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WASHINGTON — Secretary of War Pete Hegseth led tributes Monday to the late Sen. Lindsey Graham as the largest military base in his home state of South Carolina was renamed in honor of the longtime lawmaker. “Senator Lindsey Graham dedicated his life to serving this state and serving the armed forces of the United States....

Commercial Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Filings Decrease Annually, But...

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

There were 666 commercial Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings made in the United States in July, a 27 percent drop from a year ago, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI).

Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows a business to reorganize its debts so it can continue operating and eventually become solvent. In addition to a decline in Chapter 11 filings, overall commercial bankruptcy filings declined in July, falling by 8 percent year over year, ABI said in an Aug. 6 statement.

The decline in July's commercial filings followed improved economic conditions in June. The 12-month inflation rate declined in June from the previous month after surging for three consecutive months.

According to a July 24 report from S&P Global, U.S. business activity growth accelerated to an eight-month high last month, with business confidence in the year-ahead outlook rising to an eight-month high as well.

ABI clarified that although the number of Chapter 11 filings fell this year, more than 300 filings were made in connection with a large healthcare system's bankruptcy.

A hiring ad at a store in Columbia, Md., on Sept. 18, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

Meanwhile, despite the overall decline in Chapter 11 filings, subchapter V bankruptcy elections within Chapter 11, which represent filings by small businesses, rose 24 percent in July from a year earlier.

This is despite an improvement in small business optimism in June, according to a July 14 statement from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).

NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg said in the statement that lower fuel costs provided relief for businesses, with companies expecting operating conditions to improve over the coming six months.

"While there have been improvements in the overall environment, high interest rates and modest economic growth are causing owners to approach hiring and capital spending with caution," Dunkelberg said.

Total subchapter V elections in July totaled 234 filings, ABI said in its recent statement.

Amy Quackenboss, ABI executive director, said in the statement that bankruptcy serves as a "critical safeguard" for businesses to reorganize their finances and move forward under conditions of financial distress.

"ABI appreciates the continued efforts of Congress to permanently expand access for both distressed small businesses looking to restructure under subchapter V and for consumers looking to file under chapter 13," Quackenboss said.

Quackenboss was referring to the Bankruptcy Threshold Adjustment Act of 2026 introduced in the Senate by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in March.

The Act seeks to permanently raise the small-business Chapter 11 bankruptcy debt threshold to $7.5 million. This threshold is the maximum debt limit a business can have when applying for such bankruptcy.

On Aug. 3, the Senate passed the bill. The legislation now heads to the House of Representatives for approval.

In an Aug. 4 statement from Grassley's office, the lawmaker commended the Senate for unanimously passing the Act.

"Our nation's bankruptcy code should work for Americans, not against them," Grassley said in the statement, while calling on members of the House to quickly pass the legislation.

"By eliminating barriers to reorganization and restoring modern debt limits, the bipartisan Bankruptcy Threshold Adjustment Act would provide American families and small businesses the tools they need to regain their financial footing in a quicker, more streamlined process."

The bill also seeks to raise the debt limit for Chapter 13 filings by individuals to $2.75 million.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has taken action to ensure businesses have access to sufficient financing to operate.

On July 4, a new policy went into effect that allows businesses to secure up to $10 million by combining two Small Business Administration (SBA) loan programs - 7(a) and 504 loans.

The 7(a) loan program provides financial assistance of up to $5 million, while the 504 loan program has a maximum limit of $5.5 million. Previously, a business could only take $5 million cumulatively from both initiatives. The new update effectively doubles this threshold.

On July 30, the SBA announced that it would update its website to make it more helpful to small businesses and manufacturers.

The update offers a streamlined online lending process for businesses that "simplifies how lenders originate and process SBA-backed loans, helping them deliver capital to Main Street businesses faster and with greater consistency and security," the SBA said.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/10/2026 - 13:25

Goodwill locations across the US offer 50% off on a slew of item, and it all depends on the color.

“Kathy Hochul seems to believe that if she avoids enough debates, New Yorkers will forget she’s the worst governor in America," Blakeman said in a statement.

Support for the death penalty has ebbed and flowed over past decades.

Celebrity trainers "weigh" in on the best dumbbells for your home gym.

An investigation was underway into what killed a 22-year-old man who died on a flight from Dallas to Los

The Sam Altman-led company said it cannot rule out that the Astra model has reached the “Critical” threshold, meaning it can potentially exploit real-world systems or execute cyberattacks without human guidance.

A Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) co-chair blamed the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israeli policies in the Gaza Strip, calling the massacre "inevitable."

President Trump on Monday hit back on Iran’s outlandish demands to reopen the Strait of Hormuz with his own list of demands to serve as a new red line in negotiations.

US SPR Falls Below 300 Million Operational Limit As Oil Drain Unexpectedly Surges To 6.1MM Barrels, Most In 2 Months

As negotiations between the US and Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz go nowhere, oil prices continue to slide lower on some naive hope that a resolution to the conflict will magically emerge. Meanwhile, both commercial and strategic stocks continue to be drained at a historic pace, and one day virtually every tank bottom will be hit, sparking a historic surge in commodity prices as the market realizes that physical always wins the war with paper oil. 

That day just got closer today when the US reported that crude oil stocks in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell below 300 million barrels for the first time since early 1983, as global inventories are under pressure due to the Iran war.

The SPR fell by 6.1 million barrels to 298.7 million barrels last week, according to data released by the Department of Energy on Monday. The reserve is at its lowest level since January 1983.

The 6.1 million drain was a big jump in the SPR's recent moderating trend which saw the previous week only 2.8 million barrels exit the strategic reserve. Instead, the outsized outflow which was the biggest in almost 2 months suggests that US reserves are once again working overtime to prevent the oil price frrom spiking.

Yet as we have repeatedly explained, it is only a matter of time before the SPR can no longer be used to plug the gap so to speak. That's because the oil industry has generally accepted that the operational minimum for oil in the SPR, a point at which it would be more difficult to pump out the oil, is somewhere between 250 million and 300 million barrels. Meanwhile, sizing studies done on the SPR in the 1970s recommended an inventory minimum of 250 million barrels. 

In other words, the US is already if not at the operational minimum, it will certainly hit it in a few weeks, should the weekly drain persist at this rate. 

The rapid drain of the SPR explains why, according to unconfirmed reports, Iran has "completely ruled out any future negotiations with the Trump administration," declaring it will wait out Donald Trump's term until January 20, 2029, per Iranian outlets and Ghalibaf advisor's post.

"Trump will not reach an agreement with us. We will accompany him until his term ends," said Majid Shakeri, advisor to Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf.

He posted: "The path to victory is neither fighting nor a deal — it is managing the process of neither war nor peace, up to the point of victory. Publicly confirming negotiations with the U.S. is sheer folly. The winning approach is denial, ambiguity, and strategic patience."

The US release is part of a coordinated action by countries in the International Energy Agency to support the global oil market with 400 million barrels, although the US has been by far the most aggressive lender of its strategic reserves. 

The drain began after Trump ordered the release of 172 million barrels in March to help address the oil supply disruption triggered by Iran’s attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/10/2026 - 12:55

Mamdani on Monday backed the controversial, union-supported Delivery Protection Act.

Pablo Aguilar-Alvarez has been convicted of drunken driving four times, but a Suffolk County jduge released the illegal immigrant without bail.

Resident Jesse Rosemoore is behind the provocative campaign.

Race To Reopen Hormuz Intensifies As Global Supply Chain Stress Remains At COVID Levels

The latest Bloomberg data show that shipping transits through the Strait of Hormuz remained largely disrupted Monday morning, even as Iran and Oman reportedly moved closer to a deal.

Brent crude futures traded near $85 a barrel as markets priced in the possibility that a deal to reopen the maritime chokepoint could be imminent. Yet global supply-chain stress remains near its highest level since the pandemic, and any normalization could take months, even if shipping traffic resumes.

UBS senior international economist Pierre Lafourcade highlighted the bank's proprietary Global Supply Chain Stress Index, which showed that although pressures eased modestly in July from their highest level since the pandemic, disruptions stemming from the Hormuz chokepoint continue to strain global shipping networks.

The median reading of the bank's 23-component Global Supply Chain Stress Index fell .4 standard deviation from June but remained .9 standard deviation above its pre-Iran conflict level. The average reading declined .3 standard deviation from June while remaining 1.35 standard deviations above February, or pre-US-Iran war, levels.

Lafourcade adds more color here: 

Marginal relief for supply chains relative to the June peak 

With the July data now complete, our Global Supply Chain Stress Index is showing a modest easing in pressure from the June reading, which marked the highest level of stress since the pandemic. Figure 1 below shows the latest reading.

The median of the 23 component series (blue line) now stands at 1.26 standard deviations, 0.9 sd units higher than prior to the Iran conflict but 0.4 units off the June reading. In average terms (red line), the indicator is up 1.35 sd units relative to February, but down 0.3 sd units relative to June, which appears to be the high watermark. Markets are optimistic about some form of imminent resolution, as reflected in the ~20$/b drop in Brent since the July 23 peak, but stress in supply chains is likely to linger on far beyond any implemented accord.

Divergence across components is increasing

The indicator is constructed as the cross-sectional average of z-scored series—a firstorder approximation to the data's first principal component. Figure 2 overleaf shows the contributions over the past five months. 

The indicator most directly capturing the supply shock nature of the Hormuz bottleneck is our measure of seaborne oil and gas flows (shown on the right of the figure, with the sign flipped to indicate rising stress). All other components reflect the shock more indirectly. Oil and gas shipping volumes in the Asia region—the polygon depicted in Figure 3—have retraced about half of the drop since the Strait closure (Figure 4). 

Meanwhile, the global volume of other cargo shipping remained roughly the same. Delivery times improved in Asia ex China but worsened in the US. The greatest relief is coming from lower air-freight costs in July, while shipping costs instead ratcheted up again across all major reporters (Baltic, Harper Petersen, Drewry, and Freightos).

The longer disruptions persist through the Hormuz chokepoint, the greater the knock-on effects across global supply chains, from higher energy and freight costs to depleted inventories, longer delivery times, and renewed inflationary pressure, are all ongoing concerns. 

Professional subscribers can read more on Hormuz, maritime chokepoints, and energy markets here at our new Marketdesk.ai portal. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/10/2026 - 12:40

Terrifying footage shows the moment a nearly century-old Catholic church collapsed as a devastating 7.4-magnitude earthquake rattled western Colombia Monday, killing at least 22 people.

The duo got cozy on Saturday night.

Aaron Donald has +800 odds to win NFL Comeback Player of the Year after his official Los Angeles Rams workout, trailing Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.