This winter heating season, Americans will pay about 9.2 percent more for the electricity and natural gas that heat more than 90 percent of U.S. homes, bringing the cost of keeping warm this winter to about $1,000 per household, The New York Times reported.
ECONOMIC UPDATE – MARKET OVERVIEW
Last week, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the nation's inflation pace eased, but as we report in this issue of The Trends Journal, “Did Inflation’s Pace Ease In November?” The hard facts are showing that U.S. inflation is still high and the reality on The Street is that the higher inflation rises the deeper the U.S. dollar falls and falling it is.
THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE… TWO CRISES, ONE FEEDBACK LOOP. EXPECT WAR.
Currently the US is facing two distinct crises, both of which are feeding on the other via a single feedback loop… but that is actually the least of our problems.
‘ARE THESE NUMBERS REAL?’ ECONOMISTS WONDER
Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported November’s inflation rate at 2.7 percent and core inflation, which filters out energy and food prices, at 2.6 percent, both reversing a rise in September.
TECHNOCRACY BRIEFS: LATER STAGE, BIGGER DEALS FOR BIO PHARMA IN 2026
The Bio Pharma industry will likely be spending more in 2026 on Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As).
BRITISH MILITARY CHIEF TO FAMILIES ACROSS UK: PREPARE TO LOSE ‘SONS AND DAUGHTERS’ IN WAR WITH RUSSIA
The anti-Russia hysteria seems to be hitting its peak in the UK, with the country’s top military officer now stating that the public needs to prepare itself to start losing its “sons and daughters” in a major war with Russia as efforts to bring the Ukraine War to an end continue to hit snags over security guarantees and land.
TRUMP KEEPS UP KILLING SPREE IN AS U.S. STRIKES 2 BOATS IN THE PACIFIC
The U.S. announced last week that it carried out airstrikes on two more suspected drug boats in the Pacific Ocean that killed at least five people, bringing the death toll to 104 in these controversial strikes.
Global Economy
SPOTLIGHT: BIGS GETTING BIGGER
Mergers and acquisitions involving Swiss companies have reached their highest number since 2018 and Swiss businesses have taken part in deals worth $163 billion so far this year, the Financial Times reported.
SPOTLIGHT: EV GO FU
s we have greatly detailed since the EV evolution began, U.S. carmakers wasted tens of billions of dollars by misjudging the domestic market for EVs.
CHINA’S DOMESTIC ECONOMY SLUMPS IN NOVEMBER
Last month, the growth in China’s factory output slowed to its weakest pace since September 2024 and retail sales were their most sluggish in the three years since Beijing ended the country’s rolling anti-COVID lockdowns, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
The Israel War
GAZA DEATH TOLL
The death toll in Gaza reached 70,942, and more than 171,000 have been wounded. Israel has violated the so-called ceasefire at least 875 times since it was implemented on 10 October 2025, Al Jazeera reported, citing Gaza’s Government Media Office.
KUSHNER’S ‘PROJECT SUNRISE’ ENVISIONS TECH HUB, LUXURY RESORT FOR GAZA’S FUTURE
Jared Kushner, who has vowed to try to help “move” Palestinians out of Gaza after saying the enclave’s waterfront property could be “very valuable,” has pitched “Project Sunrise” to regional governments that would essentially make good on this vision and turn the destroyed enclave into a tech hub dotted with resorts, according to The Wall Street Journal.
ISRAEL APPROVES 19 NEW SETTLEMENTS IN OCCUPIED WEST BANK
Israel took another step in assuring that there will be no Palestinian state on Sunday when the country’s Cabinet approved another 19 settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Trends in AI
CHINESE GOVERNMENT MAKES IT OFFICIAL: BUY CHINESE-MADE AI CHIPS
For the first time, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has added domestic AI chipmakers, including majors Cambricon and Huawei, to its official list of approved suppliers for the country’s businesses and public agencies.
COMPUTER-HACKING AI’S ARE CLOSE TO SURPASSING HUMAN INTRUDERS
At Stanford University, a group has spent much of this year playing with Artemis, a computer-hacking AI. It works similar to a Chinese invader, built on Anthropic’s Claude AI, that has been burgling U.S. corporate websites and those of governments around the world.
AMAZON, DISNEY BUY INTO OPENAI
The Disney Co. has invested $1 billion in OpenAI and granted the company three years of access to more than 200 animated Disney characters.
Hi-Tech Science
USED COOKING OIL PRODUCES GLUE STRONG ENOUGH TO TOW A CAR
For years, chemists have been tinkering with various forms of waste to turn them into useful products. The effort has transformed plant scraps into packaging and plastic trash scooped from the sea into clothing and sneakers.
NEWFOUNDLAND’S HYDROGEN BONANZA CAN ALSO SEQUESTER CARBON
In 1987, African villagers digging a water well struck a pocket of gas about 330 feet down. The gas streamed out, showing blue in sunlight and gold at night. When a villager looked down the hole while smoking a cigarette, the plume exploded.
PAPER-THIN CHIP PUTS 65,536 ELECTRODES INTO YOUR BRAIN
A group of bioengineers from Columbia University, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, the University of Pennsylvania, and Stanford University have created a paper-thin silicon wafer studded with 65,536 electrodes that can wirelessly transmit data to and from the brain 100 times faster than has been possible before.
