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While Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani have proven adept makeup artists, they've still been applying lipstick to a pig that Hong lacked the talent to disguise.

“The No. 1 complaint we hear from people everywhere is that gas prices are just too high. So we wanted to really do something to alleviate that a little bit.”

WTI Dips After Massive Crude Inventory Build, Big SPR Drain, Surge In Imports

Oil prices are marginally lower this morning as OPEC again cut its forecast for global oil-demand growth for this year, but stalled talks to reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz waterway and risks in the Red Sea prolong disruptions to global supplies.

Physical disruptions are spreading beyond Hormuz. Refinery attacks and fires have hit Russia and Libya, while the Houthis claimed another attack on Saudi Aramco’s Jazan complex. The Red Sea has become a key alternative export route for the Kingdom, and Houthi attacks are putting that release valve under pressure.

Overnight saw API report a huge crude inventory build and 

API

• Crude +9.1mm

• Cushing +1.6mm

• Gasoline -1.5mm

• Distillates -600k

DOE

• Crude +17.4mm (-1.4mm exp) - biggest build since Jan 2023

• Cushing +1.61mm

• Gasoline -968k

• Distillates -10k

After API's reported large build, the official data showed an almost unprecedented 17.4mm barrel build in crude stocks (the biggest since Jan 2023), Cushing saw another build while products saw draws for the second week in a row...

The massive oil stock build was driven by imports which rose to the highest level since November 2024. The US imported over a million barrels a day of oil last week, in part driven by a rise in Venezuelan imports and a return of Saudi Arabian oil. This is a sharp reversal from only a few months prior when oil was flowing abroad in massive quantities.

Net Imports at their highest since June 2025 (thanks in addition to a big slump in US crude exports to the lowest since Nov 2025) ...

Stocks at the critical Cushing Hub are limping off 'tank bottoms'...

As we detailed here, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve saw drawdowns re-accelerate last week (with 6.1mm barrels leaving the caves of salt), back below $300 million barrels to its lowest level since January 1983. Nevertheless, total commercial crude stocks rose 11.3mm barrels last week - the largest since February...

A total of 117 million barrels of crude has been taken out of the SPR since late March under a program to release 172 million barrels as part of a relief plan coordinated by the IEA aimed at lowering energy costs.

US Crude production also limped higher near record highs as the rig count continues to rise...

The oil stock build comes even as refiner runs rose and are sitting at the highest seasonal level since 2019. Fuel makers have signaled they intend to run harder-than-usual through the third quarter, a time when plants typically go down for maintenance.

WTI dipped back below $83 after the official data, holding gains from Friday's close around $77...

Interestingly, Bloomberg points out that US gasoline demand continued to remain resilient in the face of elevated gasoline prices. US retail gasoline prices are averaging over $4 per gallon, almost $1 per gallon (29%) higher than last year’s level at this time, according to data from the American Automobile Association. However, this week’s gasoline demand is only 36,000 barrels per day -- 0.4% lower compared to last year. 

Finally, as we noted yesterday, quoting Bloomberg macro strategist, Michael Ball, market structure reflects that stress better than outright prices. Brent and WTI curves remain backwardated and refining cracks are elevated, signaling near-term scarcity. Options are less aggressively bullish, with 25-delta call skews in both benchmarks dropping to their least bullish levels since July 10.

That points to a market vulnerable to spot disruptions while increasingly pricing a path toward de-escalation.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 10:39

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bashed allies of former President Joe Biden who knew of his decline but did nothing, grumbling over the honesty that emerged after his disastrous debate.

Depew has previously been accused of underage drinking and using the N-word while rapping along to songs.

Researchers say some potentially harmful ingredients were likely added on purpose and intentionally left off product labels.

Hinckley Jr. famously shot and almost killed Reagan to impress Foster after watching her in "Taxi Driver."

Hinckley Jr. famously shot and almost killed Reagan to impress Foster after watching her in "Taxi Driver."

Massachusetts becomes the 10th state to remove gestational age limits.

Speaking Loudly And Leaning On A Big Schtick

By Michael Every of Rabobank

Yesterday saw the regular schtick where the Middle East situation remains worrying, but markets reacted to more positive narratives. After four crew and two rescuers were killed in a Houthi Red Sea attack on a ship and the US struck another in the Gulf of Oman’ trying to break its Iran blockade; Iran said Hormuz will stay closed unless the US meets its over-reach conditions; Trump doubled down on economic warfare vs Tehran because he thinks it’s “bleeding badly” -with the other option still being to “hit them really hard”; yet the Wall Street Journal reported ‘Iran Is Defying US Pressure by Becoming a ‘Survival Economy’; Pakistan claimed a US-Iran deal is close, and US Energy Secretary Wright said far more oil is flowing through Hormuz than others estimate, suggesting the US doesn’t really need to act.

This routine will likely continue through to the US midterms – and then we will see what happens. The old presidential adage is that one should speak softly and carry a big stick. Speaking loudly and leaning on a big schtick is not going to work for ever. On which, recent reports that the US is ‘out of munitions' are true for precision varieties, not more traditional types that need to be used in greater proximity. If the US isn’t ultimately prepared to take those kinds of risks in a war against Iran, it will carry a geopolitical message that will not speak softly at all.

What the US (and allies) are running low on is Patriot missile defences. Yet just after the Pentagon gave US military industries 21 days to submit plans for “significantly faster” weapons production, Boeing has unveiled a cheap radar seeker built from off-the-shelf parts. They say necessity is the mother of invention; just not of higher margins, perhaps. (Then again, as I have repeatedly stressed, wars are won with bullets, not profits.) Yet much broader structural shifts in economics, not just economies, is evident on the ground and the Establishment intellectual level.

The pro-free trade Economist argues China’s neo-mercantilist, Leninist trade model is so effective that no form of western capitalism can withstand it. Stop looking at your screen for a moment and contemplate what that implies both right now and going forwards.

The sine qua non free trade academic Paul Krugman just admitted two hundred years of positive-sum free-trade thinking has been a ”sunny view… based on the assumption that we care about economic prosperity, not national power” – which is not true. War is raging and economies, currencies, and commodities have been weaponised. He admits we now need to look at ‘geoeconomics’ instead, which is the history of zero-sum economic statecraft and neo-mercantilism.

Foreign Affairs (‘The Right Way to Balance Trade: What Comes After the Neoliberal Order’) attacks Trump’s tariffs but argues for a West+ bloc common tariff against China and any trans-shipment, with low intra-bloc trade restrictions for those who also don’t run large trade surpluses, and industrial policies. Regular readers might recall this is what we have previously argued was the logical US grand macro strategy – and that attacks on Canada and Europe, etc., could be attempts to force them into accepting the common external tariff over the heads of vested interests vociferously against them. (If so, would a carrot not be better than a stick? Perhaps: but this wasn’t a normative call, just a descriptive one.)

Some also point out that even as Europe warms up for a potential trade war with China, it does not grasp the scale of the change in the world economy is lives in.

In particular, the Chinese industries the EU will likely take aim at are now mature, so require few direct subsidies that the EU will be looking for; the Leninist Chinese model helps supersize future industries so they can then stand on their own two feet. What policy framework, and working with whom, will Europe ultimately put in place within a ‘rules-based approach’ to try to retain its mature industries and to ensure that it develops new ones? (The same question also applies to the US, of course.)

As a signal, Vietnam -- a GDP growth star via a low valued-added, FDI-based, export-driven economic model-- is pivoting: it now wants to grow its own Korean-style ‘chaebol' conglomerates to boost productivity and growth longer term on its terms. Is it wrong to do so when it could instead be focusing on quarterly earnings reports and outsourcing everything that it can?

Football provides an analogy to what the above may mean for us all in time: the world’s Beautiful Game --which recall isn’t actually big in India, China, or the US, the three most populous and first-, second-, and fifth-largest economies-- might split.

Trump backs FIFA President Infantino, under furious attack over a World Cup sale plan dreamed up during a hydration break. UEFA, with some other federations, are developing a new rival framework for running world game. Might we end up with World Cups with different rules, sponsors, and participants?

If so, note what was a medieval mob game took a long time to grow into the rules-based one played first by English gents before then becoming a globalized money-making behemoth; and that there were early splits between those who wanted to play only with feet and those who wanted to also handle the ball – which ultimately became other sports.

In short, the West needs to relearn the Beautiful Great Game. But are its universities teaching geoeconomics or neo-mercantilism to allow the next generation of leaders to think up, and the bureaucrats to implement, such policies? Are its economists really capable of adapting to that reality rather than giving the same old advice under a new label? Are its analysts capable of projecting the dots of what it all implies?

Notably, the ECB’s annual conference in September will be held under the title ‘Geoeconomics and the International Trading System’, but the participants are still economists rather than the likes of Edward Luttwak, who coined the phrase geoeconomics in 1990 to describe how the "logic of conflict" merges with the "grammar of commerce.”

Today, of course, we can put that all aside to focus on US CPI, as if it isn’t intimately tied up with the above backdrop. Here is an ugly game all of its own – and one where the ‘rules’ change all the time.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 10:20

The victim’s identity and what led to the crash were not immediately known.

After Parker retired from the NYPD in 2002, he worked in security for large events and executive protection, applying the same philosophy of knowing who would be going where to avoid conflicts.

There's a new Lakers owner -- again.

The Colombian city of Manizales deployed emergency services following the 7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck western Colombia on August 10th.

The agency received an emergency report almost half an hour later and immediately deployed personnel and rescue vessels.

Piedmont is only 1.7 square miles and has about 11,000 residents, but there is a huge financial gap between it and Oakland.

Hasan Piker's "Touch Of Death"? Far-Left Francesca Hong Loses Wisconsin's Dem Primary For Governor

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley narrowly won Wisconsin's Democratic gubernatorial primary on Tuesday night, defeating far-left state lawmaker Francesca Hong despite her backing from Marxist streamer Hasan Piker.

David Crowley, who reentered the Wisconsin governor’s race after securing the endorsement of Gov. Tony Evers, won the battleground state’s Democratic primary, defeating democratic socialist Francesca Hong. https://t.co/lrN1X3dlXK pic.twitter.com/4eJKC1BhbQ

— The Associated Press (@AP) August 12, 2026

BREAKING: Polymarket projects Francesca Hong has been defeated by David Crowley — 99% chance. https://t.co/vhzxuK0tI2

— Polymarket (@Polymarket) August 12, 2026

Hong's loss raises a broader question for the democratic socialist movement: Has Piker's support become a political liability?

Francesca Hong is campaigning with Hasan Piker pic.twitter.com/7DtvJk9hKV

— DSA Watch (@DSA_Watch) August 2, 2026

His incendiary, anti-American rhetoric, including calls to "kill capitalists," has handed Republicans a potent line of attack against the socialist and Marxist candidates he promotes. In addition, leaders of the Democratic Socialists of America routinely call for undermining the nation and collapsing capitalism.

Wisconsin Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong: “I'd say it's about f***ing time we 86 Trump.” pic.twitter.com/HrqL1uT0bp

— America (@america) August 4, 2026

It increasingly appears that the DSA's ultimate goal is not affordability, opposition to data centers, or whatever issue its members happen to be promoting that day to rile up fellow Marxists. It is really about ending the American empire.

Hong's loss is a major sigh of relief for the Democratic Party establishment, which initially welcomed socialists and Marxists into their "big tent" DEI kingdom, but that has since turned out to be a terrible idea as the far-left seizes political power from establishment candidates in several primaries across the country this summer. 

Politico wrote earlier, "The far left hits a wall," adding, "After hot DSA summer comes the fall."

Democrats are desperately trying to distance themselves from Piker, socialists, and Marxists. Republicans have been handed a political gift because far-left soundbites, such as Hong repeatedly calling to defund the police and cancel Thanksgiving, are unpopular with the majority of Americans. That's because defund the police was already tried during the Marxist BLM riot days and entirely failed, leading to more violent crime and murders. 

Francesca Hong, 2020: Cancel Thanksgiving.

Hong, Two Days Ago: Thanksgiving is a time that's incredibly painful for many people in our communities.

Hong, Today: My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. I love it. pic.twitter.com/cA5Qg9Lm4S

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) August 5, 2026

Yet these DSA candidates are hell-bent on running on nation-killing policies and an anti-American agenda that risks branding the entire Democratic Party as far-left and radical.

She also supports:

• Abolishing the police
• Abolishing prisons
• Abolishing borders
• Raising taxes to fund government-run grocery stores

🚨 Socialists are targeting Wisconsin.

Their leading candidate for governor, Francesca Hong, wants to:

• Abolish the police
• Abolish prisons
• Abolish borders
• Raise your taxes for government-run grocery stores

This isn’t “progressive” — it’s radical, dangerous, and… pic.twitter.com/3wnP8nOvnK

— GRANDPA’s FREE ADVICE (@GOP_is_Gutless) July 16, 2026

Some of Hong's comments are pure comedy because her worldview is fundamentally flawed. This remark is also racist: describing having a half-white son as "being in proximity to whiteness."

Francesca Hong describes having a half white son as "being in proximity to whiteness." pic.twitter.com/Ix0j0nisnF

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 3, 2026

Translation:

Whiteness means capitalism

— Karlyn Borysenko, anti-communist cult leader (@DrKarlynB) August 4, 2026

Piker melted down overnight over Hong's loss:

Hasan Piker ends off his stream by melting down over Francesca Hong’s defeat and threatening the establishment

“The knives will be out” pic.twitter.com/Gzd4KUO81B

— DSA Watch (@DSA_Watch) August 12, 2026

Related:

• Even Lefty Joe Scarborough Goes Nuclear On Dems For Refusing To Disavow Democratic Socialists
• Bombshell Report Exposes Lefty NGOs Funding A Children's Charity Tied To Terror Network
• California Orders NGO Serving As "Financial Backbone" For Singham-Linked Marxism Causes To Cease Operations

DSA is far-left; let's not forget that. 

Understand here:

Honestly, let Piker and the rest of the socialists and Marxists keep talking. Their inflammatory soundbites are gold mines for opposition research.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 10:11

First Morgan Stanley, Now BofA To "Mobilize And Deploy" $250 Billion Into America's Infrastructure Supercycle

Bank of America unveiled a massive 18-month initiative to mobilize and deploy $250 billion across critical US infrastructure, targeting the computing, energy, and industrial systems needed to support artificial intelligence and accelerate the transition toward physical AI.

The announcement comes just days after Morgan Stanley launched its US Innovation Infrastructure Initiative, which aims to facilitate $1.5 trillion in capital raising and financing over the next decade. The back-to-back commitments signal that Wall Street is positioning for a multiyear capital-spending supercycle spanning data centers, power generation, grid modernization, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing and robotics.

*MORGAN STANLEY TO FACILITATE UP TO $1.5T OVER 10 YRS

this explains why they went so bullish on credit in the past 3 months https://t.co/nnhdOyD5x5

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 10, 2026

"Without hard infrastructure, it's difficult to preserve our competitiveness and leadership for the next generation," Karen Fang, global head of infrastructure and sustainable finance and co-head of global capital solutions, said in an interview with Bloomberg. "Old infrastructure has to be modernized."

BofA's financing will span three broad categories:

• Digital infrastructure, including data centers, computing equipment, chips, telecommunications and semiconductors
• Energy and power, including conventional and renewable generation, storage and distribution systems
• Core infrastructure, including transportation, electricity transmission, grid modernization, water systems, critical minerals and mining

Surging demand for computing power, energy, manufacturing capacity and more resilient supply chains is driving a new investment cycle across the US. BofA said the initiative could support tens of thousands of jobs in construction, manufacturing, technology and long-term operations.

Morgan Stanley mapped out the AI infrastructure supply chain:

Nancy Lazar, Piper Sandler's chief global economist and head of the firm's economics research team, recently outlined how data center construction, reshoring, infrastructure upgrading and the reenergizing of America's industrial base are creating an all-American blue-collar comeback as goods-producing jobs begin to reverse their multidecade downturn and shift higher.

Lazar noted:

Bullish on Goods-Producing Jobs vs. Hotel & Restaurant Jobs.

When China joined the WTO in 2001, U.S. goods-producing jobs began a decade of decline, while leisure & hospitality and education & health jobs continued to rise...

...so today, goods-producing jobs are less than half those of low-paying service jobs; their share was over 50% in the mid-1980s.

That employment mix shift gave us the bifurcated consumer, as lower-paying jobs gained share. Goods-producing jobs pay more than overall service-producing jobs, and lots more than leisure & hospitality or education & health care jobs.

Good news: That mix is now shifting the other way, as the long-running (not just tech) capex cycle raises productivity and margins, encouraging companies to add headcount.

Look at relative earnings growth by sector below.

Let's come back to our "Powering Up America" and nuclear-power investment themes (began Decemeber 2020) over the last several years. They were right on the money, and both remain intact ahead of the multiyear capital-spending supercycle that BofA and Morgan Stanley are about to unleash.

Related:

• Nvidia Confirms Record $500 Billion Off-Balance Sheet SPV Deal To Fund The World's Biggest Circle Jerk

The infrastructure required to power the AI economy, strengthen energy security, and support the AI revolution will be central to writing the next chapter ofAmerica'ss growth story into the 2030s.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 10:05

Watch out 2 Chainz, you have competition. Once known as “Tommy Cutlets” when he played in the Meadowlands, backup quarterback Tommy DeVito has now become “Two Chains” — different than the rapper — now that he’s with the Patriots. “’Two Chains’ is doing a nice job,” New England coach Mike Vrabel said Tuesday. “He, I...

The firebug who allegedly started one of two fires that merged near the California-Nevada border has been apprehended.