate America or any other institution within American civil society."

Clarke warned that the effort is "just the beginning" and could spread beyond state universities, adding, "Let this serve as an example: Silence from our institutions in moments of injustice carries consequences."

The CBC and NAACP can package this campaign in the language of “justice” and “solidarity,” but strip away the rhetoric, and the message is brutally simple: Democratic politicians want young black athletes to torpedo their own futures to wage a political pressure campaign over congressional maps. Democrats may be angry over Republican redistricting efforts, but they are asking young black athletes to walk away from the fastest route to the NFL, millions of dollars, and generational wealth over a political battle that has nothing to do with them or SEC football programs.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/25/2026 - 18:10
Tyler Durden

"It Should Be Studied": RFK Jr Says 'Trump Derangement Syndrome Is 'A Real Thing'

Zero Rss
3 weeks 1 day ago
"It Should Be Studied": RFK Jr Says 'Trump Derangement Syndrome Is 'A Real Thing'

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

For The Honored Dead

“I told my staff today that we need an ICD code for Trump Derangement Syndrome, because it is a real thing … It should be studied.”

- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr

As of this holiday morning, America is informed that the negotiations between the US and Iran may take several more days to resolve. You better believe that Iran is going to make a deal. One way or another, they will give up their stash of sixty-percent enriched uranium. Nobody believes they would not attempt to make bombs with it, especially Mr. Trump. So, Iran will not be going back to whatever is considered normal life until they agree to give it up, and then make it happen. Iran is like a demon-possessed teenager with a firearm getting its head banged into the sidewalk. What part of give-it-up don’t you understand?

The news media apparently forgot what it broadcast a couple of weeks ago: Iran’s oil storage capacity was nearing the red-line. If the wells have to be shut-in, such is the geology that it would wreck the oil fields themselves. Perhaps this is happening now. Nobody is reporting on it. But the news media doesn’t really report on anything. It opines. It spins. It constructs story-lines for advantage, it gaslights, it perverts the consensus about reality out of existence, it just plain lies.

If Iran is jerking the US around again, this will be the last time. They will prove to be negotiation-incapable, as the Russian phrase goes. They will punch their own express ticket back to the 12th century, lights out, bridges down across the rugged terrain, back to donkey carts, magic lamps, and vizeers instead of mullahs.

Why does America’s lefty-left beat its drum for an Iranian victory when 1) it’s not happening, and 2) it’s hardly in the interest of Western Civ for anything like that to happen? You can conclude that they hate and despise Western Civ, especially anything that resembles America’s traditional sense-of-self: a republic based on civic and economic liberty. Liberty means individuals making their own decisions within an armature of laws written in good faith, to mean what they say.

The Lefty-left is mainly about acquiring power through bad faith in order to push everyone around, tell them what they’re allowed to want out of life, and severely punish anyone who objects to that treatment. What’s often overlooked is the role that sadism plays in the psychology of the Lefty-left. They seem to love it when illegal aliens rape and strangle 19-year-old American girls. (You don’t hear them deplore it, do you? Their house-organ, The New York Times, won’t even report it.) More than anything they want to subject you to the most savage humiliations.

We are at a dangerous pass this Memorial Day.

Mr. Trump and his people are methodically rearranging the works to expel these grifting demons. Their resistance to being expelled will manifest in ever more dirty fighting as spring blossoms into a summer of violent “activism.” They will try as hard as possible to wreck the country’s 250th birthday celebrations. It might look like civil war. They will not stop trying to kill Donald Trump and possibly other figures around him.

Even if they manage that, it will not stop what it is coming for them.

This time around nobody believes their sob stories, their whining about “oppression,” their bullshit about “equity” and “justice.” This time, they will not be allowed to get away with sheer lawlessness. They will not be able to pass off fake martyrs such as George Floyd. The elections this time — if they can happen — will be clean and fair. That can be the only way they will be allowed to happen.

This will be the most emphatic counter-revolution in modern history, a complete rejection of childish unreality — the cavalcade of absurdities you have been told to swallow for a mad decade:

That you can change your sex “assigned at birth.” (Assigned by whom? By some cosmic committee of gender komisars?)

That merit has no merit (don’t be good at anything).

That men and maleness represent some inferior way of being human?

That people from outside American society, from faraway lands, deserve to live here under a special gift economy of vast subsidies, at your expense, to set up antagonistic counter-cultures?

That words don’t mean what they mean?

Expect the pace to quicken now, even with Tulsi Gabbard gone. Her operational deputy DNI, Aaron Lukas, is a proven, capable warrior. Most of the critical information has already been recovered from the Deep State’s vaults, hidden rooms, burn bags, and SCIFs. The adjudication of crimes against our country will be spooling out the next hundred days as a vivid and orderly counterpoint to whatever nose-ringed chaos the Democrats send out into the streets.

The republic will celebrate its 250th birthday by carrying-on as it was designed to do, while the demons skulk back into the shadows until the next great turning.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/25/2026 - 17:35
Tyler Durden

Huckabee Tells Lebanese To Thank Israel For Seedless Watermelons, While Under IDF Bombs

Zero Rss
3 weeks 1 day ago
Huckabee Tells Lebanese To Thank Israel For Seedless Watermelons, While Under IDF Bombs

Via Middle East Eye

Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel and a passionate advocate of its wars in the region, has told the people of Lebanon to be grateful for Israeli contributions to its society.

Video of Huckabee speaking at the Atlas Awards in Tel Aviv on May 12 has only recently emerged and is being shared online after it was picked up by Chris Menahan of the news site Information Liberation.

via AFP

In the speech, Huckabee extolls the various purported Israeli contributions to society, including USB drives, cherry tomatoes and seedless watermelons.

"I wonder if everyone in Lebanon understands that if there were no Israel, they wouldn't have a cell phone," Huckabee said.

"I wonder if they understand that every time they use a USB, every time they use car navigation, that every time they eat a cherry tomato or have a delicious bite of seedless watermelon, instead of saying, 'I can't talk to those people,' they should step across the border, shake their hands and say, 'Thank you'."

Lebanon's southern border is currently subject to intense bombardment, and scores of displaced residents who have attempted to return to their homes in the south have been targeted by Israel

Lebanon's Health Ministry says Israeli air strikes have killed 3,151 people and wounded 9,571 since March 2. The dead include 123 medics, at least 210 children and nearly 300 women.

Huckabee is an outspoken and unapologetic Christian Zionist who has frequently expressed strong backing for Israeli government policies.

In an interview with US podcast host Tucker Carlson, Huckabee supported Israel's right to take over all of the Middle East to form "Greater Israel", and said the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament gives the modern-day state of Israel the right to expand its borders.

Israel did not 'invent' cherry tomatoes...

Ambassador Mike Huckabee: Everyone in Lebanon should be thanking Israel for making their lives easier by inventing cherry tomatoes. pic.twitter.com/mkBiENYktA

— Chris Menahan 🇺🇸 (@infolibnews) May 24, 2026

"It would be fine if they took it all," Huckabee said when Carlson asked him whether Israel had the right, according to the Bible, to occupy the land between the Nile and the Euphrates.

Huckabee has also been an advocate of the US-Israeli war on Iran, which is currently at a stalemate, with Iran blocking off the critical energy chokepoint of the Strait of Hormuz.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/25/2026 - 16:25
Tyler Durden

OnlyFans "Hack" Hoax Likely Used To Push Malware-Laced Leak Checkers

Zero Rss
3 weeks 1 day ago
OnlyFans "Hack" Hoax Likely Used To Push Malware-Laced Leak Checkers

A cyber threat actor advertised a purported database of 340 million OnlyFans-linked user records on a well-known cybercrime forum, asking for 0.313 BTC, or roughly $76,000, according to U.K.-based cybersecurity news site HackRead.

The alleged "340 million OnlyFans user mega leak" narrative ran rampant on X this past holiday weekend, garnering millions of views from several accounts, which were described as nothing more than an engagement trap.

HackRead pointed out that "conversations with the seller and a review of sample data suggest that the collection did not result from a direct breach or scraping of OnlyFans systems."

HackRead noted that:

The seller advertised the database as containing usernames, names, email addresses, phone numbers, follower counts, likes, uploaded content statistics, account types, and linked social media profiles. The claims initially gave the impression of a direct platform breach or scraping incident.

However, the story changed after Hackread.com contacted the threat actor directly on Telegram. In private messages, the seller clarified they did not hack or breach OnlyFans. Instead, they claimed the database was built using information collected from previous data leaks and public sources, including breached records from platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Spotify.

"We didn't breach or hack OnlyFans," the seller said in a message shared with Hackread.com. "We used existing breaches and leaks databases and matched with users of the OnlyFans platform."

But that didn't stop some X users from pushing the "OnlyFans is hacked" narrative.

OnlyFans is Hacked 🚨

Apparently OnlyFans has been hacked and they're selling the complete database of 340 million users

including data of content creators and consumers.

The leaked data includes

- Usernames and profile names
- Email addresses
- Phone numbers
-… pic.twitter.com/gsNn4UpWD9

— StarPlatinum (@StarPlatinum_) May 24, 2026

As one X user pointed out, the hack story is "100% fake news," and the "manufactured hoax is a masterclass in clickbait."

The person said the "real trap" is that "hackers spreading these fake leaks are trying to panic you into downloading 'leak checkers.' The second you run those tools, they install infostealer malware, like Lumma Stealer, to steal your actual passwords."

OnlyFans did not get hacked. The timeline just fell for another engagement trap.

Over the last 24 hours, viral accounts have been farming millions of views claiming a "mega leak" is selling a database of 340 million OnlyFans users.

It is 100% fake news. But the way they… pic.twitter.com/eXLrCAKICd

— Tat Thang (@tatthang) May 25, 2026

The timing of the alleged OnlyFans "hack" narrative is notable. The panic cyber campaign comes just weeks after the Financial Times reported that the platform, widely used by sex workers, is selling a minority stake to San Francisco-based Architect Capital.

From an information operations view, this creates a window for threat actors to exploit and leverage privacy fears to drive users to malware-laced leak-checker tools under the guise of helping them verify exposure.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/25/2026 - 15:50
Tyler Durden

Corrections Vs Bears: How The Fed Rewired The Market

Zero Rss
3 weeks 1 day ago
Corrections Vs Bears: How The Fed Rewired The Market

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

After three decades of watching market cycles play out from both sides of the trade, I’ve come to a simple conclusion: Wall Street’s love of simple rules is one of the most dangerous aspects of investing. When stocks fall 10%, it’s just a “correction.” However, if they decline 20%, it’s a “bear market.” Simple, clean, repeatable, and printed on every financial media graphic from here to Tokyo. The problem is that the definitions of a correction and bear market have not been updated since Alan Shaw developed them at Smith Barney in the 1960s. Moreover, the market those definitions were designed to describe no longer exists.

Currently, the S&P 500 index is roughly 83% above its long-term trend line, with the Shiller CAPE (cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio) hovering near 40. That valuation level was only exceeded once in the history of American financial markets. The Fed’s balance sheet, still at $6.7 trillion, is more than eight times its pre-2008 level. Under these conditions, the old bear-market definition no longer measures what it was built to measure. A 20% decline from here doesn’t signal either a regime or price trend change. In other words, it would be only a “correction” within an ongoing bullish trend. That understanding is key to today’s discussion.

The Current Bear Market Definition Is Arbitrary

As noted, the “20% rule” traces to Alan Shaw, a technical analyst at Smith Barney in the mid-20th century. His framework was simple. Anything up to 10% was noise. A decline of 10% to 20% was a correction. Anything beyond 20% was a bear market. Shaw’s colleague Louise Yamada, who took over Smith Barney’s technical analysis practice in 2000, later described its staying power with characteristic directness: “It’s just so easy and simple to remember.”

Shaw’s framework made sense in its time. Markets in those decades lived much closer to a gravitational center of fair value. When prices fell by 20%, they often broke the market’s longer-term trend. A decline of that magnitude carried real information. It told you that selling pressure had overwhelmed buying, the market’s price trend had reversed, and the market’s direction of travel had changed from up to down. That’s precisely what the bear market definition was supposed to capture. A change in regime, not just a number.

The question is: after a 17-year-long bull market that stretched prices well beyond long-term trends, is Mr. Shaw’s measure still valid?

To answer that question, let’s clarify the premise.

  • A bull market is when the market price is trending higher over a long-term period.
  • A bear market is when the previous advance breaks, and prices begin to trend lower.

The chart below provides a visual of the distinction. When you look at price “trends,” the difference becomes both apparent and useful.

The distinction is essential.

  • “Corrections” generally occur over short time frames, do not break the prevailing trend in prices, and are quickly resolved by markets reversing to new highs.
  • “Bear Markets” tend to be longer-term affairs in which prices grind sideways or lower over several months as valuations revert.
What a Real Bear Market Actually Looks Like

The two genuine bear markets of this century make the definition’s original intent clear. Between March 2000 and October 2002, the S&P 500 lost nearly 49% of its value. It didn’t recover to its prior peak until 2007. Seven years lost. The bullish trend didn’t pause; it broke, and investors who sat through it got years of negative real returns with no policy rescue from Washington or the Fed.

The 2008 crisis was worse. From October 2007 to March 2009, the S&P fell about 57%. It didn’t return to its prior highs until early 2013. The price structure didn’t just dip below an arbitrary threshold. It collapsed, stayed down for years, and required one of the most aggressive monetary policy responses in the Fed’s history to eventually stabilize. That’s a bear market in the original sense of the word. A sustained, structural reversal of the prior bullish trend.

Now compare that to 2022. The S&P peaked on January 3 of that year, fell 25.4% to its October trough, and technically satisfied every condition of a bear market under the standard definition. By July 2023, every point of that decline had been recovered. By early 2024, the index was making new all-time highs. The 2022 decline was painful, but it did not reverse the underlying trend. Yes, prices fell, but found support well above any reasonable measure of long-term fair value, and resumed their climb. Putting the 2022 episode in the same category as 2000 or 2008 doesn’t just mislead investors; it tells the story exactly backward.

How the Fed Rewired the Market

To understand why the bear market definition needs to be revised, you have to reckon honestly with what the Federal Reserve has done to the market’s structural foundation. Before the 2008 financial crisis, the Fed’s balance sheet sat at roughly $800 billion. Modest. Stable. Largely inconsequential to equity prices on any given day.

Then came the crisis. The Fed launched three rounds of quantitative easing between 2009 and 2014, pushing its balance sheet to roughly $4.5 trillion. It tried to normalize beginning in 2018, then COVID hit. In two years, the balance sheet more than doubled again, from $4.3 trillion to nearly $9 trillion. As of April, 2026, it still sits at $6.7 trillion, even after years of several years of quantitative tightening.

That liquidity didn’t evaporate. It repriced every financial asset upward. It suppressed yields, starved investors of income alternatives, and effectively forced capital into equities regardless of underlying valuation. The market didn’t reach these levels because corporate America suddenly became dramatically more profitable. It reached them because the price of money was artificially held low for over a decade, which changed the math in every valuation model investors use. The result is a market structure with no historical precedent for its distance from the long-term trend.

What the P/Es Actually Tell You

The more bearish crowd consistently points to the Shiller CAPE ratio as a measure of impending doom. However, investors should understand that the CAPE ratio measures the market’s current price relative to 10 years of inflation-adjusted earnings. At 40, investors are currently paying 40 times that earnings figure for every dollar of S&P 500 exposure. That’s a lot by any historical measure, considering the historical median is 16x. The bear’s argument, and rightly so, is that the market has traded above 40 on the CAPE ratio only once before in its history, and that was at the dot-com peak. We know how that ended.

But this is important, as we have discussed many times, the problem is that valuation measures are just that – a measure of current valuation. More importantly, when valuations are excessive, it is a better measure of “investor psychology” and the manifestation of the “greater fool theory.”

Notably, valuation models are not, and were never meant to be, “market timing indicators.” There are many articles penned suggesting that if a measure of valuation (P/E, P/S, P/B, etc.) reaches some specific level, it means that:

  1. The market is about to crash, and
  2. Investors should be in 100% cash.

Such is incorrect.

What valuations provide is a reasonable estimate of long-term investment returns. It is logical that if you overpay for a stream of future cash flows today, your future return will be low. We can see this evidence by comparing the 10-year total return of a $1000 investment in the stock market to Shiller’s CAPE ratio, as noted above.

However, here’s where it gets interesting. Even if you don’t use the long-term median as your target, the math of mean reversion is sobering at any reasonable level. At the time of this writing, we can map each scenario from the S&P close of 7,399 (May 10, 2026), and the picture becomes clear.

Notice what that table shows. A 20% decline from current levels leaves the market at roughly 32x cyclically adjusted earnings. That’s twice the historical median. The market doesn’t even begin to approach a valuation floor that has historically supported the start of a new secular bull market until you’re down 50% to 60% from here.

That’s not a prediction; that’s arithmetic, and the difference between a correction and a bear market in today’s financial markets.

The recovery math compounds the problem. A 30% loss requires a 43% gain just to break even, before accounting for the time lost while recovering. A 50% loss demands a full 100% return to get back to where you started. For investors in or near retirement, that’s not a temporary setback. That’s a structural threat to financial security.

“A 20% decline from a market that’s 83% above trend doesn’t reach trend. It barely dents the excess. The old bear market definition was built for a different world, and that world no longer exists.”

Two Halves To A Full Cycle

I wrote about this in August 2020, right after the COVID crash had recovered, and everyone was declaring it the shortest bear market in history. My argument then was the same one I’m making now: March 2020 was a correction, not a bear market, because it never broke the long-term bullish price trend that started in 2009. The same is true of 2022. And of the Iran-related correction we saw in early 2026. Those were all pressure releases within an ongoing bull market. None of them completed the cycle.

Because that’s the part Wall Street glosses over. Every bull market is only half of a full market cycle. The second half, the bear, is when the excesses accumulated during the upswing, the overvaluation, the leverage, the speculative positioning, get wrung out through a sustained decline that resets prices back toward fundamental value. That process has played out after every major bull market in the historical record. From the 1929 collapse to the 1970s grind, the dot-com bust, and the financial crisis. None of them was optional; they were just the structural corrections of prior excesses.

The bull market that started at S&P 683 in March 2009 is now 17 years old. It’s the longest on record and has been sustained by:

  • Three rounds of QE,
  • A zero-interest rate policy for most of a decade,
  • $5 trillion in pandemic stimulus, and
  • A generational AI investment cycle that’s still in its early innings.

All of that is real. But none of it changes the underlying valuation math, and eventually, prices will reflect fundamentals. They always do. The problem for investors, however, isn’t whether a real bear market will happen; it’s when, and more practically, whether your portfolio is built to survive the transition.

As noted, the 2020 and 2022 declines share one critical feature: both recovered before prices touched the long-term trend line shown above. They were corrections in an ongoing bullish trend, and both required a significant Fed or fiscal response to stabilize. A genuine bear market, one that resets valuations toward historical norms, would require neither a quick recovery nor a policy rescue. It would require a decline large enough to reach that trend line.

The bottom line is that the 20% threshold isn’t wrong. It’s just not calibrated for a market that’s trading 83% above its long-term trend. In a world where markets lived near fair value, a 20% decline carried information about the trend. Today, it carries sentiment information. That’s a meaningful difference, and it changes how you should think about both potential corrections and portfolio risk.

Stop anchoring your risk budget to the 20% number.

The relevant question isn’t “how far has this fallen?” It’s “how far is this from where prices would need to be for the bull market trend to genuinely reverse?”

Right now, that gap is enormous. A real bear market, in the structural sense, would likely need to be a 30% to 50% decline, and possibly deeper, before prices would reach the kind of valuation support that has historically ended bear markets and started new secular bulls.

That doesn’t mean panic. It means position sizing, risk management, and stop-loss disciplines need to account for a potential drawdown far larger than the 20% threshold Wall Street treats as the danger zone.

We continue to suggest that investors maintain appropriate hedges, keep risk allocations proportional to their time horizon and income needs, and resist the “buy the dip” impulse when the dip doesn’t actually bring you closer to value.

Make no mistake, the trend is still up. The AI investment cycle is real, earnings are growing, and the tape remains technically constructive at current levels. But the distance between current prices and genuine long-term fair value is wider today than at any point outside the dot-com peak. That’s not a reason to be out of the market. It is a reason to know exactly what you own, why you own it, and what your exit plan looks like if the second half of this cycle finally arrives.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/25/2026 - 15:15
Tyler Durden

Pope Sounds Alarm On AI "Slavery" While Church Aligns With Lefty Anthropic

Zero Rss
3 weeks 1 day ago
Pope Sounds Alarm On AI "Slavery" While Church Aligns With Lefty Anthropic

Pope Leo XIV published his first encyclical on Monday, entitled Magnifica Humanitas (The Magnificence of the Human Person).

The roughly 42,300-word declaration, issued as a papal encyclical, warned, "The fight against new forms of slavery is a decisive test for the ethical discernment of AI and digital transformation."

"If technology promises emancipation, yet produces new forms of global subordination, it stands in contradiction to the fundamental principle of human dignity," the pontiff explained in the encyclical, while urging governments to regulate the private companies driving AI advances and warning that the pursuit of profit cannot justify mass job losses.

The pontiff called for retraining and protections for working-class folks threatened by AI-related job loss, stronger education to help students understand AI risks, and safeguards against violent, sexualized, or fake AI-generated content targeting children.

His strongest warning came on the military use of AI. Leo said AI risks making life-and-death decisions faster, more impersonal, and easier to justify, especially as cyberattacks, influence campaigns, AI kill chains, and hybrid warfare blur the line between defense and aggression.

At the event earlier today, where the pontiff unveiled the encyclical, attendees included prominent cardinals and theologians, as well as Christopher Olah, a co-founder of the left-leaning AI startup Anthropic, who leads its interpretability team.

The pope said the church and Anthropic will cooperate to "find a path for humanity in the age of artificial intelligence" ... 

Pope Leo XIV, during the presentation of Magnifica Humanitas — the first papal encyclical in history dedicated to artificial intelligence — stated that the Church and Anthropic will cooperate to “find a path for humanity in the age of artificial intelligence.

The discussion… pic.twitter.com/28zA5xeHsE

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) May 25, 2026

To note, encyclicals are among the highest forms of teaching from a pope to the Catholic Church's 1.4 billion members worldwide.

The full text can be viewed here.

Odd that the pope bashes AI but aligns with lefty Anthropic ... 

How much Anthropic does the Vatican Bank own? 

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/25/2026 - 14:40
Tyler Durden

Everyone Talks About The Cost Of Gasoline... Soon Everyone Will Be Talking About The Cost Of Food

Zero Rss
3 weeks 1 day ago
Everyone Talks About The Cost Of Gasoline... Soon Everyone Will Be Talking About The Cost Of Food

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse Blog. 

For most people, the price of gasoline is the most obvious consequence of the war in the Middle East. As I write this article, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States is $4.56. Of course, in some parts of the country, consumers are paying much more than that. This is a big story, and the truth is that gasoline prices are going to go even higher in the months ahead.

But if you think that the price of gasoline is bad, just wait until you see what eventually happens to food prices. The price of diesel has been rising even faster than the price of regular gasoline, and fertilizer prices have been absolutely skyrocketing. Those costs will get passed along to the rest of us. It is just a matter of time. Meanwhile, our farmers are dealing with drought conditions that are unprecedented, and now a “Super El Niño” is coming.

What all of this means is that food prices will rise to very painful levels.

So even though everyone is complaining about rising gasoline prices at the moment, one prominent economist is warning that “the next story is food”…

The cost of food in the U.S. appears poised to rise sharply alongside oil prices, as war-related supply disruptions put pressure on the companies and farmers who keep the country’s shelves stocked.

“The big story right now is oil,” economist Justin Wolfers told MS NOW on Tuesday. “The next story is food.”

Oil prices have risen over 50 percent since the conflict began on February 28, pushing gas prices to a nationwide average of over $4.50 for the first time since 2022.

Can you imagine what would happen if food prices were to rise another 50 percent from current levels?

Over the past year, many of the most common items that Americans purchase at the grocery store have already become much more expensive…

When compared to the same time last year, fruits and vegetables have seen some of the biggest price hikes. Tomatoes are 40% more expensive now than they were this time last year. Bad growing weather, tariffs, and rising fuel prices have all contributed to the huge change in tomato prices, reports the New York Times.

Coffee, another imported product, is 19% more expensive than it was last spring.

You’re also likely seeing inflated prices at the butcher counter. Meat is up 9% overall, but beef has grown even more expensive. Ground beef is about 15% pricier, beef roasts are 18% more, and steak is up 16%.

We can blame the war with Iran for the recent price hikes that we have been experiencing, because the war has made diesel much more expensive.

And diesel is used to transport most of what we eat…

What’s contributing to the price spikes? Fuel prices have soared while the Iran war prevents cargo ships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital corridor for global oil supplies. Diesel fuel powers fishing boats, tractors and the trucks that ship 83% of U.S. agricultural products.

Just as you’re paying more at the pump, so are truckers who transport goods all around the country. Some vendors and suppliers are adding fuel surcharges to make up for the increased cost of transporting and delivering their goods.

In addition, fertilizer prices have gone absolutely haywire, and those costs will be passed along to us once harvest season arrives.

The solution to this crisis would be for the Strait of Hormuz to reopen.

But Iran isn’t willing to do that.

Instead, Iran intends to make the status quo in the Strait of Hormuz permanent…

Iran and Oman are actively discussing a permanent security mechanism for the Strait of Hormuz. Iran is pushing to institutionalize and normalize a transit fee or toll on commercial shipping vessels navigating the narrow waterway. According to an Iranian diplomatic envoy, the proposed system is designed to secure the long-term positioning of Iran and Oman as the primary regulators of the strait, effectively transforming a temporary leverage point from the recent military conflict into a permanent sovereign right.

To formalize its grip, Iran’s newly established Persian Gulf Straits Authority began applying conditional rules and hefty transit tolls, in some cases exceeding one million dollars per vessel, while granting selective exemptions to friendly nations like Russia or China. By engaging Oman, which shares territorial jurisdiction over the Strait, Iran is seeking to build a coalition that validates these tolls under the guise of funding localized maritime security.

The US maintains an opposing view on the matter, viewing the permanent toll as a non-negotiable barrier to reaching a sustainable peace deal. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, international straits are governed by transit passage protocols that guarantee the uninterrupted flow of global commercial shipping, a principle the US insists must be restored without conditions.

This is one of the reasons why there is not going to be an agreement to end the war.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio just warned that what Iran is attempting to do with the Strait of Hormuz “will make a diplomatic deal impossible”…

“A toll collection system in the Strait of Hormuz will make a diplomatic deal impossible.”

“We are very disappointed with NATO allies, we will discuss the issue of troop deployment at the upcoming meeting.”

If the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, a global inflation crisis is guaranteed.

And on top of everything else, now a “Super El Niño” is rapidly approaching.

We are being warned that it could potentially be the most powerful “Super El Niño” in recorded history…

Scientists have warned that an imminent ‘super El Niño’ could be even more powerful than a previous event which caused over 50 million deaths.

The 1877 El Niño was one of the most severe climate events in recorded history, triggering a global humanitarian disaster known as The Great Famine.

Climate reconstructions suggest water temperatures in a key region of the Pacific Ocean rose by 2.7°C (4.86°F), which caused disruption to rainfall patterns around the world.

If the Super El Niño of 1877-1878 killed 50 million people when the global population was just a fraction of what it is today, what would an even more powerful Super El Niño do?

An associate professor at Washington State University is telling us that “multiyear droughts similar to those in the 1870s could happen again”…

Estimates indicate the resulting scarcity of food and disease outbreaks killed up to four per cent of the Earth’s population at the time.

That would be the equivalent of at least 250 million people if it happened today.

Now, forecasts suggest water temperatures could potentially exceed 3°C (5.4°F) above average later this year – making the upcoming super El Niño even more powerful than the one nearly 150 years ago.

‘Simultaneous multiyear droughts similar to those in the 1870s could happen again,’ Deepti Singh, associate professor at Washington State University, told the Washington Post.

Worldwide food production was already going to be way down this year due to the global fertilizer crisis.

Now an immensely powerful “Super El Niño” is being added to the equation.

What do you think that all of this is going to do to food prices?

Needless to say, the answer is obvious.

We are in far more trouble than most people realize, but for now, most of the population just continues to party.

Michael’s new book, entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next,” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/25/2026 - 14:05
Tyler Durden

Trump Tells Arab States Joining Abraham Accords Should Be 'Mandatory' - Throws Open Door For Iran In Grand Deal

Zero Rss
3 weeks 1 day ago
Trump Tells Arab States Joining Abraham Accords Should Be 'Mandatory' - Throws Open Door For Iran In Grand Deal

President Trump is still trying to play the role of the globe's ultimate deal-maker via Truth Social, using a mix of mandatory diplomacy and ultimate economic carrots, issuing a lengthy missive on Iran talks and the Abraham Accords on Monday morning.

He introduced the post by stating that negotiations with Tehran are "proceeding nicely" before dropping a provocative diplomatic bombshell: a demand that a big list of major Middle Eastern nations immediately sign onto the Abraham Accords as a prerequisite for any broader peace framework.

The most unexpected aspect to the post laid out that if Tehran plays ball with Washington, Trump is dangling the prospect of the Islamic Republic itself joining the regional coalition, which it must be remembered hinges on 'normalization' with Israel.

"I stated that, after all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together, it should be mandatory that all of these Countries, at a minimum, simultaneously, sign onto the Abraham Accords," Trump wrote Monday, referencing a Saturday phone call with Arab leaders.

Trump detailed further:

Those Countries discussed are Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates (already a Member!), Qatar, Pakistan, Türkiye, Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain (already a Member!). It may be possible that one or two have a reason for not doing so, and that will be accepted, but most should be ready, willing, and able to make this Settlement with Iran a far more Historic Event than it would, otherwise, be. The Abraham Accords have proven to be, for the Countries involved (The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and Kazakhstan), a Financial, Economic, and Social BOOM, even during this time of Conflict and War, with the current Members never even suggesting leaving, or taking so much as even a pause.

The above was coupled with the following ultimatum: "It should start with the immediate signing by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and everybody else should follow suit. If they don’t, they should not be part of this Deal in that it shows bad intention."

And then he dropped the significant twist related to Tehran, in claiming that several of the regional leaders he spoke with "would be honored, as soon as our Document is signed, to have the Islamic Republic of Iran as part of the Abraham Accords. Wow, now that would be something special!"

Inviting Iran to join the Abraham Accords as a part of a broader final deal framework has resulted in a lot of head-scratching, given that just weeks ago Trump repeatedly threatened to bomb the country 'back to the stone age' and effectively end 'civilization' there. US rhetoric has been filled with scorn for Iran, and yet it is now being asked to join a grand US-backed alliance.

Trump is his very long message issued a final directive in the following:

"Therefore, I am mandatorily requesting that all Countries immediately sign the Abraham Accords, and that, if Iran signs its Agreement with me, as President of the United States of America, it would be an Honor to have them also be part of this unparalleled World Coalition. The Middle East would be United, Powerful, and Economically Strong, like perhaps no other area, anywhere in the World! By copy of this TRUTH, I am asking my Representatives to begin, and successfully complete, the process of signing these Countries into the already Historic Abraham Accords."

Meanwhile, look who's fully on board and has returned to singing Trump's praises (after expressing concern over a 'bad' Iran deal in the works)...

President Trump’s most recent proposal requiring expansion of the Abraham Accords as part of a negotiated settlement to the Iran conflict is simply brilliant and would result in the most significant change in the Middle East in thousands of years.

With Saudi Arabia and others…

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) May 25, 2026

Whether Trump can single-handedly force countries as far apart in their foreign policies as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey... or especially Iran, into a binding alignment with Tel Aviv remains a massive question mark (to put it mildly), or rather would be incredible and highly unrealistic. 

But with the threat of "shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before" serving as the baseline, the White House has put regional powers officially on notice - in Trump's logic at least.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/25/2026 - 13:30
Tyler Durden

It Was Never About The Climate

Zero Rss
3 weeks 1 day ago
It Was Never About The Climate

Authored by Silvio Canto Jr via AmericanThinker.com,

Here is a question for your long weekend:

Why haven’t you ever seen a climate change protest before the Chinese embassy anywhere?

Why is it always the US or capitalism messing up the environment?

Why don’t they show up at all when China is a bigger threat to clean air than any US city?

The answer is obvious, but I’ll say it.

It was never about the climate but rather capitalism or the US.

Check this out:

In 2024, climate activists in New York City protested alongside anti-Israel protesters at a rally headlined “Climate Justice Means Free Palestine.”

Last year, climate change celebrity icon Greta Thunberg tried to storm Israel by sea on a flotilla protesting the country’s war in Gaza, yelling “Free! Free! Palestine!” when she was refused entry.

And, last week, activists from CodePink, a far-left feminist activist group that has received funds from an American expatriate, Neville Roy Singham, living in Shanghai, took a break from their rallies supporting the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Cuba Communist Party to circulate a video on Instagram, attacking a Utah data center project backed by investor Kevin O’Leary.

That’s a busy bunch protesting against the West.

Maybe someone should tell them that the clean air in Cuba is due to a collapse of industrial activity.

Or we can always remind them of how they treat gays in Palestine or women in general.

As the article points out, these marches were always about hating the West and what we stand for.

So don’t be fooled by the slogans or some well-meaning people showing up to protest.

The root of all of this is hatred of the West and our individual freedoms.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/25/2026 - 12:55
Tyler Durden

The Devil Neither Political Party Will Name

Zero Rss
3 weeks 1 day ago
The Devil Neither Political Party Will Name

Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance

The widening wealth inequality gap is the political third rail nobody in power truly ever wants to touch.

Politicians will scream at each other all day over taxes, healthcare, immigration, tariffs, student loans, climate policy, or whatever outrage is currently driving engagement on cable news and social media. But the second the conversation turns toward monetary policy, toward the machinery of money creation itself, the room suddenly gets very quiet.

That’s because monetary policy has quietly become the single most powerful force reshaping wealth distribution in modern America. And unlike the endless partisan theater surrounding fiscal policy, monetary intervention oddly enjoys remarkable bipartisan support.

Republicans and Democrats may pretend to be existential enemies on television, but when it comes to flooding the financial system with dollars, both parties reliably fall into line. And that support is precisely why this topic is politically radioactive: once people understand how the system works, the illusion of two competing economic ideologies starts to collapse. Republicans want less spending, Democrats want higher taxes…but both parties want the Fed to keep printing dollars.

Since the early 2000s, and especially after 2008 and the COVID era, America has effectively entered a permanent regime of monetary intervention. Quantitative easing, near-zero interest rates, endless debt monetization, emergency lending facilities, and the mainstream acceptance of Modern Monetary Theory-adjacent thinking have fundamentally altered the structure of markets beyond recognition.

When Ben Bernanke first rolled out quantitative easing during the 2008 financial crisis, Americans were repeatedly assured it was a temporary emergency measure. Bernanke described the programs as targeted interventions designed to stabilize markets and support recovery, not permanently redefine the financial system.

QE1 was supposed to calm panic. Then came QE2. Then Operation Twist. Then QE3 became effectively open-ended, with the Fed purchasing tens of billions in bonds every month indefinitely. What began as a supposedly temporary crisis tool metastasized into a permanent feature of the modern economy. And every subsequent crisis only justified bigger interventions: larger balance sheets, lower rates, more liquidity, more market dependence on central bank support.

The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet exploded from under $1 trillion before 2008 to nearly $9 trillion after the pandemic era. Like nearly every government “emergency” program in history, the temporary measure never truly disappeared, it simply normalized, expanded, and embedded itself deeper into the system. It culminated in Neel Kashkari taking to national television to let the world know the Fed has “infinite” cash.

Which is to say…the old rules are dead.

Historical valuation metrics increasingly feel meaningless because markets are no longer functioning inside anything resembling a closed system governed by organic price discovery and economic fundamentals. Investors used to rely on earnings multiples, historical averages, bond yields, and economic cycles because those metrics assumed markets were constrained by actual capital and relatively stable money supply growth.

Now we operate inside a permanently distorted financial system where trillions of dollars can be electronically created and injected into markets whenever instability appears. The market is no longer primarily driven by productivity or efficient allocation of capital. It is driven by liquidity. Price discovery has been replaced by intervention dependency and risk has been socialized while gains remain privatized.

And every time markets threaten to correct naturally, policymakers intervene to ensure asset prices do not fall far enough to inflict meaningful pain on the people who own the overwhelming majority of financial assets. And the consequences of this have been staggering.

While both parties bitch and moan about affordability, protecting the middle and lower class, and “equity”, one of the clearest signs of this Fed-created distortion is the explosive growth of the ultrawealthy class. According to The Wall Street Journal, there are now roughly 430,000 American households worth more than $30 million, including approximately 74,000 households worth over $100 million. The growth of these groups has dramatically outpaced overall population growth over the past several decades.

In other words, Fed policy, blessed by both political parties, is widening the wealth inequality gap both political parties claim to fighting against. This staggering chart shows the result of endless QE: the rich get richer…which would normally be fine with me, I’m a capitalist…except the top 1% are getting richer faster and at the expense of the middle and lower class’ loss purchashing power. When it comes to purchasing power, we are literally taking from the poor, and giving to the rich.

And this is the direct mathematical outcome of an economic system designed to inflate asset prices continuously. The Wall Street Journal cited research showing that the inflation-adjusted wealth of the top 0.1% has increased more than thirteenfold over the past fifty years. Meanwhile, the bottom half of the country spent decades struggling merely to maintain positive net worth.

Think about how insane that divergence really is. Fed policy has caused the wealth of the rich to escape into another dimension entirely while much of the country got buried under inflated housing costs, inflated healthcare, inflated tuition, inflated insurance, inflated food prices, and stagnant purchasing power. It’s a policy that directly benefits the “haves” and disproportionately burdens the “have nots” (think about owning a house while prices rise, versus trying to a buyer of your first house while prices rise).

Nearly 72% of the wealth held by the top 0.1% consists of stocks, mutual funds, and private businesses — precisely the assets supercharged by quantitative easing and artificially suppressed interest rates, the piece notes.

This is the hidden engine underneath modern inequality.

When central banks flood the system with liquidity, the money does not magically disperse evenly across society. It enters through banks, financial institutions, government spending channels, debt markets, and asset purchases. The first recipients of newly created money benefit before inflation fully spreads through the broader economy.

By the time ordinary people feel the effects, prices have already risen. The wealthy own appreciating assets. The middle and lower classes primarily own wages and cash. And wages are always the last thing to adjust.

So while asset holders watch their net worth explode upward, ordinary families experience the opposite reality: homes become unattainable, groceries spike, savings accounts become meaningless, and generations are pushed further away from financial stability.

And the most inconvenient truth for all of Washington is that politicians love pretending to be horrified by affordability crises while continuing to support the exact monetary regime producing them.

They complain about housing costs after years of suppressing rates and inflating real estate prices. They complain about inequality after engineering one of the largest asset booms in modern history. They talk endlessly about helping “working families” while simultaneously creating trillions of dollars that overwhelmingly benefit the people who already own the overwhelming majority of financial assets.

And both parties are complicit, which is what makes the entire charade so grotesque. Both parties scream about fiscal deficits when politically convenient. Yet both become remarkably comfortable with monetary expansion so long as markets remain elevated and the reckoning gets delayed beyond the next election cycle.

Consider the rhetoric around interest rates over the past several years.

President Trump has repeatedly pressured the Federal Reserve for lower rates and easier monetary conditions, arguing that tighter policy threatened markets and growth. Elizabeth Warren has also pushed for looser monetary policy from the opposite ideological direction, warning that higher rates could weaken the labor market and hurt workers.

Different rhetoric, same addiction. The right frames easy money as pro-growth, the left frames easy money as compassionate.But both roads lead to the same destination: more liquidity, higher asset prices, and widening wealth inequality. What’s the last thing President Trump and Elizabeth Warren agreed on?

This is why the supposed economic divide between the parties increasingly feels performative. Beneath the culture war circus exists a deeper bipartisan consensus: financial markets must remain inflated at all costs.

And the lower and middle class gets absolutely brutalized in this arrangement.

Historically, middle-class wealth accumulation depended on disciplined saving, stable employment, affordable housing, and gradual investment appreciation over time. But inflationary monetary regimes destroy the reliability of all of those pathways. Savings become punishment, cash becomes a melting ice cube, young people are forced into speculative assets (or outright becoming gambling addicts) simply to attempt to preserve purchasing power. Conservative investing gets punished while reckless leverage gets rewarded.

Entire generations now feel compelled to try and make quick money in markets not because they are greedy, but because monetary debasement has made traditional financial prudence nonviable. This creates an economy built less on productivity and innovation and more on asset inflation, debt expansion and outright speculation.

And inflation itself is particularly nefarious because it operates invisibly. It steals purchasing power quietly, gradually, and often incomprehensibly. Most people do not connect central bank balance sheets to why they suddenly cannot afford the same standard of living they had five years earlier. They simply feel squeezed. They work harder, save less, delay families, postpone homeownership, drown in debt, and wonder why prosperity always seems permanently out of reach.

The theft of their purchasing power happens in the darkness. Unlike direct taxation, monetary debasement allows everyone involved to avoid accountability. Instead of openly taxing citizens to fund endless spending and bailouts, the system simply dilutes the value of everyone’s currency. And the people causing the inflation are usually insulated from its consequences because they own the very assets inflated by the policy itself.

🔥 90% Off If You Subscribe Today. This coupon allows for 90% off of annual subscriptions and results in a 90%+ savings over paying the monthly rate for a subscription to the blog. You keep the discounted rate for as long as you wish to remain a subscriber. I will not be offering 90% off anytime again soon after the long weekend: Get 90% off forever

That is why luxury demand continues exploding even while ordinary consumers struggle. The Wall Street Journal recently noted booming demand for Ferrari, Hermès, luxury Manhattan real estate, and private aviation among the ultrawealthy even as many middle-class consumers pull back spending elsewhere. That is not a healthy economy, that is a bifurcated economy.

And Modern Monetary Theory only pushes this logic to its most dangerous extreme. MMT advocates often speak in sanitized academic language about sovereign currency issuance and functional finance, but the real-world result is painfully simple: endless money creation distorts prices, rewards asset holders, punishes savers, and accelerates inequality. A society cannot print its way to genuine prosperity forever, it can only redistribute claims on existing prosperity while weakening the currency denominator underneath the entire system.

The defenders of perpetual intervention always insist the alternative would be catastrophic…markets would crash, unemployment would rise, and recession would follow. There is truth in that argument. The system has become so addicted to liquidity that withdrawal now threatens immense instability.

But that only exposes the deeper problem. A market that cannot survive without permanent monetary life support is no longer a healthy market, it is a managed dependency system. A patient on hospice care. And every bailout pushes the reckoning further into the future while making the eventual consequences even worse.

That is why so many people feel like the game is rigged even when official economic statistics appear healthy. GDP can rise. Stock indices can hit all-time highs. Unemployment can remain low. Yet millions of people still feel poorer because the underlying structure increasingly funnels gains upward while socializing losses downward. If the bond market eventually needs a bailout, which I have speculated it may, this would be a great lesson for us to remember and empower ourselves with.

--

QTR’s Disclaimer: Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here. This post represents my opinions only. In addition, please understand I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have been hand selected by me, have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author, reprinted under a Creative Commons license with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author.

This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. I may or may not own names I write about and are watching. Sometimes I’m bullish without owning things, sometimes I’m bearish and do own things. Just assume my positions could be exactly the opposite of what you think they are just in case. If I’m long I could quickly be short and vice versa. I won’t update my positions.

As of May 20, 2026 I no longer actively trade (read my story here) and my accounts are managed by recurring contributions to trusted third parties and advisors and/or recurring contributions mostly to sector ETFs. Such advisors, through individual equities, options, index funds, mutual funds, ETFs, or other securities, may have positions in names that I know nothing about. Basically, I could own or not own anything at any point, and not have any idea about it.

And all positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice and at any point I can be long, short or neutral on any position. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. If you see numbers and calculations of any sort, assume they are wrong and double check them. I failed Algebra in 8th grade and topped off my high school math accolades by getting a D- in remedial Calculus my senior year, before becoming an English major in college so I could bullshit my way through things easier.

The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. I edit after my posts are published because I’m impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/25/2026 - 11:45
Tyler Durden

Huawei Touts Sanctions-Busting Chip Breakthrough, SMIC Shares Erupt

Zero Rss
3 weeks 1 day ago
Huawei Touts Sanctions-Busting Chip Breakthrough, SMIC Shares Erupt

Semiconductor Manufacturing International soared to a record high in China after Huawei unveiled what it described as a breakthrough pathway for advanced semiconductor production at the IEEE ISCAS conference, without relying on the West's most advanced chipmaking equipment.

Huawei's semiconductor chief, He Tingbo, told the audience earlier today that the company has developed a "New Semiconductor Path in Practice" that replaces traditional Moore's Law-style geometric scaling with time scaling and reducing signal propagation delay across devices, circuits, chips, and systems.

Huawei's press release stated:

In her speech, she presented the Tau (τ) Scaling Law, a new principle for guiding the future development of the semiconductor industry. This law proposes replacing geometric scaling with time (τ) scaling as a new guiding principle for the evolution of both semiconductors and electronic systems. Based on this principle, innovative technologies such as LogicFolding can be used to continuously compress signal propagation delay and steadily improve transistor density, which will drive the ongoing evolution of semiconductors and electronic systems.

Tingbo said Huawei plans to make 1.4-nanometer chips by 2031 using its own "LogicFolding" architecture. TSMC has said it expects to begin mass production of 1.4nm chips in 2028, leaving Huawei about five years behind the global leader, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.

Tingbo claims LogicFolding can boost chip performance and will be used in upcoming Kirin mobile chips expected this fall.

This comes as U.S. sanctions on advanced chipmaking equipment and high-end semiconductors have been aimed at slowing China's push into cutting-edge chip production.

Shares of Chinese chip stocks surged, with SMIC jumping more than 18% and Hua Hong Semiconductor hitting daily limits.

The view is that this is a potential breakthrough in China's effort to bypass U.S.-led export controls and reduce dependence on Western semiconductor equipment.

We suspect someone in the Trump team will likely weigh in on this development in the coming days, if not weeks.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/25/2026 - 11:10
Tyler Durden

Spencer Pratt Literally Uses LA Shithole Filth As Campaign Ad

Zero Rss
3 weeks 1 day ago
Spencer Pratt Literally Uses LA Shithole Filth As Campaign Ad

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Spencer Pratt is running a campaign unlike anything seen in Los Angeles politics. The former reality star turned mayoral candidate isn't just talking about the city's collapse into filth, crime, and decay - he's making the evidence work for him.

His team has taken to the streets with power washers and stencils, blasting clean messages like "IMAGINE IF THE STREETS WERE THIS CLEAN" and "SPENCER PRATT FOR MAYOR" directly into the grime accumulated under Democrat leadership.

The tactic is as simple as it is devastating. The cleaned sections stand out starkly against the surrounding trash and dirt, creating a living advertisement for change.

Spencer Pratt has launched a campaign where filthy Los Angeles streets are power washed using a stencil reading "imagine if the streets were this clean."

Imagine letting the streets get so dirty under your leadership that your opponent can use them as a billboard.

- Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) May 24, 2026

If Democrat Mayor Karen Bass wants the signs gone, her administration has to actually clean the streets - something residents say hasn't happened consistently for years.

? NOW: Socialists are FURIOUS that Spencer Pratt's campaign is now POWER WASHING the streets clean spelling the words "IMAGINE IF THE STREETS WERE THIS CLEAN"

"SPENCER PRATT FOR MAYOR" ???

Karen Bass has allowed FILTH to become an ad against her ?

KEEP PUSHING, COMMON...

- Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 24, 2026

Pratt's approach highlights the stark reality Los Angeles faces.

Recent reports and viral videos paint a picture of a once-great city reduced to dystopian conditions: massive homeless encampments overrun by rats, open-air drug markets operating brazenly, and public spaces buried under tents, trash, and human waste.

One video shows entire networks of makeshift homes under bridges tapping into city power.

Another resident-driven idea gaining traction involves marking potholes and blighted areas with pro-Pratt messages, forcing city crews to respond faster to erase political opposition than to basic maintenance.

Pratt has been vocal about the root causes. In campaign videos, he stresses that Los Angeles doesn't have a homelessness problem so much as a drug addiction and failed leadership crisis. He points to billions spent with little visible improvement, calling out the "Homeless Industrial Complex" of nonprofits and bureaucrats who profit from perpetuating the cycle rather than solving it.

His five-step plan focuses on mandatory treatment, clearing encampments, cracking down on crime and drug use, and prioritizing public safety. "If that addict on your street were your own son, what would you do?" he asks, framing the issue as a moral and practical emergency.

The establishment is not amused. As Pratt surges in polls and fundraising - recent figures show him closing the gap on incumbent Karen Bass - the attacks have intensified. Hollywood figures and metropolitan leftists have lashed out, with "Price is Right" host Drew Carey calling Pratt a "serial scammer" and telling voters to reject him in a foul-mouthed rant.

? NOW: LA mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt is surging SO MUCH in the race against Karen Bass that the Democrat machine is lashing out, launching desperate attacks

Pratt is SEIZING on anger regarding homelessness, fires, crime and dilapidation

"People are FREAKING OUT he's...

- Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 25, 2026

Pratt's organic, creative tactics, and direct appeals - have rattled the machine. Supporters see it as a masterclass in connecting with frustrated residents tired of excuses.

Decades of progressive policies prioritizing open borders, soft-on-crime approaches, and massive unchecked spending have produced predictable results. California has funneled enormous sums into homelessness programs, yet streets remain filthy and unsafe. Residents navigate urine-soaked doorways and blocked infrastructure daily while officials tout statistics that don't match lived experience.

Pratt's personal stake adds weight. His home in Pacific Palisades was lost in the fires, an event he ties directly to leadership failures. He frames his run as fighting for his family and the city he loves, rejecting the decline as inevitable.

This isn't just another election cycle in LA. Pratt's campaign forces a confrontation with reality: voters can continue down the path of managed decay or demand basic competence - clean streets, safe neighborhoods, and accountability. The power-washed messages make the choice literal. As the June primary approaches, Angelenos are paying attention.

The broader lesson extends beyond one city. When leadership prioritizes ideology over results, everyday life suffers. Pratt's unorthodox push represents a rejection of that status quo in favor of practical restoration. Whether it translates to victory remains to be seen, but the conversation he has sparked is long overdue. Los Angeles deserves better than managed decline.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/25/2026 - 10:35
Tyler Durden

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  • Record Percentage Of Central Banks Expect Gold Reserves To Increase In Next 12 Months
  • "By Any Means Necessary": Candidate Struck From Alaska Ballot Over Alleged Democratic Dirty Trick
  • MLB Scolds Players Who Wrote Bible Verses On Pride Night Uniforms
  • Is California Reaching Critical Mass?
  • Semiconductor Stocks Tumble After Microsoft Balks At $3B Oracle Cloud Deal
  • FBI Raids Soros-Connected Ohio Voter Mobilization Group In Fraud Investigation
  • Gavin Newsom And The DOJ Probe Opened Under Biden: Behested Payments, Family Nonprofits, & Questions Of Influence
  • San Francisco Judge Dismisses xAI Trade Secret Lawsuit Against OpenAI
  • Thune Signals Senate Will Pursue Stand-Alone FISA Renewal Despite Trump's Demands
  • Hardline Israeli Politicians Livid Over Iran Deal, Want Netanyahu Out So They Can Do 'Real Regime Change'
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