This year’s business shakeout is gathering pace with intentional contraction, debt restructuring, and widespread going-out-of-business sales, particularly in brick-and-mortar retail and casual dining.
ECONOMIC UPDATE
Since Israel and the United States launched the Iran War on 28 February, the global economy has shifted from bad to worse.
IRAN WAR RAISES THE ODDS OF A U.S. RECESSION
In February, Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, had placed the chance of a recession in the U.S. this year at 49 percent.
SPOTLIGHT: THE IRAN WAR’S ECONOMIC COST
By the hard facts and indisputable data, the illegal and unjustifiable war that the United States and Israel have launched against Iran has inflicted severe economic damage across the globe.
TOP IRANIAN SAYS TRUMP DID NOTHING BUT LIE DURING NEGOTIATION UPDATE
Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian Parliament, posted on social media Friday that President Donald Trump did not make a single true statement when he spoke about negotiations and the status of the Strait of Hormuz.
LEBANON ACCUSES ISRAEL OF VIOLATING LATEST CEASEFIRE
The Lebanese Army announced early Friday that IDF troops have already violated a tense ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, which was only hours old at the time.
POPE SAYS THE WORLD IS ‘BEING RAVAGED BY A HANDFUL OF TYRANTS AFTER CLASH WITH TRUMP
Pope Leo XIV gave a speech in Cameroon last week and told his audience that the world is being ravaged “by a handful of tyrants” who use religion to justify wars and spend billions of dollars on weapons to kill people instead of using that money to improve lives.
Global Economy
SPOTLIGHT: CHINA’S FRAGILE ECONOMIC ADVANTAGE
China’s economic output increased 1.3 percent in this year’s first quarter from the final three months in 2025 and expanded at an annual rate of 5.3 percent, year on year.
BANKS ARE AT RISK FROM THEIR LOANS TO HEDGE FUNDS, S&P SAYS
Investment banks have curtailed their direct trading activities and instead are lending massive amounts of money to hedge funds, creating “an inherent fragility” in financial markets, S&P Global Ratings said in a 15 April report.
TRUMP’S ERRATIC POLICIES MAKE BOND INVESTORS LOOK ELSEWHERE
The U.S.’s standing as the lowest-cost borrower of dollars and the safest place to store value in turbulent times might not last much longer.
U.S. Economy
MARKET OVERVIEW
U.S. stock markets erupted Friday after Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz “completely open” after agreeing to a 10-day ceasefire with Israel and the U.S., effective on that day.
DOMESTIC OIL SUPPLY BUFFERS U.S. AS PRICES SOAR IN ASIA, EUROPE
Since the Iran War began, U.S. crude oil prices have largely remained below those of Brent crude, which sets world oil prices.
U.S. INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION DECLINED IN MARCH
U.S. manufacturing, mining, and utility output fell by 0.5 percent in March from February, according to U.S. Federal Reserve data, surprising economists who had expected a 0.1-percent increase, according to a Reuters poll.
The Iran War
3,375 IRANIANS KILLED IN THE U.S.-ISRAEL WAR OF AGGRESSION
Abbas Masjedi, the head of the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization, announced Monday that the U.S. and Israeli war of aggression against Tehran has resulted in the deaths of at least 3375 people, including hundreds of children, according to a report from Press TV.
MORE TRUMPSHIT: PRESIDENT SAYS HE’S OPTIMISTIC THAT AN IRAN DEAL COULD HAPPEN
President Donald Trump told reporters last week that he was optimistic that the Iran War is nearing its end because of the new economic pressure on Tehran because of the U.S. blockade outside the Strait of Hormuz.
HEGSETH TO IRAN: U.S. ‘LOCKED AND LOADED’ AMID FRAGILE CEASEFIRE
Pete Hegseth, the self-declared secretary of War, issued a warning to Iran last week that, despite the temporary ceasefire, the U.S. military was fully prepared to re-engage in the war and its forces in the region have been refurbished with some of the country’s most powerful weapons.
Hi-Tech Science
SYNTHETIC PRINTED NEURONS INTERACT WITH BRAIN CELLS
At Northwestern University, researchers 3D-printed artificial neurons – brain cells – that mimicked the electrical patterns in mouse brains closely enough to set off responding brain activity in them.
ROBOT GUIDE DOGS TALK TO THEIR OWNERS
The use of guide dogs for people with visual impairments is more than a century old.
THE HUMAN BODY CAN MAKE ITS OWN OZEMPIC USING INJECTED PEPTIDES
Weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy help take weight off, but at a cost – and not just the hundreds of dollars a month it can cost to take them.