Biden SEC Sues Musk Over Twitter Purchase In 11th Hour “Sham” The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has sued Elon Musk in connection to his $44 billion purchase of Twitter (now X) in October 2022.  In a Tuesday press release, the agency claims that by delaying the filing of a beneficial ownership report by 11 days, Musk saved $150 million, or 0.34% on several subsequent tranches of stock he bought before filing the […]

Extra Tankers And Firefighters Arrive In LA As High Winds Threaten To Return Authored by Guy Birchall via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Extra firefighters and water tankers have arrived in Los Angeles, as the city braces for more high winds. The tankers are replenishing water supplies after fire hydrants ran dry last week as the city battled to rein in the flames, with the additional firefighters drawn from across the United […]

Consumer Prices Soared Over 21% Under Biden After rising for 5 straight months, analysts expected headline consumer prices to continue accelerating in December (+0.4% MoM exp) and it did exactly that – the highest MoM print since March, leading the YoY CPI to rise 2.9% (the highest since July)… Source: Bloomberg CPI details: Food The index for food increased 0.3% in December, after rising 0.4% in November. The food at home […]

Futrures Rise With All Eyes On “Pivotal” CPOI US equity futures are higher, led by small-caps with the rally strengthening after the cooler than expected UK CPI print. As of 8:20am, S&P and Nasdaq futures are up 0.4%, with banking shares advancing in premarket trading after markets inched out a positive close on Tues following firm underlying PPI components & yields continuing to march higher. BlackRock, Bank of New York […]

JPMorgan Shares Jump On Stellar Q4 Earnings, Boost To 2025 NII Forecast After last week’s earnings debacle by Jefferies, which is the bank widely viewed as a harbinger of how the rest of Wall Street does in any given quarter, some expected modest results from the big banks when they began reported Q4 earnings today. However, concerns proved to be unfounded based on the solid results by the largest US bank, JPMorgan, which just […]

Tactically Bearish As Risks Increase Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, In last week’s discussion with Thoughtful Money, I noted that we are becoming more “tactically bearish” as we progress into 2025. While we have remained primarily bullish in equity positioning over the last two years, several risks are now worth considering. However, it is critical to note that being “tactically […]

L.A. County Inferno Expected To Top $250 Billion In Losses A week after a devastating inferno leveled large swaths of Pacific Palisades and Altadena to ash, Los Angeles County remained under a severe fire threat on Wednesday morning. Residents have been left in a state of shock, expressing frustration over what many see as possible negligence by county and/or state officials to mitigate the spread of the fires. The fires have […]

Led By Toyota, Will The Next EV Boom Be In Thailand? Japanese and Chinese automakers are vying for influence in Thailand, often called Asia’s Detroit, as Chinese EV sales wane, according to a new report from Nikkei Asia this week. Last month, Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda met Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra in Bangkok to discuss strengthening the country’s auto industry, highlighting its role as a production hub. The […]

Oh F**k Off: Study Suggests Social Media Makes Adults Grumpy Authored by George Citroner via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), People who spend most of their day on social media show significantly higher levels of irritability than nonusers, scoring more than three points higher on a standard irritability test, according to a major new study of more than 42,000 adults. Icons of social media apps, including Facebook, Instagram, […]

Why The US Grows While The EU Slows: Adam Smith’s Recipe Authored by David Hebert via TheDailyEconomy.org, What explains the curious lack of economic progress in the EU over the past 16 years? In 2008, the economies of the European Union and the United States were roughly equal in size in terms of GDP. Fast forward through a global financial crisis and pandemic and the US economy has nearly doubled while Europe’s has barely […]

Greece Calls On EU For Fast Response To Surging Energy Prices Authored by Charles Kennedy via OilPrice.com, Greece is urging the EU to move faster to address the high power and natural gas prices in the bloc that undermine its competitiveness alongside burdening households, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen seen by Bloomberg News. European wholesale […]

2024 Registrations Of New Electric Cars Plummet 27.5% In Germany… “Petrol Dominates” Authored by P Gosselin via the NoTricksZone How’s the Green New Deal working out in Germany? Not very well at all. Firstly, Germany has been in recession for almost 2 years now – thanks mostly to the policies of Economics Minster Robert Habeck (Green Party), who incidentally has no education in economics, business or finance. The guy just […]

Italy’s Largest Bank Makes Its First Bitcoin Purchase In $1 Million “Test”  Italy’s biggest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, has made history by becoming the first Italian financial institution to buy 11 bitcoins for a “test” purchase worth $1 million. Initially a widespread rumor, Bloomberg has confirmed that Italy’s largest banking giant has indeed dipped its toes in Bitcoin.  According to an internal memo, the financial institution […]

Switzerland, Serbia Offer To Host Trump–Putin Ukraine Peace Talks Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times, Switzerland and Serbia have both offered to host a potential meeting between President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, following recent discussions about the possibility of such talks. The Swiss Foreign Ministry said on Jan. 12 that it is willing to host talks between Trump and Putin, while […]

The War Behind The War: What World War III Is Really Being Fought Over Authored by Leo Hohmann via substack, World War III, like all 21st century wars, is not being fought over ideologies. It’s being fought over energy and natural resources. Because he who controls the world’s resources will be free to impose whatever ideology he wants. Washington and London, the epicenter of the Western liberal world order that thinks […]

China’s BYD Is Only Real Contender To Tesla’s Global EV Market Share Dominance As of September 2024, Tesla retained the biggest market share among all battery electric vehicles (BEVs) sold worldwide in 2024, but only slightly. In 2023, Tesla’s share stood at 19 percent before dropping to 18 percent in first nine months of 2024, according to analyses by EV Volumes published on CleanTechnica. The competition is now hot on Tesla’s […]

Trump Envoy Speaks At MEK Conference On Regime Change In Iran Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com, Keith Kellog, who will serve as an envoy for the Ukraine war in the incoming Trump administration, spoke at an event in Paris over the weekend hosted by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an organization led by the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), a cult that seeks regime change in Iran. Kellog said at the event that the […]

Yemen’s Houthis Target Israel Three Times In 12 Hours The Yemeni Houthi forces announced Tuesday that it targeted the Israeli Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv with a hypersonic missile. Israeli media also confirmed an attempted attack, which triggered emergency sirens across the central Israeli region: Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim an overnight missile attack on Israel, saying they had launched a “hypersonic ballistic […]

Washington Dems Propose Bill Banning Child Care Workers From Reporting Illegal Immigrants To Feds Despite Trump’s win in November and his inauguration in less than a week, Democrats aren’t letting go of the illegal immigration rope.  In fact, now, Washington Democrats have proposed a bill barring child care employers, including families, from reporting criminal illegal immigrants to federal authorities, even if suspected of […]

Stockman: Wildfires And The Hoary Hoax Of A Burning Planet Authored by David Stockman via The Brownstone Institute, Here they go again, blaming the wildfire catastrophe in Los Angeles on Climate Change when the actual culprits are the very politicians who never stop howling about what is a monumental hoax. In the first place, of course, the current raging California fires, like those which have periodically gone before, are […]

Visualizing All Of Canada’s Cancelled Energy Projects Authored by Omid Ghoreishi via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), While Canada’s resource sector was dealt a blow with the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline’s permit by the United States, Canadian officials are facing another challenge as Michigan’s governor tries to shut down Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline. A proposed tanker route out of Kitimat, B.C., related to the […]

Return Of Strong Winds Spark “Dangerous Situation” Across Fire-Ravaged Palisades One week after the fires in Los Angeles County began, the blazes remain out of control, scorching nearly 40,000 acres and leveling entire neighborhoods. On Tuesday, winds are expected to gust between 45 and 70 mph, accompanied by dry air, significantly increasing the risk of fire spread. The National Weather Service has issued “Particularly […]

Biden Throws Cuban Curve Ball Days Before Trump Enters White House In yet another curveball thrown by the Biden administration just days before President-elect Trump is to enter the Oval Office, Washington is removing Cuba from the state sponsor of terrorism list. “An assessment has been completed and we do not have information that supports Cuba’s designation as being a state sponsor of terrorism,” a Biden official said Tuesday. […]

FBI, DHS Warn Of New Orleans-Style Vehicle Ramming Attacks By Copycat Terrorists Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times, The FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have issued a public warning, raising concerns about potential copycat vehicle ramming attacks like the New Year’s Day incident in New Orleans that left 14 dead and dozens injured. “The FBI and DHS are concerned about possible copycat or retaliatory […]

“Unprecedented Criminal Effort” – DOJ Releases Jack Smith’s Report On Trump ‘Election Interference’ Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials have released part of former special counsel Jack Smith’s report about President-elect Donald Trump. Part one of Smith’s report was made public early on Jan. 14 (1am), after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon allowed its release. In the […]