The French government has halved its growth forecast for this year from 1 percent to 0.5 percent, finance minister Roland Lescure announced to reporters on 11 September.
ECONOMIC UPDATE
As we have forecast in the Trends Journal, in our podcasts and in numerous interviews, Gerald Celente has said that this September and/or October there may well be a stock market crash.
TRUMP LIES, TELLS AMERICANS PRICES ARE FALLING
President Donald Trump continues to lie to Americans that prices are coming down, even though consumer prices have risen 4.3 percent since he took office, according to CNN.
XI URGES CLOSER TIES AMONG BRICS NATIONS
In his closing speech at this year’s conclave of member nations in the BRICS trading bloc, Chinese president Xi Jinping urged leaders to deepen and tighten their economic ties, in part by creating a BRICS “Special Economic Zone” and opening a discussion about making commerce in services smoother among the countries.
IRAN’S FORMER TOP DIPLOMAT ISSUES WW III WARNING IF U.S. USES NUKES
Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran’s former top diplomat, warned in an interview last week that if the U.S. employs nuclear weapons in the war, it would lead to an escalation that cannot be contained and kick off WWIII.
THE SYSTEM IS ENTERING A FULL-SPECTRUM PRESSURE EVENT…
Brent crude is now trading around $108 per barrel. US crude is above $100. If you are staring only at the oil price, then you are missing the story.
DUMB AND DUMBER: CHILDREN’S READING ABILITIES TANK AMID SURGE IN ‘DIGITAL DISTRACTIONS’
Children across the world are falling behind traditional standards in various educational tasks, like “skim reading” and writing drafts for reports, raising new concerns about the impact that smartphones are having on the development of young minds.
Global Economy
LVMH SHARE PRICE CRASHES AS GLOBAL CHAOS CRIMPS LUXURY SALES
The share price of LVMH, which owns 75 luxury brands ranging from Givenchy and Louis Vuitton to Moët & Chandon and Tiffany, has fallen by more than half since its 2023 peak.
AI BORROWERS DESCEND ON SWITZERLAND’S BOND MARKET
The AI industry’s borrowing spree has spread to the traditionally conservative Swiss bond market, where AI-related businesses are issuing billions of francs worth of debt to continue data centers’ global buildout.
ARGENTINA’S ECONOMY STUMBLES UNDER MILEI’S REFORMS
When Javier Milei was sworn in as Argentina’s president in December 2023, he immediately launched his draconian plan to scrap the government’s traditional protectionist policies and open the country’s markets to the world.
U.S. Economy
DIESEL FUEL TOPS $6 A GALLON
On 11 September, the price of diesel fuel in the U.S. averaged $6.06 a gallon, AAA reported. It rose to $6.23 on 14 September, with prices ranging from $5.99 in New England to almost $7.98 in California.
THE U.S. STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVE IS RUNNING ON EMPTY
The oil in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), an array of 60 underground salt caverns along the Texas and Louisiana coasts, is approaching dangerously low levels.
HIGH PRICES, MORTGAGE RATES CRIMP HOME SALES IN AUGUST
In August, 2.0 percent fewer existing U.S. home sales were closed than in July, falling by 1.2 percent year on year to mark the slowest pace of sales since June 2025, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported.
The Iran War
ISRAEL IS CARRYING OUT A ‘PROJECT OF ELIMINATION’ IN THE WEST BANK AGAINST PALESTINIANS: NGO
B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights group, said in a 249-page report published on Tuesday that Tel Aviv is working to erase Palestinian life in the West Bank far more obviously than before the Hamas attack in 2023, and said its effort relies heavily on “cooperation between official state authorities and settler militias operating in the West Bank with state backing and support,” according to a report in Haaretz.
‘HILLTOP YOUTH’ HARASS PALESTINIANS LIVING IN THE WEST BANK
A group of ‘rogue’ Israeli ‘settlers’ (land-stealers) have been harassing Palestinians living in the West Bank and have been using rudimentary intimidation tactics to get these residents to the point where they decide to pick up and move, according to a report last week in The Wall Street Journal.
IDF IS CO-OPTED BY RELIGIOUS FANATICS, REPORT SAYS
The IDF was once considered a secular institution in Israel, but in recent years, religious fanatics have gained a foothold in the Israeli military, according to a report in the Financial Times.
The Israel War
MAJOR U.S. AI CEOs CALL FOR SLOWDOWN IN AI DEVELOPMENT
In an essay posted on X on 12 September, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for AI labs to slow development of new, more powerful models to better understand whether the systems pose threats to humanity.
MORE THAN 30 U.S. POLITICAL CANDIDATES PLEDGE TOUGH STANCE ON AI
More than 30 candidates for political office around the U.S. have signed the AI Pact, a pledge formulated in August by the Political Integrity Project, a nonprofit group working to get Big Money out of politics and hold politicians accountable.
OPENAI AGENTS LEAVE A LENGTHENING TRAIL OF TRANSGRESSIONS
A squad of OpenAI agents broke out of their containment facility last spring, invaded a German website, and transformed it into a bulletin board where AI agents could swap tips about, among other things, escaping confinement.