Newsom’s Former Chief Of Staff Indicted On Public Corruption Charges Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, was indicted by a federal grand jury on 23 charges related to public corruption, according to a Nov. 12 statement from the Department of Justice. U.S. Attorney Eric Grant alleged that Williamson, 53, of Carmichael, California, committed bank […]

Fetterman Hospitalized After ‘Ventricular Fibrillation’ Causes Fall Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was hospitalized on Thursday after suffering facial injuries from a fall during a walk near his Western Pennsylvania home.  According to a spokesperson, the Democrat Senator was transported to a Pittsburgh hospital “out of an abundance of caution.” “During an early morning walk, Senator Fetterman sustained a fall near his home in […]

Subprime Auto Delinquencies Worst In Over 30 Years Building on the theme of low-income consumers and young people burdened by debt and affordability woes, signs of stress are continuing to emerge across the subprime tier of the auto loan space. A new Bloomberg report on Wednesday, citing data from Fitch Ratings, showed that delinquency rates on subprime auto loans surged to their highest level since 1994, with 6.65% of subprime […]

Ugly, Tailing 30Y Auction Sends Yields Higher After yesterday’s mediocre, tailing 10Y auction, and with yields pushing higher today, prospects for the week’s final coupon auction, today’s $25BN in 30Y bonds, were not too exciting. Which is a good thing because the just concluded final refunding auction was quite disappointing.  The auction stopped at high yield of 4.694%, down from last month’s 4.734%, but it also tailed the When […]

FBI Director Says China Agreed To Curb Fentanyl Precursors Authored by Catherine Yang via The Epoch Times, FBI Director Kash Patel said at a press briefing on Nov. 12 that during his recent trip to China, Chinese officials agreed to take significant steps to curb fentanyl precursor exports to the United States. “That was the sole purpose of my trip to China, to eliminate these precursors, and if successful, we would suffocate […]

“Chicagoans Do Not Want Us To Bankroll The Regime”: Chicago Will No Longer Buy Treasury Bonds Authored by Jonathan Turley, “It’s a bold statement, isn’t it?” Those words of Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin hardly capture the moment. Yesterday, Conyears-Ervin declared that her office would no longer invest in U.S. Treasury bonds to protest what she called the “authoritarian regime” of President Donald […]

WTI Holds Gains Despite Big Crude Build, New Record US Crude Production Oil prices are bouncing modestly off of yesterday’s ugly drop driven by OPEC+’s outlook for a sizable surplus (glut) ahead. The IEA also flagged a deteriorating outlook for a sixth consecutive month, saying in a report on Thursday that supply will exceed demand by just over four million barrels a day next year. “There’s a lot of oil supply that’s coming […]

Verizon Set To Axe 15,000 Jobs Right Before Thanksgiving Holiday The optics look awful for Verizon Communications if the Wall Street Journal’s report is accurate: the carrier is preparing for its largest job cuts ever just days before millions of Americans hit the road for Thanksgiving.  WSJ says Verizon is planning to cut 15,000 jobs. If that figure is correct, Bloomberg’s latest data suggests this would be about 15% of its […]

Ukraine Ruled By “Wartime Mafia Network” With “Countless Ties” To Zelensky: Viktor Orban Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is having a “told you so” moment as Ukraine’s massive corruption scandal which has already taken down the country’s Justice Minister and several other high officials has come to light. The crisis has entered Ukraine’s presidential office, with at least one close Zelensky business associate, Tymur Mindich, […]

Michael ‘Big Short’ Burry Rage-Quits Market, Liquidates Hedge Fund We’ll begin with the famous quote from economist John Maynard Keynes: “The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.” It’s a reminder that even the smartest traders in the room, the ones who’ve built entire careers calling bubbles and shorting tops, can be steamrolled when markets detach from reality. Case in point: “Big Short” investor Michael […]

A New Oil Price War Is Now Underway Authored by Robert Rapier via OilPrice.com, OPEC+ raised output to defend market share, signaling a deliberate shift away from price stabilization. U.S. shale’s record production and rapid adaptability have weakened OPEC’s traditional pricing control. Oil prices now hinge as much on market psychology and expectations as on physical supply and demand. Contrary to popular belief, […]

Disney Shares Sink Most In Seven Months As Soft Earnings, Film Costs Drag Outlook Shares of Disney tumbled the most in seven months early in the U.S. cash session after the media company missed quarterly revenue expectations and warned that film-studio expenses will drag on the current quarter, particularly costs tied to major releases. Disney posted uninspiring fourth-quarter revenues, flat at about $22.5 billion and below the […]

California Cancels 17,000 CDLs Following Federal Audit Authored by John Gallagher via FreightWaves.com, The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has cancelled 17,000 non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses following a federal audit of the state’s CDL program, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. In a press statement on Wednesday, DOT asserted that state officials admitted to illegally issuing the […]

New 2x Levered Energy ETFs Launched As Investors Scramble For Upside Amid Relentless AI Power Demand In pursuit of the seemingly relentless retail bid, Tradr ETFs has launched four new single-stock levered ETFs today, adding fresh instruments to a market incessantly infatuated with leverage-focused products. Notably, these new products land squarely in the middle of the energy sector – and includes names that stand to profit […]

Schumer Who? How Centrists Broke Ranks To End Shutdown As Democratic Rift Widens The political breakthrough that ended the longest government shutdown in U.S. history did not come from the Oval Office or from the Senate’s top Democrat. Instead, it emerged from a quiet, late-night meeting in a nearly deserted Capitol, where a small band of centrist Democrats forged an agreement with senior Republicans – over the objections of their […]

White House Says Trump Committed To $2,000 Tariff Dividend Payments For Many Americans Authored by Kimberley Hayek via The Epoch Times, President Donald Trump remains committed to paying $2,000 to many Americans from funds from tariff revenues, the White House said on Nov. 12, adding that officials are exploring how to make the president’s proposal happen. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that […]

Futures Drop As Markets Sell News Of Government Reopening Futures are slightly lower as the market sells the news that the US government has finally reopened, and as traders now seek to identify a near-term catalyst before NVDA’s Nov 19 earnings release while the data vacuum is likely to persist for at least several days. As of 8:00am ET, S&P futures are down 0.2% as the government reopening rally runs out of fuel; Nasdaq […]

US Flight-Cuts Frozen At 6% As More Controllers Show Up For Work With the record-long government shutdown now in the history books and more air traffic controllers coming to work, the Department of Transportation has decided to freeze the level of flight cuts imposed on US carriers at 6% — rather than continuing a schedule that would have had cuts rising to 10% by week’s end. After being hammered by customer service headaches, lost […]

‘Bankers Know Gold Is Their Money Of Last Resort’; Morgan Warns End Of American Empire Looms Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com, More than a year ago, economic analyst and financial writer David Morgan predicted we were entering a global Great Depression.  With massive AI layoffs, sky rocketing silver and gold prices, exploding debt and civil unrest increasing, it looks like Morgan was right—again.  On the money […]

White House, FTC Turn Up The Heat On Institutional Shareholder Services & Glass Lewis  Federal scrutiny of proxy-advisory firms and major index-fund managers intensified this week, following reports that the White House is weighing new measures to rein in their growing influence over corporate America, as well as news that the Federal Trade Commission just launched a preliminary investigation into whether these firms violated […]

Elon Musk Is Building The Backbone of America’s High-Tech 2030s Economy – And The Numbers Prove It Authored by Larry Goldberg, Managing Partner of Knowledge Partners International,  Few understand that quite apart from making himself rich, Elon Musk is a job-creating, tax-paying, economy-boosting force. Through his companies – Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, The Boring Company, and Neuralink -Musk has funneled hundreds of billions into […]

Coinbase Abandoning $2 Billion Deal For Stablecoin Company BVNK Coinbase Global has scrapped plans to acquire BVNK, a London-based stablecoin infrastructure startup, ending what would have been a roughly $2 billion deal — and one of the largest stablecoin-focused acquisitions to date, according to Yahoo Finance. “We’re continuously seeking opportunities to expand on our mission and product offerings,” a Coinbase […]

How Far Will Ukraine’s Corruption Scandal Go? Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack, A major scandal is rocking Ukraine after its National Anti-Corruption Bureau, which Zelensky unsuccessfully tried to subordinate over the summer, charged several important figures in connection with its investigation into a $100 million energy graft scandal. This includes Timur Mindich, Zelensky’s longtime business partner, who fled […]

After 43 Days, Congressional Democrats Fold, Vote To End Historic US Govt Shutdown Update (0800ET): After a record 43 days (and 14 failed votes)… …the shutdown is finally over as Democrats folded (amid the fire and brimstone from their colleagues), voting with Republicans to reopen the government. The 222-209 vote saw 6 Democrats vote to reopen the government and 2 Republicans vote against the measure (h/t Jake Sherman) […]

A Tale Of Two Consumer Worlds – Captured In A Single Chart Our extensive reporting across household income tiers reveals a widening divide across the economy, increasingly bifurcated into two separate worlds.  At the top, affluent households are reaping the windfall of wealth generated by soaring AI-linked stocks. Meanwhile, middle- and lower-income consumers remain squeezed by persistent inflation, a softening labor market, and […]