President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that the U.S. military had Iran on the ropes and that the combination of U.S. and Israeli strikes “knocked out” major assets belonging to the Iranian armed forces.
ECONOMIC UPDATE
As we have detailed, as trend forecasters it’s not what you like, don’t like, want, don’t want, it’s what is.
SPOTLIGHT: THE OIL CRISIS CONTINUES
Two oil tankers were attacked and set on fire in the Persian Gulf late last week, making real the fears that Iran would use military force to shut down oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
SPOTLIGHT: PRIVATE CREDIT’S VERY BAD WEEK
The private credit market is approaching a sharp correction, in part because many private lenders such as Blue Owl have “misrepresented” the amount of losses they have incurred, which are “larger than reported,” according to an analysis by Glendon Capital Management, a $5-billion fund that invests in distressed debt.
IRAN’S NEW LEADER VOWS TO KEEP FIGHTING AGAINST ISRAEL, U.S.
Mojtaba Khamenei, the new supreme leader of Iran, said in his first public statement last week that he will continue to strike U.S. bases in the region and keep the Strait of Hormuz essentially closed, indicating that Tehran has little interest in seeking an off-ramp as the war entered its second week.
TRUMP’S ADMINISTRATION REPEATS CLAIM THAT WAR WITH IRAN WILL END QUICKLY
The Trump administration continues to tell the American public that its illegal war of aggression against Iran will end relatively quickly, and any economic pain being felt will only be temporary.
UNHINGED TRUMP CALLS IT HIS ‘GREAT HONOR’ TO KILL ‘DERANGED SCUMBAG’ IRANIANS
President Donald Trump took to social media last week to threaten Iranians in a late-night post after it was revealed that another six American service members died when their KC-135 Stratotanker crashed in western Iraq.
Global Economy
SPOTLIGHT: BIGS GETTING BIGGER
Cintas, which supplies businesses with uniforms and maintenance items such as floor mats and mops, will pay $310 a share for Unifirst, a smaller uniform competitor.
GERMANY’S ECONOMY STILL TEETERS ON THE EDGE OF RECESSION
The German economy, still struggling to rise out of the recession that gripped it through 2023 and 2024, “had a very weak start to the new year,” Carsten Brzeski, ING’s chief global macroeconomist, wrote to clients last week.
CHINA’S GROWTH DILEMMA: JOBS VS. ADVANCED TECH
On 13 March, China’s parliament rubber-stamped the Communist Party’s plan to bet the country’s next five years on achieving global dominance in technologies including AI and robotics, both of which are expected to erase millions of jobs.
U.S. Economy
SPOTLIGHT: TOKENIZED STOCK TRADING COMES TO THE U.S.
NASDAQ, crypto trading platform Kraken, and interested publicly traded companies are preparing a plan to begin trading stocks as digitized tokens on a blockchain.
CAMPBELL CUTS 2026 FINANCIAL FORECAST
Campbell Co., maker of soups and snacks, cut its guidance for the current year, saying net sales will fall 1 to 2 percent compared to last year.
SMALL BUSINESSES SENT MIXED MESSAGES IN FEBRUARY
U.S. small businesses were slightly less confident in February than in January but have higher hopes for the future, according to the newest monthly small business poll by the National Federation of Independent Business.
The Iran War
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S APPROACH TO OIL RELEASE RESULTS IN CHAOS FOR PARTNERS
The Trump administration wanted to make sure to do all it could to stabilize oil prices as it carried out its illegal war of aggression against Iran and its position on releasing emergency oil reserves confused its partners, according to The Wall Street Journal.
BULLSHIT HAS ITS OWN SOUND: NETANYAHU TO IRANIANS: FREEDOM IS NEAR
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Iranians on Saturday that the moment when they can seize their freedom is quickly approaching and that they should take it.
IRAN WARNS U.S. ABOUT RISK OF A FALSE FLAG ORCHESTRATED BY ‘EPSTEIN’S NETWORK’
Ali Larijani, the top security official in Iran, posted on X Sunday that there could be a looming false flag attack – similar to Sept. 11, 2001 – that would be orchestrated by Jeffery Epstein’s “network” so Iran can be blamed.
Hi-Tech Science
NEWLY FOUND PROTEIN REJUVENATES BRAIN STEM CELLS
Stem cells replenish organs with vigorous young cells when old one age out. However, stem cells’ ability to do so tends to weaken as we age.
A LEAP FORWARD FOR CALCIUM-ION BATTERIES
Calcium as the key ingredient in batteries has shown promise as a replacement for lithium, which is not only expensive but has become environmentally controversial as more mines are proposed for sensitive areas.
HUMAN-MADE BACTERIA EATS CANCER TUMORS FROM THE INSIDE OUT
For years, scientists have been engineering bacteria to carry out specific tasks from producing pharmaceutical drugs to digesting toxic waste into benign materials.