On 11 April, the national average interest rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rose .13 of a percentage point to reach 7.1 percent, its loftiest since mid-February, according to Mortgage News Daily (MND).
ECONOMIC UPDATE—MARKET OVERVIEW
Go to the $6 weekend print edition of The Wall Street Journal... couldn’t find an article that gold prices spiked to new highs and closed at $3,225 per ounce. As we go to press, gold is up some $22 per ounce and spot gold is selling $3,231 per ounce.
U.S. DOLLAR DEATH AND THE DEATH OF AMERICA
This is certainly no secret; nations are actively sidestepping the U.S. dollar in international trade and financial agreements with more on the way.
SPECIAL REPORT: TRUMP’S TARIFFS, THE UPS AND DOWNS, FOR BETTER AND FOR WORSE
Again, as we have greatly detailed we saw this coming! Back on 2 January of this year we had forecast that Playing The Wild Card would be a Top Trend for 2025... and here we are. And who dealt the Wild Card? It was another one of our Top Trends for 2025... The Trump Card.
FOREVERLAND: THE BRAIN UPLOAD IS NEARER
Transhumanist Ray Kurzweil, who famously authored 2005’s The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, has long predicted and wished for “immortality” via technology which would copy human minds into digital form.
NETANYAHU SUPPORTS TRUMP’S ETHNIC CLEANSING PLAN FOR GAZA DURING WHITE HOUSE VISIT
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reminded reporters during his meeting with U.S. President Trump last week that they are still on the same page about clearing out Gaza so it can be rebuilt without Palestinians.
UKRAINE DEFENSE CONTACT GROUP RAISES $23.8 BILLION IN WEAPONS OF DEATH AMID QUESTIONS ABOUT CONTINUED U.S. SUPPORT
The Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) announced last week that it raised $23.8 billion in military aid after a meeting in Brussels that included top officials from 51 countries.
Global Economy
SPOTLIGHT: BIGS GETTING BIGGER
When Donald Trump won the race to the White House back in November, there were high expectations that the equity markets would spike, the value of the dollar would rise and it would be high times for the Merger and Acquisition Gang.
SPOTLIGHT: CHINA’S AUTO INDUSTRY ON THE RISE
Last month, retail auto sales in China leaped up 14.4 percent to 1.94 million vehicles, 40 percent more than in February and marking the greatest increase in any March since 2015, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
GOING OUT OF BUSINESS TRENDS
The economic landscape has presented an array of challenges that will profoundly affect the business community this year.
The Israel War
GAZA DEATH TOLL
The IDF continued its massacre across Gaza last week—bringing the enclave's death toll to 50,983, with 116,274 injured. The Israeli military has killed more than 1,600 since the collapse of the ceasefire deal last month.
NETANYAHU SUPPORTS TRUMP’S ETHNIC CLEANSING PLAN FOR GAZA DURING WHITE HOUSE VISIT
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reminded reporters during his meeting with U.S. President Trump last week that they are still on the same page about clearing out Gaza so it can be rebuilt without Palestinians.
UN DESCRIBES HORROR CONDITION IN GAZA AS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS ARE DISPLACED
UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, announced last week that nearly 400,000 Palestinians have been displaced since the Hamas ceasefire with Israel collapsed and the IDF restarted its brutal bombing and starvation campaign.
Trends in AI
DOGE BROS ARE USING AI TO CHECK LOYALTY OF FEDERAL WORKERS
Elon Musk’s DOGE squad is using AI to monitor communications in at least one federal agency to spot workers who might be disloyal to Donald Trump and his agenda, according to two people familiar who spoke to Reuters.
CAN AI IMPROVE MENTAL HEALTH? STUDY POINTS TO AN ANSWER
Long before the age of AI, there was an interactive computer program that served as a mock mental health therapist.
FROM THE “AI BEHAVING BADLY” FILE…
Large language model AIs have been known to “hallucinate”—make up things out of thin air. Now researchers at the Center for AI Safety and Scale AI (CASSA) have discovered that AIs also will deliberately lie if they feel pressured to do it.
Hi-Tech Science
NEW BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACE IS THE SIZE OF A PINHEAD
Sensors that read brain signals typically are the size of coins and are attached to bathing cap-size headwear. In some cases, the sensors are surgically buried in the brain.
“MICRO-CLEANER” PELLETS PULL MICROPLASTIC FROM WATER BODIES
Microplastics—those bits of plastic less than 5 millimeters, or a fifth of an inch, in diameter are littering the floors of our seas, the peaks of our mountains, and everything in between, including our internal organs.
TURNING REFINERY SLUDGE INTO CARBON FIBERS
Some components of crude oil have no value and, after the bulk of it is refined, wind up as sludge to be dumped or burned.
