US Warns Americans To Leave Venezuela Immediately

Authored by Troy Myers via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

American citizens are advised to leave Venezuela as soon as possible due to the “fluid” security situation in the South American country, a U.S. Department of State Consular Affairs X post stated.

The U.S. embassy in Caracas on Jan. 9, 2026. Federico Parra/AFP via Getty Images

This warning comes a week after American military forces conducted a mission in the capital city of Caracas to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The pair has since pleaded not guilty in a New York courtroom to a range of federal charges, including narco-terrorism.

Although international flights to and from Venezuela have resumed, the United States is warning all Americans in the country to take precautions, be aware of their surroundings, and remain vigilant when traveling by road.

“There are reports of groups of armed militias, known as colectivos, setting up roadblocks and searching vehicles for evidence of U.S. citizenship or support for the United States,” the advisory said.

Citizens still in the country should frequently check flight information in order to leave the country as quickly as possible, establish multiple ways to communicate with friends or family outside of Venezuela, and prepare contingency plans for emergency situations if they choose to stay, the warning said Friday.

The United States stated it remains unable to provide any emergency help to Americans in Venezuela.

The South American country is listed at a “Level 4: Do Not Travel,” the highest advisory. This rating is because of “severe risks to Americans, including wrongful detention, torture in detention, terrorism, kidnapping, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, and poor health infrastructure,” according to the State Department.

The United States has warned against travel to Venezuela since 2019. In March of that year, the State Department suspended operations and withdrew all diplomatic personnel from the embassy in the capital city of Caracas.

Since President Donald Trump took office a year ago, he has ramped up the pressure on drug cartels and the socialist regime in Venezuela. As part of Operation Southern Spear, which began in September 2025, the United States has launched dozens of strikes against boats U.S. officials said were confirmed to be transporting drugs in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean.

Over 100 alleged narco-terrorists have been killed in the initiative to halt illegal drug trafficking to the United States, according to U.S. officials.

On Jan. 3, Operation Absolute Resolve—a calculated, overnight raid on Venezuela’s capital city—resulted in Maduro and his wife’s capture with no American casualties.

Trump also ordered sanctions on oil tankers arriving and departing from Venezuela as part of the pressure campaign against the former leader’s regime. On Friday, the U.S. seized an oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea.

Venezuela possesses the largest oil reserves in the world. Only days after Maduro’s capture, Trump announced the United States would receive between 30 and 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil.

“This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

The president told Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute this plan right away. Trump also said oil companies will invest at least $100 billion in Venezuela to rebuild its oil infrastructure to boost production.

Earlier Friday, before the travel advisory was issued, the United States and Venezuela said they are pursuing the possibility of reestablishing diplomatic relations. An American delegation visited the South American country to evaluate possibly reopening the U.S. Embassy in Caracas. The embassy has been closed since 2019 after the United States refused to recognize Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela amid allegations of election fraud in the country.

Tyler Durden Sun, 01/11/2026 - 18:05

Former Special Counsel Jack Smith Confirms His Utter Contempt For The First Amendment Before Congress

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

For years, some of us have argued that President Donald Trump’s January 6th speech was protected under the First Amendment and that any prosecution would collapse under governing precedent, including Brandenburg v. Ohio.  I was regularly attacked as an apologist for my criticism of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s “war on free speech.” I wrote about his history of ignoring such constitutional protections in his efforts to prosecute targets at any cost.

I also wrote how Smith’s second indictment (which the Post supported) was a direct assault on the First Amendment.

Now, years later, the Washington Post has acknowledged that Trump’s speech was protected and that Smith “would have blown a hole in the First Amendment.”

In this appearance before Congress, Smith’s contempt for the First Amendment was on full display. During his testimony, he was asked by Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) whether Trump was entitled to First Amendment protections for his speech.

Smith replied:

“Absolutely not. If they are made to target a lawful government function and they are made with knowing falsity, no, they are not. That was my point about fraud not being protected by the First Amendment.”

The comment is entirely and shockingly wrong.

Smith shows a complete lack of understanding of the First Amendment and Supreme Court precedent.

First, the Supreme Court has held that knowingly false statements are protected under the First Amendment. The Supreme Court struck down the Stolen Valor Act. In United States v. Alvarez, the Court held 6-3 that it is unconstitutional to criminalize lies — in that case involving “stolen valor” claims. Likewise, spewing hate-filled lies is protected. In Snyder v. Phelps, also in 2011, the Court said the hateful protests of Westboro Baptist Church were protected.

Second, calling such claims “fraud” does not convert protected speech into criminal speech. Trump was speaking at a rally about his belief that the election was stolen and should not be certified. Many citizens supported that view. It was clearly protected political speech.

As I discuss in The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” Smith’s prosecution was on a collision course with controlling Supreme Court precedent.

In Brandenburg v. Ohio, the Supreme Court ruled in 1969 that even calling for violence is protected under the First Amendment unless there is a threat of “imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.” Smith would have lost, but he has a history of ignoring such constitutional protections. That was the case when his conviction of former Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell was unanimously reversed as overextending another law.

Trump was never charged with inciting the riot despite pledges of Democratic D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine to investigate Trump for that crime.

The reason is simple. It was not criminal incitement and Trump’s speech was protected under the First Amendment.

Nevertheless, the Post and other papers ran the same experts, who assured the public that no such protections existed. For example, Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe has made a litany of such claims, including his declaration that President Donald Trump could be charged (“without any doubt, beyond a reasonable doubt, beyond any doubt”)  with the attempted murder of former Vice President Michael Pence.

The Post has now recognized that Trump does indeed enjoy First Amendment protections and that Smith was a constitutional menace. The change reflects a commendable shift in the Post’s editorial staff under owner Jeff Bezos and his new team at the paper.

The Post wrote:

Political speech — including speech about elections, no matter how odious — is strongly protected by the First Amendment. It’s not unusual for politicians to take factual liberties. The main check on such misdirection is public scrutiny, not criminal prosecution.

Of course fraud is a crime. But that almost always involves dissembling for money, not political advantage. Smith’s attempt to distinguish speech that targets ‘a lawful government function’ doesn’t work. Most political speech is aimed at influencing government functions.

Smith might think his First Amendment exception applies only to brazen and destructive falsehoods like the ones Trump told after losing the 2020 election. But once an exception is created to the First Amendment, it will inevitably be exploited by prosecutors with different priorities. Imagine what kind of oppositional speech the Trump Justice Department would claim belongs in Smith’s unprotected category.

Smith also said he makes ‘no apologies’ for the gag order he tried to impose on Trump during the prosecution. The decision to criminally charge a leading presidential candidate meant the charges would feature in the 2024 campaign. Yet Smith fought to broadly limit Trump’s ability to criticize him or the prosecution in general, claiming such statements would interfere with the legal process.

Bravo.

This is precisely the argument that some of us have been making for years, while being relentlessly pursued by the media.

This is not meant as a criticism of the Post. At least the Post is now making a serious attempt to restore objectivity and accuracy to its coverage and editorials. As for Smith, his testimony confirms the worst assessments of his view of free speech. The only thing more chilling than his lack of knowledge of constitutional doctrine is his contempt for constitutional values.

Tyler Durden Sun, 01/11/2026 - 17:30

The Democrats' "Affordability" Ploy To Avoid Accountability

Authored by Thaddeus McCotter via American Greatness,

Imagine someone is walking through a museum filled with fragile antiquities. And they happen to be indiscriminately swinging a sledgehammer. And with every fragile antiquity they shatter, they pocket the price of the destroyed historical treasure.

When their selfish, remunerative spree of wanton destruction concludes, one might expect the culprit to drop their hammer and skedaddle from the scene of the crime. Nope. Instead, they stand around carping that the museum’s new curators are not cleaning up the mess you made fast enough. Why? Because they are hoping to get another shot with the sledgehammer at the remaining precious items still on display.

The fragile antiquities would be the American economy itself. They would be Democrats. The sledgehammer would be their trillion-dollar spending spree, which they would undertake while holding the congressional majority under the Biden administration. With every exorbitant spending bill they passed, their political cronies and ideological fellow travelers received taxpayer money, much of the largesse being funneled back into electing Democrats. The result was the Democrats’ inflation-driven economic carnage that harmed every taxpaying American’s pocketbook that the party had drained to do it in the first place.

Consequently, the best new museum curators would be the Trump administration. One can therefore understand the irritation of the president and Congressional Republicans with the Democrats’ disingenuous dithyrambs to “affordability.”

Hence, President Trump has called the Democrats’ laments regarding the “affordability” issue a “hoax” and a “scam”; however, in the context he describes, he is decrying the party’s disingenuous messaging ploy.

There is absolutely, unequivocally, an affordability crisis in our country. Americans, notably young Americans, are confronted with inflation and the erosion of the economic opportunities necessary for prosperity. Few dispute this dire situation. What the left disputes is that the affordability crisis is the product of the Democrats’ “scarcity economy,” one built upon their venal, spendthrift stewardship of the public purse, radical “green” ideology, and zero-sum redistributionist policies. Escalating costs to restrict economic activity, such as new housing, to “save the planet” and increase public dependence upon government spending are not bugs in the Democrats’ system; they are the key features.

On their part, President Trump, his administration, and Congressional Republicans have made headway against the inflation and economic stagnation the Democrats caused. But it is vexing to have to untangle the Democrats’ fiscal and economic messes, all the while having to counter that party’s misinformation and disinformation on who created the problem. After all, who would want to be toiling away, broom and dustpan in hand, cleaning up the shards of items you cherished and hoping to super glue them back together, all the while being criticized and lied about by the very vandals who destroyed them?

In sum, the Democrats’ finger-pointing about affordability is designed to avoid the public holding them accountable for causing the problem. If you think the demands to make more affordable the necessary staples of life that these swamp-dwelling Democrats have skyrocketed constitute the acme of hypocrisy, you would be surprised.

Just look at any large urban area, say New York City, where a new Democrat with a sledgehammer is complaining that the last Democrat did not clean up—or is it create?—the party’s mess fast enough. Now that is some shameless shit.

Temerity.

So, who guards the museum and its priceless relics from sledgehammer-wielding Democrats sacking the premises in the first place? The electorate, of course. And, sadly, electoral results often prove the Democrats’ ostensibly risible blame game winds up succeeding. Thus, when cleaning up the Democrats’ continual messes, one must also continually message as to who made the mess.

Tyler Durden Sun, 01/11/2026 - 16:20

MTG Denies 'Dangerous Lie' That She Tipped Off Code Pink To Trump's Location

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene hit back against an Axios report that the White House told the Secret Service she may have tipped off Code Pink protesters about Trump's unscheduled visit to a DC restaurant she recommended, leading to an activist ambush that went viral on social media.  

"Only the WH set up President Trump’s reservation at Joe’s, NOT ME!! I had ZERO knowledge of when his reservation was! The only people who could have tipped off Code Pink was the restaurant or the WH!" MTG wrote on X following the report, calling it " an ABSOLUTE LIE, A DANGEROUS LIE," and insisting "I would NEVER do that." 

According to Axios, Greene had recommended "Joe's Seafood", a restaurant in Washington D.C., to the commander-in-chief as a last minute dinner location for his team. 

Upon Trump's arrival, a “chaotic confrontation” occurred between Code Pink protesters and Trump, which officials say “embarrassed the president and intensified concerns in the White House about his safety.”

REPORT: The White House told Secret Service that MTG may have tipped off protesters about his surprise visit to Joe's Seafood back in September, according to Axios.

Viral footage shows Trump being confronted by Code Pink protesters who called him 'Hitler.'

In response to Axios,… pic.twitter.com/iRFT6H1kEy

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 9, 2026

The White House claims that after recommending the president go to Joe’s, Greene repeatedly called Trump staffers the day of the dinner to confirm he was going. After Trump heard about Greene’s outreach, he called her shortly before leaving the White House and confirmed his planned visit, the sources said. Greene, who was a regular at the restaurant, didn’t show up at the location when Trump and other officials were there, which struck some Trump aides as odd.

So, someone's lying...

The incident with Code Pink took place just one day before the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. With two separate attempts on Trump's life previous to his re-election, which the Secret Service notably botched both times - not to mention an endless array of violent actions on the part of progressive protesters in recent months, left-wing activists coming within proximity to Trump has become a national security concern.   

White House aides pointed out that Greene has publicly touted her friendship with Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin in the past, writing on X Dec. 10:

“I have enjoyed a friendship with Medea for a few years now even though politics says that’s not allowed.” 

“Marjorie is closer with the hosts of ‘The View’ than the president,” a former senior administration official said of Greene.

The Rift

After spending 2016 - 2023 as one of Trump's most loyal defenders, Greene became increasingly vocal in late 2023 over blank-check foreign aid, including the Ukraine war, and Israel-related packages (particularly when tied to Ukraine funding) - however she didn't take shots at Trump himself until she signed a discharge petition to force the release of the Epstein files, something Trump had promised to do on the campaign trail only to become defensive with reporters when asked about it in early 2025. 

In October, she slammed part of Trump's second-term agenda - such as his $40 billion bailout of Argentina - as "America Last," telling Axios "It's a revolving door at the White House of foreign leaders when Americans are, you know, screaming from their lungs," though she praised Trump multiple times throughout the interview as having done "a great job in a lot of places."

In November, Trump lashed out at MTG and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) for joining the Democrats to force a floor vote on the Epstein Files release - officially announcing he was withdrawing his "support and endorsement" of Greene. Trump claimed that Greene's complaints about his policies spring from when Trump sent her a poll "stating that she should not run" for governor or the Senate, adding that he's heard Greene is "upset that I don't return her phone calls anymore." The president said he stands ready to give the "right" Republican primary challenger of Greene his "Complete and Unyielding Support." 

In December 2025 Greene explicitly accused Trump of putting Israel's interests over those of the United States, suggesting he has 'served pro-Israel and establishment interests' at the expense of domestic priorities. 

"For an America First president, the number one focus should have been domestic policy, and it wasn’t," she told CBS's '60 Minutes," adding that Trump "has served Israel’s interest, even attacking Iran," and slammed what she called his service to "Big Pharma" and "crypto donors."

Greene also became one of the very few Republicans to publicly describe Israel's conduct in Gaza as "genocide," and proposed an amendment in the House to end US funding of Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system - while also arguing that AIPAC should be legally required to register as a foreign agent because she believes it steers US policy in ways that aren't aligned with 'America First.'

Since breaking with Trump, Greene has given several interviews with left-wing news outlets, including The View, CNN, NPR, Meet the Press, and the NY Times - all of which were happy to have her attack their mortal enemy.

Greene visited “The View” in November amid the spat with Trump. Lou Rocco/ABC

Indeed, MTG has become quite cozy with far-left media outlets and the militant progressive coven at The View in the runup to her departure from Congress - in some cases apologizing to them for her "toxic" rhetoric in the past. 

Tyler Durden Sun, 01/11/2026 - 15:45

US, Partners Launch New Strikes On ISIS Targets In Syria

Authored by Ryan Morgan via The Epoch Times,

U.S. and partner forces conducted a series of airstrikes on terrorist group ISIS targets throughout Syria on Jan. 10, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced.

The series of airstrikes began around 12:30 p.m. ET, CENTCOM said in a press statement around three hours after the strikes.

“The strikes today targeted ISIS throughout Syria as part of our ongoing commitment to root out Islamic terrorism against our warfighters, prevent future attacks, and protect American and partner forces in the region,” the press statement added.

“U.S. and coalition forces remain resolute in pursuing terrorists who seek to harm the United States.

Footage shared by CENTCOM showed F-15 and A-10 jet aircraft taking off from an unspecified location, along with footage of strikes on purported targets.

CENTCOM did not specify which partner forces assisted in the Jan. 10 strikes throughout Syria.

Saturday’s strikes are part of a continuing retaliatory bombing that began after two U.S. soldiers and a U.S. civilian interpreter were killed in an ambush attack in Palmyra, Syria, on Dec. 13. Three more American troops were injured in the attack.

ISIS claimed ultimate responsibility for the Dec. 13 shooting, and Syria’s Interior Ministry has said the suspect was a member of Syrian security forces who harbored ISIS sympathies. Syria’s Interior Ministry said it had arrested five more suspects in connection with the Dec. 13 attack.

Since sweeping into Damascus and driving off then-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December of 2024, Syria’s de facto interim government has been largely comprised of Sunni Islamist militants from Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, which began as a Syrian branch of Al Qaeda.

The U.S. bombing campaign came in response to the Dec. 13 shooting and is known as Operation Hawkeye Strike. The first round of strikes in the campaign began on Dec. 19, when U.S. and Jordanian forces employed dozens of fighter aircraft, attack helicopters, and artillery pieces firing more than 100 munitions, and struck more than 70 ISIS targets across central Syria.

Between Dec. 20 and 29, U.S. and partner forces conducted 11 more missions under Operation Hawkeye Strike, in which they reported killing seven ISIS suspects and capturing several others.

“Our message remains strong: if you harm our warfighters, we will find you and kill you anywhere in the world, no matter how hard you try to evade justice,” CENTCOM’s Saturday press statement concluded.

The U.S. military officially began striking ISIS targets in Syria in 2014 and has maintained a continuing troop presence within the country for the past decade. This counter-ISIS mission has coincided with the Syrian civil war, as Assad fought to retain power until rebel forces drove him out in December of 2024.

Tyler Durden Sun, 01/11/2026 - 15:10

MN Lawmakers Say Fraud Whistleblowers Were Threatened With Retaliation

Officials within the administration of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz actively enabled at least some of the state’s estimated $9 billion in social services fraud by suppressing fraud reports, retaliating against whistleblowers and changing protocols to mask criminal behavior according to Republican lawmakers who testified before Congress this week.  

The representatives also asserted that whistleblowers (and potential whistleblowers) have been threatened with retaliation from MN Democrats who would make sure whistleblowers lost their jobs, their homes, they’d be blacklisted from new jobs and their "children would be tracked". 

Minnesota Rep Marion Rarick says if any whistleblowers came forward to expose fraud, Democrats would make sure they lost their jobs, their homes, they’d be blacklisted from new jobs and they would TRACK THEIR CHILDREN

Democrats would try and take away kids for exposing fraud… pic.twitter.com/vyoBYeFyVh

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) January 9, 2026

State Reps. Walter Hudson, Marion Rarick, and Kristin Robbins are members of their legislature’s committee on fraud prevention, which has been investigating some of the same instances of fraud that have captured the national spotlight in the past month.

All three of them were invited to testify at the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s first of at least two scheduled hearings on the rampant social services fraud that led Walz to withdraw his bid for reelection in 2026.  

Rarick in particular spoke about the pressure and opposition whistleblowers faced. According to Rarick, what was once a group of about 480 disenchanted current and former state Department of Health Services employees has grown to over 1,000 people across multiple state agencies. Those DHS employees started an account on X called "Minnesota Staff Fraud Reporting Commentary", and many have been more than willing to talk with the fraud prevention committee about what they have found and experienced.

“In our face to face meetings with a group of whistleblowers, they revealed that retaliation now includes threats of being fired with cause, which means you do not get unemployment insurance in the state of Minnesota, being blacklisted from all state agencies…and then there was a veiled threat of the use of military intelligence against them,” Rarick said.

The revelations are tied to a program which imported around 100,000 Somali refugees into Minnesota since the 1990s, though the majority (around 54,000) arrived in the US during the Obama Administration from 2009 to 2016.  Around 81% of Somali migrants are on some form of welfare and they are greatly over-represented in government subsidized business startups connect to potential fraud. 

How were these migrants from a third world country able to successfully establish so many front businesses and siphon billions of dollars in taxpayer funds?  They had help from Democrat officials according to whistleblowers.  This would explain why investigations into migrant racketeering consistently fizzled and why Democrat appointed judges dismissed multiple fraud cases involving Somalis. 

The latest surge in far-left protests in Minneapolis almost appears tailor made to distract from the issue of fraud, making the issue about the lawful shooting of an NGO trained activist rather than the theft of billions of dollars with the aid of Democrats. 

It is likely that migrant fraud enabled by Dems helped to feed political coffers and election campaigns.  There is a good reason why Tim Walz dropped out of the governors race and essentially inciting civil unrest in the state.  There is a good reason why Dems are behaving so hysterically when it comes to an official federal investigation.  This is what leftists do when they get caught - They try to create chaos and muddy the waters.      

Tyler Durden Sun, 01/11/2026 - 14:35

Fast And Furious 47: The Midterm Elections Are Driving Everything

By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

Fast And Furious 47

The Fast and Furious franchise is on its 10th or 11th movie. The U.S. government is on its 47th President.

In an interesting “mash-up,” we have entered into the arena of Fast and Furious 47.

I don’t think we have ever seen the generation of so many headlines, on so many subjects, so quickly from any world leader, as we’ve seen since the start of this year!

Aside from the “obvious” headlines on Venezuela, which after Friday’s press conference looks more and more like colonization, we have a raft of geopolitical headlines.

• Seizing Russian-flagged crude carriers.
• Threats on Cuba, Iran, and Syria (U.S. strikes against ISIS targets once again on Saturday) to name a few. With the events that occurred in Venezuela, these need to be taken very seriously.
• Some sort of peace negotiations continue with Russia and Ukraine.
• Some sort of plans for rebuilding Gaza (hearing about a ski resort?).

If you missed this week’s Academy Webinar, I highly recommend watching it as Rachel Washburn does an amazing job moderating the conversation with General Ashley (Army), General Bellon (Marine Corps) who was in charge of U.S. Marine Corps Forces South (in South and Central America), Linda Weissgold (Former CIA Deputy Director for Analysis), and myself.

Then on the economic front, we had:

• Venezuela and its oil – there are a lot of potential economic outcomes from the intervention in Venezuela. It remains to be seen how this plays out, and even after the press conference with oil heavyweights on Friday, there seems to be some disagreement on how attractive the prospects of investing in Venezuelan oil are.
• The U.S. invested $2.7 billion in companies involved in uranium enrichment. The ProSec drumbeat continues to create investment opportunities.
• Defense stocks were hit when the President suggested restricting compensation and dividend payouts for companies that are behind their targets for delivery. Then they rose when the President suggested the military budget should be increased from $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion (somehow bonds barely reacted).
• Housing had its own mixed bag of headlines. $200 billion to buy mortgages caused mortgage spreads to tighten. The President also tossed out the idea of restricting home purchases to individuals rather than entities designed to buy up housing.
• Closing out the week was the “announcement” that credit card interest rates should be capped at 10%. On one hand, I’ve never figured out how cutting rates by a few bps here and there moves the needle for people at the lowest income rungs, especially the ones struggling with debt. On the other hand (I can play “economist” periodically), the rates are designed so that the card issuers can provide credit to as many people as possible while compensating for their potential credit losses (capping rates will likely constrain credit issuance to the riskiest borrowers).

I’m sure I missed a bunch of other important and potentially market-moving events.

Midterm Elections are Driving Everything

The President is well aware of the importance of winning the midterm elections. He realized that a President without the House of Representatives and Senate on his side, is not in an enviable position.

Look for him to implement policy after policy after policy attempting to secure victory in the midterm elections for Republicans.

• Success in foreign policy will be a key element. From bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities, to capturing Maduro, look for a lot more to occur on this front.
• Affordability is another key issue. The steps on credit cards, housing, and mortgage rates seem to try to address that. Look for more.
• Drugs and immigration will remain front and center. It seems impossible to envision a path that does not include turning our attention, and likely full might, on the Mexican cartels.
• Transactional. Being transactional is not necessarily bad, and in many cases can be good, and certainly more effective than the policy of admonishing and haranguing, which did seem to be how we treated many developing or emerging nations.

If you had “colonization” on your bingo card for the year, you can stop reading now. You were way more prepared than I was. Maybe it is a stretch to call the intentions with Venezuela a form of “colonization,” but at the moment, it doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch.

Even dialing it back, who really had a successful overnight raid to infiltrate Venezuela, to arrest Maduro, and then bring him (and his wife) to the U.S. to face charges as part of their January 2026 outlook? It is interesting to note that given the clear superiority of our military, in terms of equipment, training, and execution, the admin is keen to use it to our advantage, as demonstrated by the recent and effective actions in Iran and Venezuela.

The point we are trying to make is twofold:

1. Expect a LOT more announcements on many more subjects than you thought were possible even in your wildest imagination.
2. Let your imagination “run wild” with what could come up as potential policy, because for this admin, “out of the box” is the norm and not trying to get ahead of it could cost you.

Anticipating moves and preparing for them will help you make better investment and corporate decisions.

Out of the Box on Interest Rates

On Friday, in Jobs, Housing, and Tariffs, we tried to hammer home the need to take the government’s goals on short-term rates, the 10-year Treasury yield, and mortgage yields seriously.

Back in August, we “thought out loud” about some potential steps to Lowering Yields Across the Curve. At this stage, my only regret is that we didn’t think outside the box enough!

My view on rates is:

• We are not pricing in enough cuts quickly enough. 2 cuts by June rather than 1 is at least my “base” case if not my “worst” case. With Fed Funds effective sitting right around 3.65%, I don’t see how we get to the end of the summer (and the heart of the election campaign) with rates higher than 2.875%. This is not an “economist” view based on “economic” data. It is a view that the admin wants it there and fighting that desire seems to be a recipe for disaster.
  • Also, there is so much wiggle room around things like the Neutral rate. For all those arguing that 3 cuts wouldn’t make sense, let’s not pretend that setting rates is a science. It is as much guesswork as science.
• 10s will get below 4%. Sooner than later.
• Mortgage yields will grind lower as spreads tighten (and the 10-year Treasury yield moves lower). 3.75% as a target in Q1 seems high, but that is gradually where I think we will come out.
• On Friday we suggested we were finally ready for 2s vs 30s to flatten. It didn’t do much until about 10am when it went from 135 to close at 128. Look for more flattening, which might make 3.75% too high of a target on 10s.

This is not necessarily the monetary policy I would want to enact. A lot can happen in the economic data to change this outlook (certainly true with the Fast and Furious 47 theme). But at the moment, I’m fighting the market, not the admin (which I think includes the Fed, or will include the Fed more than it has historically).

A "Fun" Fast and Furious Story

I was having a conversation a few years ago with an extremely good financial journalist. We were talking about “trades we missed.” You know the sort of thing you had conviction in but took off too early, got stopped out, or just didn’t have the will to push management to put it on. It was a fun and cathartic conversation. 

But he had a story that outdid them all.

A journalist had been assigned by some paper/magazine (I want to say Vanity Fair or The NY Times) to explore “Street racing in Los Angeles.” It was outside the usual beat of this journalist but they went ahead and wrote a feature article about street racing in LA.

According to legend, this overworked and underpaid (only modestly successful) journalist was offered an “immense” amount of money (or what seemed like an immense amount of money at the time) to option the movie rights to their work. At the time, presumably the mid-1990s, $50k for an “option” to do movies about street racing in LA seemed like a great deal.

Fast forward to 2001, when Fast and Furious came out and became a surprise hit, that author had some serious regrets. As the franchise grew to a level very few franchises grow to (think James Bond, Star Wars, Friday the 13th), one can only imagine the thoughts going through that person’s mind.

Not sure this has much to do with today’s T-Report (other than that we all miss investments, in part because we don’t believe enough in them), but I did think it makes for an interesting interlude, before the final segment of today’s T-Report.

ProSec Needs You!

The title of this section should probably read You Need ProSec but that doesn’t go as well with the picture that we have included. We already included a “smattering” of ProSec related news in this report. Venezuela, oil, and the uranium investment. The scope of ProSec is broad enough that it encompasses so much more.

We were just discussing how difficult it was to get traction with our theme of National Production for National Security and Resiliency. After a year of trying to get traction with anything from “Refine, Baby, Refine” to National Production for National Security, we settled on ProSec as an easy way to capture our theme. It was back in August that we officially Launched ProSec.

Since August we have used ProSec in the title of 6 T-Reports and incorporated it into countless others. We have lost count of how many times we’ve used it in the media, but finally, Lisa Abramowitz at Bloomberg can keep a straight face when she mentions ProSec. It has been actually used in some reporting on how to invest under this administration. The grammar police say that I should remove “actually” but I think the use of “actually” connotates some level of surprise, which is relevant in this case. While JPM doesn’t officially call the $1.5 trillion earmarked for certain types of investments ProSec, it certainly seems to fit that quite well.

It also doesn’t hurt that two individual stock tickers we mentioned in ProSec 2026 have done extremely well. INTC is up 23% YTD, and BC is up 18% YTD. Pretty healthy increases. Across the board, many of the ProSec sectors and potential stocks (or ETFs) are outperforming the broad market (1.8% on the S&P 500 and 2.8% on the Nasdaq). Our “rotation” theme is also working out well, with the Russell 2000 up almost 6%.

Continuing to build out a portfolio of ProSec linked names should continue to work well.

• A mix of “National Champions” with smaller, very domestic-focused companies should do well. Also, companies integral to the build-out phase, will do very well.
• Processors, refiners, and finished goods manufacturers will likely outperform those further down the supply chain. Yes, the entire chain will do well, but expect benefits to accrue disproportionately to companies that reduce our dependency on China the most. While less dependency on everyone is part of the admin’s goal, those that can address China the best will do the best.
• While the following chart is almost embarrassingly bad, even by T-Report charting skills, I think it is a great way to filter companies in (or out of) the ProSec narrative.

You Need ProSec

Whether you are part of forming government policy (at any level of government, domestic or international), are an investor, or directing the future of your company, thinking about Production for Security and Resiliency is likely to become a large part of your analysis going forward. Might as well start embracing it now, if you haven’t already.

Holy Corporate Bond Market!

The corporate bond calendar started the year at a record setting pace. I’m not sure how people in the bond market had time to breathe this week – between the headlines and the onslaught of new issues!

Not only was the supply absorbed easily (deals were oversubscribed, came with little or no concession, and still traded tighter) but also spreads in the secondary market tightened (based on the CDX IG CDS Index and the Bloomberg Corporate Bond Option Adjusted Spread).

Look for credit to continue to be stable and maybe grind a bit tighter.

Still waiting to see how the year evolves for the funding needs of data centers, AI, and energy generation. I suspect for companies that explain their plans, and communicate that they will be cautious on spending if the results don’t warrant spending, the markets will be very receptive.

Those markets will likely include public credit in your own name, private credit (on a project finance basis), and possibly even some larger deals that fall squarely into the “traditional” realm of structured products.

Bottom Line

Two biggest threats to risk markets:

• China decides to respond to more aggressive U.S. actions across the globe by constraining shipments of rare earths and critical minerals. That is their primarily leverage. If they do use that leverage, it will come at the expense of their ability to legally procure U.S. AI and chip technology. I’m watching for any sign that China starts to “slow play” their approval of export licenses and/or the slowing of any contracted shipments.
• Our own politics become so divisive that things cannot get done. Seems like a low risk, but we have seen some movement across party lines in some votes this past week. Keep an eye on that as a risk to the current path, which has been benefitting ProSec.

The “surprise” that could propel risk markets much higher:

• The bond market drifts towards our outlook on rates.

Part of me wishes the current pace of headlines cannot continue, but:

1. I do think the current pace of headlines will continue as Fast and Furious 47 is a real thing.
2. I probably must admit that I enjoy the pace of headlines and the excitement and opportunities they bring to the markets.

Good luck and thanks again for all your help in 2025 and everything you have done to help us get 2026 going in the right direction for Academy!

Tyler Durden Sun, 01/11/2026 - 14:00

CES Came And Went. Here's What Stood Out.

CES, short for the Consumer Electronics Show, wrapped up late last week in Las Vegas. It is the world's largest technology trade show, offering attendees a peek into the future. This year's event marked a shift away from gimmicky uses of artificial intelligence toward products that deliver real-world productivity gains, alongside a series of key comments from industry leaders on the state of AI.

Consumer tech publication Tom's Guide had journalists walking CES last week who focused on finding products with practical uses of AI, including a fridge that reads food labels and manages groceries, a wearable device that records and summarizes your day while tracking emotions, and Lenovo's Qira, an AI companion that anticipates user needs.

Alongside increasingly smart software, CES also delivered notable hardware, including an ultra-thin TV, a gaming laptop with a rollable screen that expands, and a wild robot vacuum that can climb stairs and clean more intelligently.

Last Monday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivered a CES keynote on booming memory demand driven by AI. The comments sent memory stock prices like SanDisk's through the roof.

Goldman analyst Peter Bartlett told clients on Saturday that "CES came and went (AI commentary still robust), global Memory stocks resumed their torrid moves higher."

Bartlett noted:

Memory madness… The global memory complex took another violent leg higher last week. Ongoing positive supply/demand datapoints + comments from Jensen @ CES highlighting the massive "unserved" demand for memory in the AI industry fueled the explosive move higher. From a flows perspective, our institutional activity skewed better to buy across this group, but my suspicion is the global retail trading community has had a hand in this move as well.

After Tom's Guide evaluated dozens of companies, we took it a step further and focused on just a few of the most promising concepts or new products:

Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable

If there's one thing that's inevitable, it's Lenovo introducing a fun rollable display concept at CES. But what I didn't expect was a rollable prototype that I actually pray that the company makes. And that's exactly what we have in the Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable. Simply put, it would be the perfect bridge between my home gaming setup of an ultrawide monitor and my gaming laptop — a display that can extend from the 16-inch 16:9 panel all the way up to 24:9 at a impressive 24 inches at a 240Hz refresh rate. Whatever genre of game you're playing, you've got exactly the right screen aspect ratio to play it with. — Jason England

Asus ROG Swift OLED PG34WCDN

Upon first glance of the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG34WCDN (it's a mouthful, I know), I was immediately blown away by the visuals. I mean, there's the clarity of the best gaming monitors, but then there's this 34-inch QD-OLED display with next-gen RGB Stripe Pixel OLED technology boasting a 1800R WQHD (3440 x 1440) curved panel. The results? Crystal-clear visuals with draw-dropping colors and true blacks.

We've seen monitors reach well over a 360Hz refresh rate and a 0.03 response time, but Asus claims this is the world's first RGB OLED gaming monitor on the market. It offers a 40% uplift in perceived blacks thanks to the ROG BlackShield film, along with richer colors, making the ROG Swift OLED PG34WCDN a monitor for gamers and creatives to keep an eye on for 2026. — Darragh Murphy

Best 2-in-1 Laptop: Asus Zenbook Duo

The Asus Zenbook Duo finally did the thing I always wanted it to do. The redesign makes this 2-in-1 truly shine by eliminating the distracting lip between those two 14-inch OLED panels. On top of that, the battery is now shared between both sides for better weight distribution; the aluminum chassis is slimmer and sleeker; and this comes strapped with our best of show winner: Intel Core Ultra Series 3. That's sure to bring the power efficiency this dual-screen beast needs.

For the past couple of years, the idea of a 2-in-1 has always been a convertible laptop. In 2026, dual-screen laptops have a real shot of breaking through thanks to the Zenbook Duo. — Jason England

Roborock Saros Rover

The ability to climb stairs is the final threshold — both literally and figuratively — for robot vacuums. At CES 2026, we saw a few companies try to tackle that problem, but the Roborock Saros Rover did it with the most elegance.

This robovac has two wheels at the end of extendable legs that can lift it up, one step at a time, to go from one floor of your house to the next. Even better, it can vacuum each tread of your stairs as it ascends. It's also pretty agile. In our hands-on with the Saros Rover, we saw it lean back and forth on each leg, glide effortlessly down a ramp, and even jump up and down. When was the last time you saw a robot vacuum do that? — Mike Prospero

Hisense RGB MiniLED 116UXS

You can't walk more than 15 feet in the Las Vegas Conference Center without seeing a sign for some brand's Mini RGB technology. It's everywhere. But of all the brands, Hisense has come away with the best model in my eyes — a 116-inch behemoth in the Hisense RGB Mini-LED 116UXS that not only uses RGB-subpixels but even throws in a new fourth color in the mix (cyan) to display 110% of BT2020's coverage area.

In layman's terms, this is the most colorful TV you've ever seen in your life. The tradeoff is that it's not the slimmest, nor does it have the best anti-glare filter, but the picture is absolutely sublime. If Hisense manages to shrink this display technology and bring it to its award-winning mid-range models, it's game over for the competition. — Nick Pino

Previous reporting on the tech show:

• At CES, A Chinese Two-Legged Vacuum Signals The Next Phase Of Home Robotics

• "Market That Never Existed": Nvidia CEO Sparks Frenzy In Memory Stocks

What intrigued us most is that the rollable display concept is a game-changer for anyone tired of lugging external monitors while traveling

Tyler Durden Sun, 01/11/2026 - 13:25

Majority Of North Carolina Trucking Licenses Issued To Foreigners Are Illegal: Duffy

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

A review of non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) granted in North Carolina found that 54 percent were issued illegally, the Department of Transportation (DOT) said in a statement on Jan. 8.

The review was conducted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and is part of its ongoing nationwide audit of trucking licensing systems, the department said.

DOT warned that if North Carolina does not “fix their serious failures” and revoke licenses issued illegally to foreign nationals, the department will withhold almost $50 million in federal funding.

“North Carolina’s failure to follow the rules isn’t just shameful—it’s dangerous. I’m calling on state leadership to immediately remove these dangerous drivers from our roads and clean up their system,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.

According to audit findings, North Carolina illegally issued non-domiciled CDLs to drivers whose lawful presence in the United States had expired, and some of those drivers were found to be ineligible to hold a non-domiciled commercial license.

FMCSA sent a letter to North Carolina Department of Transportation Commissioner Paul Tine and Gov. Josh Stein, outlining audit results and the corrective actions that must be taken to prevent funding from being withheld.

The agency asked North Carolina authorities to “immediately” pause the issuance of non-domiciled CDLs, identify unexpired CDLs that fail to comply with FMCSA regulations, and conduct a comprehensive internal audit to identify errors, practices, quality assurance, and other issues that led to such CDLs being granted.

“The level of noncompliance in North Carolina is egregious,” FMCSA Administrator Derek D. Barrs said. “Under Secretary Duffy, we will not hesitate to hold states accountable and protect the American people.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the North Carolina Department of Transportation and Stein’s office for comment, but did not receive a response by publication time.

North Carolina is one of the latest states the DOT has warned regarding the illegal issuance of CDLs to foreign nationals.

Illegal Drivers in California

After a federal audit found that 17,000 trucking licenses were issued illegally in California, the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles issued cancellation letters to these drivers, Duffy said in November 2025.

The move faced opposition, with the Sikh Coalition, which represents around 20,000 immigrant drivers and business owners in California, filing a lawsuit arguing the move would remove thousands of drivers from roads and disrupt supply chains and services.

“This action was taken as a result of pressure from the federal government; unfortunately, the CA-DMV has thus far failed to provide any recourse or means for drivers to correct these issues,” the Coalition said in a Dec. 23, 2025, statement, referring to the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

“By ejecting these drivers from the workforce without allowing for any sort of solution, the CA-DMV is discriminating against them on the basis of their immigration status.”

On Dec. 30, California announced it would have to delay revoking the 17,000 CDLs.

In a Jan. 7 statement, Duffy announced that FMCSA will withhold roughly $160 million from California for failing to cancel those CDLs by the Jan. 5 deadline.

“Our demands were simple: follow the rules, revoke the unlawfully-issued licenses to dangerous foreign drivers, and fix the system so this never happens again,” Duffy said.

“[Gov.] Gavin Newsom has failed to do so—putting the needs of illegal immigrants over the safety of the American people.”

Meanwhile, in December, Duffy threatened to withhold $24 million in funding from Colorado over “slow walking” the purge of illegally issued truck licenses.

Earlier that month, Duffy revealed that an audit had found over 50 percent of non-domiciled DCLs issued in New York were granted illegally. DOT ordered the state to revoke all such licenses and come into compliance, failing which roughly $73 million in federal funding would be withheld.

Tyler Durden Sun, 01/11/2026 - 12:50

 

 

Yes, the HNTI podcast series continues in 2026 (albeit at a much slower pace)

Barry Ritholtz, co-founder, chairman and CIO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, is out with a new book titled “How Not to Invest: The Ideas, Numbers, and Behavior that Destroy Wealth—and How to Avoid Them,” which he discusses along with his earlier book “Bailout Nation: How Greed and Easy Money Corrupted Wall Street and Shook the World Economy.”

Ritholtz is also creator of The Big Picture blog, and creator and host of the Bloomberg podcast Masters in Business. (01/2026)

Via Real Assets ASdviser

 

The post Real Assets: How Not to Invest appeared first on The Big Picture.

Hotel occupancy was weak in 2025.   It is difficult to tell early in the year because travel is always weak in early January. 

From STR: U.S. hotel results for week ending 3 January

The U.S. hotel industry reported positive year-over-year comparisons, according to CoStar’s latest data through 3 January. ...

28 December 2025 through 3 January 2026 (percentage change from comparable week in 2024 and 2025):

• Occupancy: 50.5% (+4.4%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): US$175.47 (+3.4%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$88.65 (+7.9%)
emphasis added

The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four-week average.
Click on graph for larger image.

The red line is for 2026, blue is the median, and dashed light blue is for 2025.  Dashed black is for 2018, the record year for hotel occupancy. 
It is difficult to judge performance early in the year.
Note: Y-axis doesn't start at zero to better show the seasonal change.
The 4-week average will increase seasonally for the next few months. 

UK Government Video Game Warns Kids They May Be Terrorists For Questioning Mass Migration

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

In a chilling move, the UK government has rolled out a taxpayer-funded video game that paints every curious teenager as a potential far-right extremist. The “Pathways” game, backed by the Home Office’s Prevent counter-terrorism program, threatens young players with referrals to anti-terror experts simply for questioning unchecked mass migration or engaging with online debates about British identity.

This indoctrination tool assumes teens are one wrong click away from radicalisation, equating basic concerns over job competition or veteran housing with illegal hate groups. It’s a blatant assault on free thought, designed to stifle dissent and enforce globalist narratives in schools—exposing the state’s tightening grip on the next generation.

The game, developed by Shout Out UK with funding from Prevent, targets 11- to 18-year-olds. Players guide a character named Charlie—using “they” pronouns—through everyday scenarios that quickly spiral into warnings of extremism.

?INSIDIOUS: The UK government has developed a video game that INDOCTRINATES children by threatening to report them to counter-terrorism authorities for merely questioning mass migration or expressing concern about the erosion of British values. pic.twitter.com/YoEmqAOptd

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) January 10, 2026

For instance, after being outperformed by a black student, Charlie faces a choice: accept it or blame immigrants for “stealing jobs.” Opting for the latter ramps up an in-game extremism meter.

One scenario involves a video claiming “Muslim men are stealing the places of British veterans in emergency accommodation” and “the Government is betraying white British people and we need to take back control of our country.” Engaging with it leads to a flood of “harmful ideological messages,” with the game stating, “Unfortunately, Charlie didn’t realise that some of the groups they were engaging in were actually illegal.”

This is where the UK is at. https://t.co/ZdxCPDM5qI

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) January 9, 2026

Even researching immigration statistics online is portrayed as a gateway to danger, bombarding players with material on the “replacement” of white people. Joining a protest against “the changes that Britain has been through in the last few years and the erosion of British values” nearly ends in arrest, with the revelation that it “seemed to be more about racism and anti-immigration than British values and honouring fallen veterans.”

Pathways is an interactive game designed for 11- to 18-year-old pupils and funded by Prevent, a Home Office programme for tackling extremism.

Young players are directed to help their in-game characters – a white teenage boy and girl – to avoid being reported for “extreme… pic.twitter.com/fUkUdYRr4P

— Sick Of It Media…..???? (@SickOfItteo) January 9, 2026

As The Telegraph reports, bad choices within the game culminate in counseling for “ideological thoughts” or full Prevent referrals, complete with mentors to teach the “differences between right and wrong in expressing political beliefs.”

Matteo Bergamini, founder and CEO of Shout Out UK, defended the game, saying, “Teaching media literacy ensures that all those impacted by our programmes leave with life-long tools and skills to safeguard themselves from these threats. Our Pathways game is designed for the local threat picture in collaboration with the local authority and funded by the Home Office, to teach about the concept of extremism and radicalisation and illustrate the scope of online dangers and radicalisation routes.”

A Home Office spokesman added, “Prevent has diverted nearly 6,000 people away from violent ideologies, stopping terrorists and keeping our country safe. We provide funding to local authorities to tackle a range of threats, including Islamist extremism and Extreme Right Wing.”

Yet this comes amid growing scrutiny of Prevent’s overreach. GB News highlighted how the program now flags concerns about mass migration as a “terrorist ideology,” including “cultural nationalism” where Western culture faces threats from unchecked integration failures. Referrals for right-wing views hit 19% in 2024, outpacing Islamist cases despite MI5’s focus on the latter as 75% of threats.

This isn’t isolated. Recall our recent coverage where a teacher was branded a terrorist threat for showing Trump videos in a U.S. politics class. The educator recounted, “It was just terrifying; just mind-boggling. We were discussing the US election, Trump had just won and I showed a couple of videos from the Trump campaign. Next thing, I was accused of bias. One of the students said they were emotionally disturbed and claimed to have had nightmares.” The Local Authority Designated Officer warned his views “could constitute a hate crime” and risked “radicalisation.”

Such cases expose the left’s weaponization of Prevent against conservative ideas. Now, add in to this dystopian recipe the Labour government’s push to ban X entirely, with the frankly laughable excuse that images of people in bikinis can be created using Grok.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer raged, “This is disgraceful. It’s disgusting, and it’s not to be tolerated,” insisting “all options are on the table” over Grok AI’s image generation. Labour MP Lola McEvoy declared platforms like X “have no right to be accessed in this country” if non-compliant.

Leaked messages show MPs calling Elon Musk a “fascist” and urging abandonment of the platform. This aligns perfectly with “Pathways”—silencing online spaces where teens might encounter unfiltered views on migration or freedom.

There also exists a horrible double standard where schools freely indoctrinate kids with outright fabrications, such as pushing “non-fiction” books claiming Black people built Stonehenge, and were integral in other historical developments, part of a “decolonizing” push that insists Britain was “a black country for more than 7,000 years before white people came.”

The hypocrisy deepens with radical gender ideology flooding classrooms. Trans lobbyists from Stonewall are demanding over 300 schools scrap terms like “boys and girls,” opting for neutral language, gender-neutral bathrooms, and identical uniforms—all under the guise of “inclusion.” Schools paying into Stonewall’s scheme must embed LGBTQ+ propaganda across the curriculum, ignoring government guidance against promoting “gender identity ideology.”

This teacher-shaming fits into a broader, sinister trend: the UK government’s push to teach children how to “spot extremist content and misinformation” in schools, embedding “critical thinking” that suspiciously aligns with establishment narratives.

Under the Labour government, kids are being indoctrinated to analyse articles and websites and weed out “putrid conspiracy theories,” grooming the next generation to police thought.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has warned: “If the parameters that are set are to say to every kid, if you read a post that questions net zero and global warming, it will be extreme content, and a lie, if you read a post that even dares to question levels of immigration, legal or illegal into Britain, that that’s extremist, then you start to set a narrative for a future generation that is fundamentally undemocratic.” Farage has labeled Prime Minister Keir Starmer the “biggest threat to free speech” in British history.

Keir Starmer poses the biggest threat to free speech we’ve seen in our history. pic.twitter.com/AB9cdiQtue

— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) August 11, 2024

As X owner Elon Musk has warned, the British public simply have to come together and get on board with stopping this lurch toward tyranny dead in its tracks now, before it’s too late.

ELON MUSK: "All of the people of Britain have to fight for the future. If this doesn't happen, there won't be a future. You have to fight." pic.twitter.com/yKC8T2Euph

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) January 9, 2026

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Tyler Durden Sun, 01/11/2026 - 08:10

Peter Schiff: Printing Money Is Not the Cure for Cononavirus



In his most recent podcast, Peter Schiff talked about coronavirus and the impact that it is having on the markets. Earlier this month, Peter said he thought the virus was just an excuse for stock market woes. At the time he believed the market was poised to fall anyway. But as it turns out, coronavirus has actually helped the US stock market because it has led central banks to pump even more liquidity into the world financial system. All this means more liquidity — central banks easing. In fact, that is exactly what has already happened, except the new easing is taking place, for now, outside the United States, particularly in China.” Although the new money is primarily being created in China, it is flowing into dollars — the dollar index is up — and into US stocks. Last week, US stock markets once again made all-time record highs. In fact, I think but for the coronavirus, the US stock market would still be selling off. But because of the central bank stimulus that has been the result of fears over the coronavirus, that actually benefitted not only the US dollar, but the US stock market.” In the midst of all this, Peter raises a really good question. The primary economic concern is that coronavirus will slow down output and ultimately stunt economic growth. Practically speaking, the world would produce less stuff. If the virus continues to spread, there would be fewer goods and services produced in a market that is hunkered down. Why would the Federal Reserve respond, or why would any central bank respond to that by printing money? How does printing more money solve that problem? It doesn’t. In fact, it actually exacerbates it. But you know, everybody looks at central bankers as if they’ve got the solution to every problem. They don’t. They don’t have the magic wand. They just have a printing press. And all that creates is inflation.” Sometimes the illusion inflation creates can look like a magic wand. Printing money can paper over problems. But none of this is going to fundamentally fix the economy. In fact, if central bankers were really going to do the right thing, the appropriate response would be to drain liquidity from the markets, not supply even more.” Peter explained how the Fed was originally intended to create an “elastic” money supply that would expand or contract along with economic output. Today, the money supply only goes in one direction — that’s up. The economy is strong, print money. The economy is weak, print even more money.” Of course, the asset that’s doing the best right now is gold. The yellow metal pushed above $1,600 yesterday. Gold is up 5.5% on the year in dollar terms and has set record highs in other currencies. Because gold is rising even in an environment where the dollar is strengthening against other fiat currencies, that shows you that there is an underlying weakness in the dollar that is right now not being reflected in the Forex markets, but is being reflected in the gold markets. Because after all, why are people buying gold more aggressively than they’re buying dollars or more aggressively than they’re buying US Treasuries? Because they know that things are not as good for the dollar or the US economy as everybody likes to believe. So, more people are seeking out refuge in a better safe-haven and that is gold.” Peter also talked about the debate between Trump and Obama over who gets credit for the booming economy – which of course, is not booming.

We are living in crazy times. I have a hard time believing that most of the general public is not awake, but in reality, they are. We've never seen anything like this; I mean not even under Obama during the worst part of the Great Recession." Now the Fed is desperately trying to keep interest rates from rising. The problem is that it's a much bigger debt bubble this time around , and the Fed is going to have to blow a lot more air into it to keep it inflated. The difference is this time it's not going to work." It looks like the Fed did another $104.15 billion of Not Q.E. in a single day. The Fed claims it's only temporary. But that is precisely what Bernanke claimed when the Fed started QE1. Milton Freedman once said, "Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program." The same applies to Q.E., or whatever the Fed wants to pretend it's doing. Except this is not QE4, according to Powell. Right. Pumping so much money out, and they are accusing China of currency manipulation ? Wow! Seriously! Amazing! Dump the U.S. dollar while you still have a chance. Welcome to The Atlantis Report. And it is even worse than that, In addition to the $104.15 billion of "Not Q.E." this past Thursday; the FED added another $56.65 billion in liquidity to financial markets the next day on Friday. That's $160.8 billion in two days!!!! in just 48 hours. That is more than 2 TIMES the highest amount the FED has ever injected on a monthly basis under a Q.E. program (which was $80 billion per month) Since this isn't QE....it will be really scary on what they are going to call Q.E. Will it twice, three times, four times, five times what this injection per month ! It is going to be explosive since it takes about 60 to 90 days for prices to react to this, January should see significant inflation as prices soak up the excess liquidity. The question is, where will the inflation occur first . The spike in the repo rate might have a technical explanation: a misjudgment was made in the Fed's money market operations. Even so, two conclusions can be drawn: managing the money markets is becoming harder, and from now on, banks will be studying each other's creditworthiness to a greater degree than before. Those people, who struggle with the minutiae of money markets, and that includes most professionals, should focus on the causes and not the symptoms. Financial markets have recovered from each downturn since 1980 because interest rates have been cut to new lows. Post-2008, they were cut to near zero or below zero in all major economies. In response to a new financial crisis, they cannot go any lower. Central banks will look for new ways to replicate or broaden Q.E. (At some point, governments will simply see repression as an easier option). Then there is the problem of 'risk-free' assets becoming risky assets. Financial markets assume that the probability of major governments such as the U.S. or U.K. defaulting is zero. These governments are entering the next downturn with debt roughly twice the levels proportionate to GDP that was seen in 2008. The belief that the policy worked was completely predicated on the fact that it was temporary and that it was reversible, that the Fed was going to be able to normalize interest rates and shrink its balance sheet back down to pre-crisis levels. Well, when the balance sheet is five-trillion, six-trillion, seven-trillion when we're back at zero, when we're back in a recession, nobody is going to believe it is temporary. Nobody is going to believe that the Fed has this under control, that they can reverse this policy. And the dollar is going to crash. And when the dollar crashes, it's going to take the bond market with it, and we're going to have stagflation. We're going to have a deep recession with rising interest rates, and this whole thing is going to come imploding down. everything is temporary with the fed including remaining off the gold standard temporary in the Fed's eyes could mean at least 50 years This liquidity problem is a signal that trading desks are loaded up on inventory and can't get rid of it. Repo is done out of a need for cash. If you own all of your securities (i.e., a long-only, no leverage mutual fund) you have no need to "repo" your securities - you're earning interest every night so why would you want to 'repo' your securities where you are paying interest for that overnight loan (securities lending is another animal). So, it is those that 'lever-up' and need the cash for settlement purposes on securities they've bought with borrowed money that needs to utilize the repo desk. With this in mind, as we continue to see this need to obtain cash (again, needed to settle other securities purchases), it shows these firms don't have the capital to add more inventory to, what appears to be, a bloated inventory. Now comes the fun part: the Treasury is about to auction 3's, 10's, and 30-year bonds. If I am correct (again, I could be wrong), the Fed realizes securities firms don't have the shelf space to take down a good portion of these auctions. If there isn't enough retail/institutional demand, it will lead to not only a crappy sale but major concerns to the street that there is now no backstop, at all, to any sell-off. At which point, everyone will want to be the first one through the door and sell immediately, but to whom? If there isn't enough liquidity in the repo market to finance their positions, the firms would be unable to increase their inventory. We all saw repo shut down on the 2008 crisis. Wall St runs on money. . OVERNIGHT money. They lever up to inventory securities for trading. If they can't get overnight money, they can't purchase securities. And if they can't unload what they have, it means the buy-side isn't taking on more either. Accounts settle overnight. This includes things like payrolls and bill pay settlements. If a bank doesn't have enough cash to payout what its customers need to pay out, it borrows. At least one and probably more than one banks are insolvent. That's what's going on. First, it can't be one or two banks that are short. They'd simply call around until they found someone to lend. But they did that, and even at markedly elevated rates, still, NO ONE would lend them the money. That tells me that it's not a problem of a couple of borrowers, it's a problem of no lenders. And that means that there's no bank in the world left with any real liquidity. They are ALL maxed out. But as bad as that is, and that alone could be catastrophic, what it really signals is even worse. The lending rates are just the flip side of the coin of the value of the assets lent against. If the rates go up, the value goes down. And with rates spiking to 10%, how far does the value fall? Enormously! And if banks had to actually mark down the value of the assets to reflect 10% interest rates, then my god, every bank in the world is insolvent overnight. Everyone's capital ratios are in the toilet, and they'd have to liquidate. We're talking about the simultaneous insolvency of every bank on the planet. Bank runs. No money in ATMs, Branches closed. Safe deposit boxes confiscated. The whole nine yards, It's actually here. The scenario has tended to guide toward for years and years is actually happening RIGHT NOW! And people are still trying to say it's under control. Every bank in the world is currently insolvent. The only thing keeping it going is printing billions of dollars every day. Financial Armageddon isn't some far off future risk. It's here. Prepare accordingly. This fiat system has reached the end of the line, and it's not correct that fiat currencies fail by design. The problem is corruption and manipulation. It is corruption and cheating that erodes trust and faith until the entire system becomes a gigantic fraud. Banks and governments everywhere ARE the problem and simply have to be removed. They have lost all trust and respect, and all they have left is war and mayhem. As long as we continue to have a majority of braindead asleep imbeciles following orders from these psychopaths, nothing will change. Fiat currency is not just thievery. Fiat currency is SLAVERY. Ultimately the most harmful effect of using debt of undefined value as money (i.e., fiat currencies) is the de facto legalization of a caste system based on voluntary slavery. The bankers have a charter, or the legal *right*, to create money out of nothing. You, you don't. Therefore you and the bankers do not have the same standing before the law. The law of the land says that you will go to jail if you do the same thing (creating money out of thin air) that the banker does in full legality. You and the banker are not equal before the law. ALL the countries of the world; Islamic or secular, Jewish or Arab, democracy or dictatorship; all of them place the bankers ABOVE you. And all of you accept that only whining about fiat money going down in exchange value over time (price inflation which is not the same as monetary inflation). Actually, price inflation itself is mainly due to the greed and stupidity of the bankers who could keep fiat money's exchange value reasonably stable, only if they wanted to. Witness the crash of silver and gold prices which the bankers of the world; Russian, American, Chinese, Jewish, Indian, Arab, all of them collaborated to engineer through the suppression and stagnation of precious metals' prices to levels around the metals' production costs, or what it costs to dig gold and silver out of the ground. The bankers of the world could also collaborate to keep nominal prices steady (as they do in the case of the suppression of precious metals prices). After all, the ability to create fiat money and force its usage is a far more excellent source of power and wealth than that which is afforded simply by stealing it through inflation. The bankers' greed and stupidity blind them to this fact. They want it all, and they want it now. In conclusion, The bankers can create money out of nothing and buy your goods and services with this worthless fiat money, effectively for free. You, you can't. You, you have to lead miserable existences for the most of you and WORK in order to obtain that effectively nonexistent, worthless credit money (whose purchasing/exchange value is not even DEFINED thus rendering all contracts based on the null and void!) that the banker effortlessly creates out of thin air with a few strokes of the computer keyboard, and which he doesn't even bother to print on paper anymore, electing to keep it in its pure quantum uncertain form instead, as electrons whizzing about inside computer chips which will become mute and turn silent refusing to tell you how many fiat dollars or euros there are in which account, in the absence of electricity. No electricity, no fiat, nor crypto money. It would appear that trust is deteriorating as it did when Lehman blew up . Something really big happened that set off this chain reaction in the repo markets. Whatever that something is, we aren't be informed. They're trying to cover it up, paper it over with conjured cash injections, play it cool in front of the cameras while sweating profusely under the 5 thousands dollar suits. I'm guessing that the final high-speed plunge into global economic collapse has begun. All we see here is the ripples and whitewater churning the surface, but beneath the surface, there is an enormous beast thrashing desperately in its death throws. Now is probably the time to start tying up loose ends with the long-running prep projects, just saying. In other words, prepare accordingly, and Get your money out of the banks. I don't care if you don't believe me about Bitcoin. Get your money out of the banks. Don't keep any more money in a bank than you need to pay your bills and can afford to lose.











The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks trends and forecasts , futurists , visionaries , free investigative journalists , researchers , Whistelblowers , truthers and many more













The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks trends and forecasts , futurists , visionaries , free investigative journalists , researchers , Whistelblowers , truthers and many more

The FBI released a summary of its file from the Hillary Clinton email investigation on Friday, showing details of Clinton's explanation of her use of a private email server to handle classified communications. The release comes nearly two months after FBI Director James Comey announced that although Clinton's handling of classified information was "extremely careless," it did not rise to the level of a prosecutable offense. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced the next day that she would not pursue charges in the matter. "We are making these materials available to the public in the interest of transparency and in response to numerous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests," the FBI noted in a statement sent to reporters with links to the documents. The documents include notes from Clinton's July 2 interview with agents, as well as a "factual summary of the FBI's investigation into this matter," according to the FBI release. Throughout her interview with agents, Clinton repeatedly said she relied on the career professionals she worked with to handle classified information correctly. The agents asked about a series of specific emails, and in each case Clinton said she wasn't worried about the particular material being discussed on a nonclassified channel.