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A federal appeals court upholding a federal district judge ordering release of criminal defendants in Oregon... The credit rating of France lowered tonight... The US Central Command tallying military actions in and around Yemen... The former Vice Chief of Naval Operations arrested accused of bribery and related charges... Air raid warnings across most of Ukraine late tonight... Dozens of explosions over the southwestern Russian city of Belgorod tonight... Election results in South Africa... Joe Biden calling for an Israel-Hamas deal to end the conflict... Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos says China is making "assertive moves"... The Netherlands announcing that a Dutch...

Not so Sweet Home Chicago! After unexpectedly slumping last month to 37.9, the Chicago PMI index cratered even more unexpectedly in May, when it defied hopes of a rebound to 41.5, and instead tumbled even more, sliding to a cycle low of 35.4 which was not only below the lowest estimate, but was staggeringly low. To get a sense of just how low, the last two times it printed here was during the peak of the covid and global financial crises… … which seems to suggest that at least according to Chicago-based purchasing managers, the economy is in a depression....

Cable news network NewsNation and social media giant X have secured an agreement “in principle” of former President Donald Trump and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to participate in live town halls, according to Axios, which cited sources it did not name. “The Biden campaign has not agreed to take part,” Axios said in an article published on Thursday. The Trump-Kennedy project is not a debate, but separate live interviews in what is being billed as “The People’s Town Hall.” Dates and locations have not been determined, but the concept is that users can submit questions to moderators...

I recall reading a few days ago, that regardless of the verdict the "President" would make a WH address to the nation that night. I looked at the WH "briefing room" page and the last public remarks from Biden were from early on the 29th. Not one mention, press statement, etc to do with Trmup today. Did they call a lid before the verdict? Did they all of a sudden decide to cancel the speech? Trump announced a 11AM speech tomorrow. I highly doubt we will see Biden before that, if at all.

A massive fire broke out at Farina Farms Inc. in Marion County, Illinois, on Wednesday night, resulting in the deaths of millions of chickens. The farm is one of the largest free-range egg facilities in the country. The fire, which began around 6:30 p.m. along Highway 37, quickly escalated into a 5-alarm fire, requiring the intervention of at least 20 different fire departments from surrounding areas, according to WAND TV. Described as “humongous” by Marion County Sheriff Kevin Cripps, the fire engulfed multiple buildings spanning 200-300 yards in length.

While the government and media react with outrage to a drunken chant of ‘Foreigners out – Germany for the Germans,’ by trying to destroy the young people’s lives, they remain conspicuously silent on the rising tide of deadly and sexual migrant-related crimes and violence. Germany is in a state of hysteria over a group of intoxicated young people who were recorded chanting “Foreigners out – Germany for the Germans” to a pop song on the island of Sylt. The reaction from the open borders federal government and the media has been outrageous, with top officials like Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz...

With the terrible mortgage applications index from Wednedsay, we are seeing US pending home sales crashiing. As Joe Biden handles the economy his way. After an unexpected jump in March, pending home sales were expected to drop 1.0% MoM in April as mortgage rates pushed back above 7.00% and stayed there. Well, the analysts had the direction right but magnitude was way off as pending home sales plunged 7.7% MoM – the biggest drop since Feb 2021 (and below the lowest estimate), leaving sales down 0.7% YoY… Source: Bloomberg This is the 29th straight month of YoY declines for non-seasonally-adjusted...

What I like about Biden’s economy … nothing. Most of Biden’s economic growth came from Trump’s spending and Fed monetary policy from the Covid shutdown of 2020. What was until recently a “red-hot” economy, with the US reportedly growing at an annual rate of 4.9% in Q3 and 3.4% in Q4 2024, has suddenly and dramatically downshifted, and according to the latest GDP data released from Biden’s BEA, Q1 GDP was revised downward from 1.6% to just 1.3% (1.250% to be specific), which was the lowest GDP since the mini-recession of Q2 when GDP declined for 2 quarters in a...

For the better part of two decades, a small group of us fiscally prudent types have been relegated to the wilderness for having the temerity to sound the alarm. Our warnings were bordering on heresy to many on Wall Street and in DC. But lately, more and more voices are joining the chorus that we are heading headlong toward a fiscal and monetary cliff. When the day of reckoning arrives, most people will be unprepared. That is a fact that has been proven throughout history. Just as fortune favours the prepared, financial ruin will befall the unprepared. Before you roll...

California now leads the nation in imposing dumb wage laws. The state just raised the hourly minimum wage for fast food workers to $20. Gov. Gavin Newsom said, “We saw the inequities … we had a responsibility to do more.” Unions pushed for the higher minimum, and in Democrat-run states, unions usually get what they want. CNN announced, “Half a million California fast food workers will now earn $20 per hour!” Gullible leftists at the Center for American Progress claim, “A higher minimum wage would boost millions of families out of poverty and further stimulate the economy.” Yippee! It’s a...

Jack Poso 🇺🇸 @JackPosobiec Thank you, Tom - very cool! 9:17 PM · May 28, 2024

From Mike Shedlock (Mish). It’s a perfect time to do something really stupid, like offering zero percent down payments on mortgages. Case-Shiller national and 10-city indexes via St. Louis Fed, OER, CPI, and Rent from the BLS Perfectly Stupid Timing Morningstar reports One of the Biggest U.S. Lenders is Offering 0%-Down-Payment Mortgages for First-Time Home Buyers. Home buyers will be able to buy a home without putting any money down under a new program launched by United Wholesale Mortgage, one of the largest U.S. mortgage lenders. The Pontiac, Mich.-based company’s new program will be available to first-time home buyers and...

The thrill is gone …from the US mortgage market. Mortgage applications decreased 5.7 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 24, 2024. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 5.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 6.3 percent compared with the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 1 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 3 percent compared with the previous week and...

The New York Times Bidenomics apologist Paul Krugman took a detour from regurgitating his usual awful economic takes — AGAIN— to throw another fit over climate change “denial.” Krugman decried the “Stench of Climate Change Denial” in his latest May 27 screed. Krugman drummed up scare-porn over an alleged “emerging sewage crisis” along the Gulf and South Atlantic coasts and claimed it was due to rising sea levels caused by climate change. “In short, it’s not hard to see some terrible outcomes in the not-too-distant future, even before full global catastrophe arrives. Bad stuff is coming, and we’re already starting...

Little by little, our standard of living has been eroding. A couple decades ago, we had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now most of the country is struggling. At this point, fast food is considered to be a “luxury”, 11 million children are living in poverty, and thousands of stores are permanently shutting down all over the United States because consumers have so little discretionary income these days. We are in the midst of a historic cost of living crisis, and those at the bottom of the economic food chain are...

rica’s 20 largest cities rose for the 13th straight month in March (according to the latest data from S&P CoreLogic – Case Shiller – data today), up 0.33% (more than the expected 0.3%) with the 0.61% MoM gain In Febriary revised down to +0.55% MoM. Source: Bloomberg This pushed the price up 7.38% YoY – the fastest rise since October 2022

A pervasive sense of fear has settled in at the highest levels of the Democratic Party over President Joe Biden’s reelection prospects, even among officeholders and strategists who had previously expressed confidence about the coming battle with Donald Trump. All year, Democrats had been on a joyless and exhausting grind through the 2024 election. But now, nearly five months from the election, anxiety has morphed into palpable trepidation, according to more than a dozen party leaders and operatives. And the gap between what Democrats will say on TV or in print, and what they’ll text their friends, has only grown...

Between Jan. 1 and May 15 this year, Israel welcomed 11,631 new immigrants, with approximately 8,000 – nearly 70% – originating from Russia, according to an interim report by the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration. This new data was presented during Monday's meeting of the Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs. Immigration from North America and Western Europe is expected to number 15,500 people, more than 2.5 times the number that arrived in 2023, attributed mostly to the steep rise in antisemitism since the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre. So far this year, a mere 700 new immigrants arrived...

A spot check of fast food prices over the past five years shows prices rising much faster than the official Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index's 21% rise. Big Macs are 88% more costly. Taco Bell burritos are up 118%, and Chick-Fil A nuggets are up 96%. Erika McEntarfer, Commissioner of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, explained that "we use a 'hedonic' adjustment factor to account for the technological improvements that make products more enjoyable. A simplistic comparison of a 2024 Bic Mac with a 2019 Big Mac fails to account for the value of the increased consumer...

I saw former President Obama criticizing former President Trump for not passing “transformative” changes. That is, Trump didn’t sign any Obama-like transformative changes (like Obamacare). Truimp did try to slow down the damage done by Obama and his transformative agenda (e.g., open borders, wealth redistritution, green energy) that Biden has attempted to continue. As we approach the party conventions and Presidential election of 2024, we saw the Economic Surprise Index (ESI) in May decline to -0.126. Coupled with Biden’s negative buying conditions for housing (higher mortgage rates and soaring house prices), Obama’s Jacobian transformative economic fantasty is on thin ice....