While Wall Street continues to celebrate market highs, a very different reality is unfolding on Main Street as companies slash payrolls, eliminate departments, and accelerate restructuring efforts with a focus on integrating AI which is taking over human jobs.
ECONOMIC UPDATE
Once again by the facts and only by the facts, the Trump administration keeps doing all it can to artificially prop up the equity markets and bring down oil prices since President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the illegal Iran War on 28 February.
U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: WHAT K-SHAPED ECONOMY?
U.S. treasury secretary Scott Bessent declared an end to the K-shaped economy and the widening gap between America’s wealthy and everyone else in a 4 August CNBC interview.
WHAT HAPPENED TO ENDING THE IRAN WAR IN ‘4 TO 5 WEEKS’?
Welcome to the sixth month of the Iran War that was illegally launched by U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
U.S. CONCESSIONS TO IRAN FALLOUT… OIL HIGHER. INFLATION RISK HIGHER. TREASURY YIELDS HIGHER
Let's cut right into this. The financial consequences and failure to capture a victory for the US in this war with Iran are just beginning to migrate from geopolitics… directly into markets.
FORMER CIA OFFICIALS WARN THAT TRUMP IS PULLING DOWN ‘GUARDRAILS’ FOR DEMOCRACY
Former top officials from the CIA have warned that President Donald Trump is consolidating power in a manner that has become a clear risk to democracy in the U.S., with one stating that he believes the worst is yet to come.
BIGS OWN EVERYTHING: FCC VOTES TO REMOVE LIMITS ON BROADCAST TV OWNERSHIP, WHICH MEANS MORE CONSOLIDATION
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted last week to remove any limits on the size of the broadcast airwaves a company can own after Brendan Carr, the head of the commission, called the old policy “outdated.”
Global Economy
SPOTLIGHT: BIGS GETTING BIGGER
EASYJET ACCEPTS APOLLO’S TAKEOVER OFFER Apollo Global Management has won its battle with Castlelake, another private equity firm, to take over British budget airline easyJet. Apollo will pay £7.15 a share, bringing the price to about £5.7 billion. The airline’s board and founder, also its largest shareholder, have approved the deal. The company has “carefully evaluated the proposal from Apollo......
SPOTLIGHT: THE GLOBAL ADVANCE OF CHINA’S TECHNOLOGY
CHINA HAS BECOME “THE FACTORY FOR FACTORIES” Long a key supplier of consumer items, China is becoming a key exporter of the high-value machinery and other capital goods that factories around the world need to make things, such as cars and robotic arms. “In the past, advanced manufacturing was led by Germany and Japan, but our technology has caught up,”......
WELL-OFF CHINESE CHOOSE NEW LUXURY SPENDING
For years, China was the luxury industry’s growth engine as the country’s blossoming class of knowledge workers showed off their newfound affluence by buying designer clothes, Rolex watches, and Mont Blanc fountain pens.
U.S. Economy
MARKET OVERVIEW
News that the U.S economy lost 23,000 jobs in July gave investors new confidence that the U.S. Federal Reserve will not raise its interest rates next month.
MCDONALD’S SALES GROWTH SLOWED IN SECOND QUARTER
Among McDonald’s U.S. restaurants that have been operating for at least a year, sales grew by 0.8 percent in the year’s second quarter, the slowest increase since 2025’s first three months.
U.S. LUMBER PRICES ARE THEIR HIGHEST IN FOUR YEARS
Lumber prices jumped during the COVID War when people locked down at home took on building and renovation projects and timber mills sent workers home.
The Iran War
TRUMP SAYS ADMINISTRATION IS ‘LOW-KEYING’ IRAN APPROACH
President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday that he is “low-keying” his approach with Iran because he believes the sanctions and economic pressure that have been inflicted on the country will eventually lead to Tehran agreeing to the White House’s demands.
WHAT HAPPENED TO ENDING THE IRAN WAR IN ‘4 TO 5 WEEKS’?
Welcome to the sixth month of the Iran War that was illegally launched by U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
PRESIDENTIAL REALITY SHOW: TOP IRANIAN NEGOTIATOR CRITICIZES TRUMP’S ‘THEATER DIPLOMACY’
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the Iranian speaker and top negotiator, posted on social media last week that Tehran has grown tired of President Donald Trump’s “theater diplomacy” during negotiations, after the president told reporters that he called off a massive strike on Iran that would have been at an intensity that the world has not seen since WWII.
The Israel War
NETANYAHU’S LIKUD’S KNESSET PICK CALLED TRUMP A ‘PIECE OF SHIT’ AND WANTS TO TURN GAZA INTO A PARKING LOT
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tapped Oren Dobronsky, a tech entrepreneur, as his first reserved slot on Likud’s Knesset list, which was seen as surprising to some because the Israeli-American businessman once called President Donald Trump a “piece of shit.”
GAZA/LEBANON DEATH TOLL
Israel killed at least 73,387 Palestinians inside Gaza since October 2023 during its genocidal war that also wounded 174,257.
CONGRESS AIMS TO FURTHER ENTWINE U.S. AND ISRAEL’S MILITARIES, JUST AS PUBLIC SUPPORT WEAKENS
Some members of Congress are supporting legislation that would end the $3.8 billion in annual military funding the U.S. gives Israel and replace the aid with a deep integration between both militaries.