Going, Going, Gone...

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

“Because they can no longer distinguish between fantasy and reality, they are too crazy to lead this country, and Americans know it.”

- Sasha Stone on the Democratic Party

In case you’re wondering why the Democratic Party is in a death spiral, it is the proportionate response to the damage they have done to American culture and politics. You might think that they fell haplessly into error, but their turn to Marxian idealism was a cover for a matrix of hustles and rackets to make up for a void of any sane political program.

Coming into the 21st century, our country was beset by looming decline. Our industrial base was going, going, gone, and with it millions of well-paying blue-collar jobs, the Democratic Party base. It was replaced by a so-called “financialized economy,” which was sanitized language for sets of swindles and frauds allowed to operate in the de-regulated banking system, in concert with the politicized Federal Reserve and crooked Congressional interests — you notice how many politicians paid $175-K a year somehow acquired multi-million-dollar fortunes?

What mainly grew in this period was government and things that fed off of it, such as the war industries, computer tech allied with the Intel gang, and especially the burgeoning universe of government-sponsored non-profit advocacy orgs, which became the jobs program for otherwise unemployables churned out of higher education, a racket that fed on federal loan guarantees. It was in the racketeering ecosystem that billionaires such as George Soros and Bill Gates could use their fortunes to advance their own personal obsessions through webs of non-governmental orgs (NGOs) to influence public affairs.

By 2016, that was really all that the Democratic Party had left. It was the source of their money and their power. They also had the accumulated political capital of race advocacy, starting with the civil rights crusades of the 1960s. After our victory over manifest evil in World War Two, the Jim Crow system had to go, or else America could not pretend to lead the so-called “free world.”

By some paradoxical alchemy of government policy and human nature, the civil rights campaign eventually produced a larger and more intractable “underclass” than existed before. This baffled liberal idealists who had expected a new era of brotherhood and equality. They could only account for it by “structural racism,” and the Marxian trope of “oppressors-and-victims” fit into that scaffold perfectly. It lured them into Marxian “praxis” generally, which by then was already failing everywhere else in the world it had been tried as “communism.”

One way to counter “structural racism” was to declare a new ethos of “multiculturalism,” meaning each ethnic or racial group could behave according to its own particular standards and values. It was like waving a magic wand to make failure disappear and it worked through the 1990s, (which happened to be the fattest years of cheap oil production in America). The trouble with multiculturalism was that it negated the thing that had held America together through vicissitudes such as the Great Depression and World War Two: The American common culture, the thing that belonged to everyone.

The MAGA movement has largely been an effort to reconstruct an American common culture, a consensus of values and behaviors we can all agree on. The Democratic Party opted to oppose that — a poor choice. In fact, they apparently viewed that effort as an existential threat to the hustles and rackets that were sustaining the party. For instance, the jobs program for otherwise unemployable college grads who styled themselves as “activists” working for NGOs under the umbrella of USAID.

This was the party’s army of influencers, organizers, ward-heelers, and ballot-harvesters, laboring on behalf of the “victims of oppression.” Quite a few of them resided in Academia, where they cultivated a whole lexicon of arcane, gnostic, crypto-Marxian ideology aimed not just at opposing the recovery of a common culture, but destroying whatever remnants of it remained.

The catch was: they didn’t believe in “social justice” or “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” That was just a smokescreen of verbiage over their race hustle, which means extorting money, unearned advantages, and status dishonestly. Thus was DEI birthed. And, with it, colossal frauds of “victimhood” such as the beatification of George Floyd and a long line of similar “justice-involved” cases that generated an impressive revenue flow for the Democrats.

That revenue flow and its utility for holding power was all they had left in 2024. It explains the empty symbolism of running Kamala Harris for president. Now, the money flow is gone and so is the party’s power and perhaps its last remaining reason for existence: the maintenance of its own power. Notice that the Democrats can’t even advocate for the return of USAID, now that it has been unmasked as rife with financial fraud and crime.

There is surely a need for an opposition party to any in-party, which happens to be Mr. Trump’s Republicans at the moment, if only because power corrupts. You can see the outline of what that new opposition party might be: a party of re-localization, of small business and small farmers, of traditional towns as opposed to still-rampant and malignant suburban sprawl.

Some related issues already belong to MAGA, such as smaller government, the protection of privacy, respect for the Bill of Rights — but these would be implicit in the restoration of an American common culture, a set of values and standards of behavior that both parties in a two-party system can subscribe to.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/08/2025 - 16:20

Going, Going, Gone...

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

“Because they can no longer distinguish between fantasy and reality, they are too crazy to lead this country, and Americans know it.”

- Sasha Stone on the Democratic Party

In case you’re wondering why the Democratic Party is in a death spiral, it is the proportionate response to the damage they have done to American culture and politics. You might think that they fell haplessly into error, but their turn to Marxian idealism was a cover for a matrix of hustles and rackets to make up for a void of any sane political program.

Coming into the 21st century, our country was beset by looming decline. Our industrial base was going, going, gone, and with it millions of well-paying blue-collar jobs, the Democratic Party base. It was replaced by a so-called “financialized economy,” which was sanitized language for sets of swindles and frauds allowed to operate in the de-regulated banking system, in concert with the politicized Federal Reserve and crooked Congressional interests — you notice how many politicians paid $175-K a year somehow acquired multi-million-dollar fortunes?

What mainly grew in this period was government and things that fed off of it, such as the war industries, computer tech allied with the Intel gang, and especially the burgeoning universe of government-sponsored non-profit advocacy orgs, which became the jobs program for otherwise unemployables churned out of higher education, a racket that fed on federal loan guarantees. It was in the racketeering ecosystem that billionaires such as George Soros and Bill Gates could use their fortunes to advance their own personal obsessions through webs of non-governmental orgs (NGOs) to influence public affairs.

By 2016, that was really all that the Democratic Party had left. It was the source of their money and their power. They also had the accumulated political capital of race advocacy, starting with the civil rights crusades of the 1960s. After our victory over manifest evil in World War Two, the Jim Crow system had to go, or else America could not pretend to lead the so-called “free world.”

By some paradoxical alchemy of government policy and human nature, the civil rights campaign eventually produced a larger and more intractable “underclass” than existed before. This baffled liberal idealists who had expected a new era of brotherhood and equality. They could only account for it by “structural racism,” and the Marxian trope of “oppressors-and-victims” fit into that scaffold perfectly. It lured them into Marxian “praxis” generally, which by then was already failing everywhere else in the world it had been tried as “communism.”

One way to counter “structural racism” was to declare a new ethos of “multiculturalism,” meaning each ethnic or racial group could behave according to its own particular standards and values. It was like waving a magic wand to make failure disappear and it worked through the 1990s, (which happened to be the fattest years of cheap oil production in America). The trouble with multiculturalism was that it negated the thing that had held America together through vicissitudes such as the Great Depression and World War Two: The American common culture, the thing that belonged to everyone.

The MAGA movement has largely been an effort to reconstruct an American common culture, a consensus of values and behaviors we can all agree on. The Democratic Party opted to oppose that — a poor choice. In fact, they apparently viewed that effort as an existential threat to the hustles and rackets that were sustaining the party. For instance, the jobs program for otherwise unemployable college grads who styled themselves as “activists” working for NGOs under the umbrella of USAID.

This was the party’s army of influencers, organizers, ward-heelers, and ballot-harvesters, laboring on behalf of the “victims of oppression.” Quite a few of them resided in Academia, where they cultivated a whole lexicon of arcane, gnostic, crypto-Marxian ideology aimed not just at opposing the recovery of a common culture, but destroying whatever remnants of it remained.

The catch was: they didn’t believe in “social justice” or “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” That was just a smokescreen of verbiage over their race hustle, which means extorting money, unearned advantages, and status dishonestly. Thus was DEI birthed. And, with it, colossal frauds of “victimhood” such as the beatification of George Floyd and a long line of similar “justice-involved” cases that generated an impressive revenue flow for the Democrats.

That revenue flow and its utility for holding power was all they had left in 2024. It explains the empty symbolism of running Kamala Harris for president. Now, the money flow is gone and so is the party’s power and perhaps its last remaining reason for existence: the maintenance of its own power. Notice that the Democrats can’t even advocate for the return of USAID, now that it has been unmasked as rife with financial fraud and crime.

There is surely a need for an opposition party to any in-party, which happens to be Mr. Trump’s Republicans at the moment, if only because power corrupts. You can see the outline of what that new opposition party might be: a party of re-localization, of small business and small farmers, of traditional towns as opposed to still-rampant and malignant suburban sprawl.

Some related issues already belong to MAGA, such as smaller government, the protection of privacy, respect for the Bill of Rights — but these would be implicit in the restoration of an American common culture, a set of values and standards of behavior that both parties in a two-party system can subscribe to.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/08/2025 - 16:20

From the Association of American Railroads (AAR) AAR Data Center. Graph and excerpts reprinted with permission.

Rail volumes are holding up, indicating goods movement remains resilient despite the headwinds. Looking ahead, though, sustained pressure on labor markets and consumer demand could eventually weigh on freight activity.
emphasis added

U.S. rail intermodal shipments rebounded in July, rising 2.4% over last year and reversing a 2.9% decline in June (intermodal’s first year-over-year decline in 22 months). In July 2025, intermodal originations averaged 270,175 units per week, the second most ever for July (behind July 2018).

Meanwhile, U.S. total carloads rose 4.6% in July 2025 over July 2024, their fifth straight increase. In July, 15 of the 20 carload categories tracked by the AAR saw gains, the most since December 2023. Total carloads averaged 224,568 per week in July 2025, the most for July since 2019. In 2025 through July, total carloads were up 2.8%, or nearly 186,000 carloads, over last year.

Massachusetts Sheriff Federally Indicted On Extortion Charges Tied To Boston Weed Business

A Massachusetts county sheriff, Steven W. Tompkins, 67, was federally indicted on charges of extorting an executive at a cannabis company so that he could own stock in the business - and then demanded his money back when his investment dropped in value, according to the US Attorney's Office.

Tompkins - who has led the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department since his 2013 appointment, was indicted on two counts of extortion under color of official right.

The cannabis company, which was unnamed in the announcement, applied for a license to open a retail dispensary in Boston in 2019 - which required a 'positive impact plan' or PIP, which was satisfied by a partnership with the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department in order to employ released offenders as part of a re-entry program.

According to federal prosecutors, Tompkins pressured a company executive to allow him to purchase stock as the company prepared to go public. The executive, who feared the sheriff could use his position to threaten the PIP plan and their licensing approval - or impact the timing of their IPO, bent the knee to Tompkins' demands.

In November 2020, Tompkins wired $50,000 to purchase stock at around $1.73 per share. After a reverse stock split, he was left with 14,417 shares at a price of $3.46 per share. 

When the IPO launched in 2021, the stock was valued at around $9.60 per share, however by May of 2022 the stock's value had dropped and Tompkins had lost money on the investment. He then demanded a refund of his $50,000 - which the company executive agreed to, and did so in the form of checks issued between May 2022 and July 2023. The executive wrote "loan repayment" or "company expense" to hide their nature, 10 Boston reports.

"Elected officials, particularly those in law enforcement, are expected to be ethical, honest and law abiding – not self-serving. His alleged actions are an affront to the voters and taxpayers who elected him to his position, and the many dedicated and honest public servants at the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department. The people of Suffolk County deserve better," US Attorney Leah B. Foley wrote in a media release. 

More via the release:

As Sheriff, Tompkins oversees approximately 1,000 correctional officers and other employees responsible for operating and maintaining correctional facilities in Boston at the House of Correction and the Nashua Street Jail.

The charges of extortion under color of official right each provide for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

U.S. Attorney Foley and FBI SAC Docks made the announcement. Special assistance was provided by the Internal Revenue Service. Assistant United States Attorneys John Mulcahy of the Public Corruption & Special Prosecutions Unit and Dustin Chao, Chief of the Public Corruption & Special Prosecutions Unit are prosecuting the case.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/08/2025 - 15:05

Airlines Using Personalized AI Ticket Pricing Would Face Probe: Transportation Secretary

Authored by Victoria Friedman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy criticized the potential use of artificial intelligence (AI) to personalize airline ticket prices, saying on Aug. 5 that his department would investigate if any business were found doing so.

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy testifies in Washington on July 16, 2025. Rod Lamkey, Jr./AP Photo

“Let’s sell prices on seats for what they should go for,” Duffy said in response to a question during a press conference on whether he had any concerns over airlines using AI to dynamically price tickets based on personal data, such as income. “To try to individualize pricing on seats based on how much you make or don’t make or who you are, I can guarantee you that we will investigate if anyone does that.”

Last week, Delta Air Lines told lawmakers that it does not and will not use AI to set prices for individual travelers.

Duffy said: “Delta has clarified that they are not going to do that. I'll take them at face value and in their clarification, but we would engage very strongly if any company tries to use AI to individually price their seating.”

The Atlanta-based airline said last month it planned to expand its AI dynamic pricing pilot across more of its domestic network. Delta is running the pilot in partnership with Fetcherr, an AI pricing company.

Delta President Glen Hauenstein said during a second-quarter earnings call on July 10 that Fetcherr currently handles 3 percent of its domestic network and that the goal is for that to increase to 20 percent by the end of 2025. He added that Delta was in the “heavy testing phase” with AI.

“We’re going to take out time and make sure the rollout is successful,” he said.

On its website, Fetcherr says it is “trusted by the world’s leading airlines,” listing Delta, Virgin Atlantic, Westjet, Viva, and Azul.

Data Privacy Concerns

On July 21, Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) wrote to Delta CEO Ed Bastian to clarify the airline’s plans to expand the use of AI to set individualized fares.

The senators said they believed that AI-based individualized pricing would not only present data privacy concerns but also mean that fare prices would increase up to “each individual consumer’s personal ‘pain point,’ at a time when American families are already struggling with rising costs.”

Delta responded on July 31, saying that the presupposition that the airline would use AI for individualized or “surveillance” pricing, which leverages consumers’ personal data or circumstances, was incorrect.

“There is no fare product Delta has ever used, is testing or plans to use that targets customers with individualized prices based on personal data,” Delta Chief External Affairs Officer Peter Carter said in the letter to the lawmakers. “Furthermore, we have zero tolerance for discriminatory or predatory pricing and fully comply with applicable laws in privacy, pricing and advertising.”

The airline said that its AI-powered pricing functionality is designed to enhance its current pricing processes using aggregated data, noting that the functionality could recommend that prices go down as well as up.

Delta said it does not share any personal information with Fetcherr.

Carter added that for the past three decades, Delta and other airlines have been using dynamic pricing for seats and that pricing is influenced by a wide range of fluctuating market conditions, including customer demand, fuel costs, competition, and purchasing data at an aggregated level—but not on specific consumers’ data.

Proposed Legislation

In their letter, the senators said that the implications of AI-driven personal dynamic pricing for privacy “are severe on their own.”

Citing a January Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report, the lawmakers said, “Surveillance pricing has been shown to utilize extensive personal information obtained through a variety of third-party channels, including data about a passenger’s purchase history, web browsing behavior, geolocation, social media activity, biometric data, and financial status.”

Blumenthal, Gallego, and Warner said former FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan cautioned against a “particularly egregious but conceivable example” of an airline’s use of AI to charge a higher fare to a passenger because “the company knows that they just had a death in the family and need to fly across the country.”

On July 23, Reps. Greg Casar (D-Texas) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) introduced proposals that would ban companies from using AI to set prices or wages based on Americans’ personal data.

Casar said in a statement that the “Stop AI Price Gouging and Wage Fixing Act” would prohibit practices such as raising prices for a customer after seeing the customer search for a family obituary online.

The Epoch Times reached out to Delta for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/08/2025 - 14:05

Appeals Court Nukes Boasberg's Contempt Order In Trump Admin Deportations Case

Activist judge James Boasberg has just been slapped down, after an appeals court removed an order which could have resulted in the Trump administration being found in contempt as part of a tense confrontation with the US District Judge. 

Earlier this year, Boasberg said he found probable cause to hold the administration in contempt because it purportedly violated his orders to halt deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.

However in a 2–1 decision on Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit indicated that Boasberg went too far. Judge Gregory Katsas said that one of Boasberg’s orders could have been read in different ways.

Pundits have used this case to accuse the administration of not following the law. Now will they recant? Just this week the New York Times published multiple articles using the contempt proceeding as evidence that President Trump isn't following court orders. Correction time?

— Eric W. (@EWess92) August 8, 2025

"The district court here was placed in an enormously difficult position," wrote Judge Gregory Katsas. "Faced with an emergency situation, it had to digest and rule upon novel and complex issues within a matter of hours. In that context, the court quite understandably issued a written order that contained some ambiguity."

Katsas noted that the appellate court ruling doesn't center around the lawfulness of Trump's Alien Enemies Act removals in March, when the administration invoked the 1798 immigration law to send over 250 Venezuelan nationals to CEDOT, El Salvador's maximum-security prison. 

"Nor may we decide whether the government’s aggressive implementation of the presidential proclamation warrants praise or criticism as a policy matter," he added. "Perhaps it should warrant more careful judicial scrutiny in the future. Perhaps it already has."

"Regardless, the government’s initial implementation of the proclamation clearly and indisputably was not criminal."

As the Epoch Times notes further, Judge Neomi Rao described Boasberg’s decision as an “egregious” abuse of the court’s contempt power and said Boasberg had lost the authority to try and “coerce compliance” with his original order. That’s because his initial halts on the deportations had been vacated by the Supreme Court in another decision from April.

One of the judges, Judge Cornelia Pillard, defended Boasberg and said the Trump administration appeared to have disobeyed his directions.

“Our system of courts cannot long endure if disappointed litigants defy court orders with impunity rather than legally challenge them,” Pillard said. “This is why willful disobedience of a court order is punishable as criminal contempt.”

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/08/2025 - 13:45

Government Has Frozen $584 Million In UCLA Funding, University Resumes Talks

Update: The Trump administration is seeking a $1 billion settlement from the University of California, Los Angeles, CNN has exclusively learned, marking the latest effort by the White House to shape higher education and extract significant concessions from universities.

Officials from UCLA have returned to the negotiating table, a source familiar with the matter said, and have made clear they would like to reach a deal to restore that funding.

The Trump administration, in turn, is laying its marker for a high-dollar settlement.

* * *

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The federal government suspended $584 million worth of grants to the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA), the university’s Chancellor, Julio Frenk, said in an Aug. 6 statement to community members.

Pro-Palestinian protesters rebuild the barricade surrounding their encampment after clashes erupted overnight on the campus of the University of California–Los Angeles on May 1, 2024. Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images

“If these funds remain suspended, it will be devastating for UCLA,” he said.

The funding cancellation affects UCLA departments that rely on grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy.

“The suspension of these funds is not only a loss to the researchers who rely on critical grants,“ he said. ”It is a loss for Americans across the nation whose work, health, and future depend on our groundbreaking research and scholarship.”

The university announced the funding cancellation on July 31 without identifying the exact amount to be cut.

The announcement was made after the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a July 29 statement that UCLA violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by “acting with deliberate indifference in creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students.”

The DOJ said that UCLA failed to appropriately respond to complaints about Jewish and Israeli students facing “severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive harassment and abuse” on its campus since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack against Israel by the Hamas terrorist group.

“This disgusting breach of civil rights against students will not stand: DOJ will force UCLA to pay a heavy price for putting Jewish Americans at risk and continue our ongoing investigations into other campuses in the UC system,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in the statement.

Under Title VI, the federal government has the authority to withhold funding from educational institutions found to be discriminating on the basis of race, national origin, or religion.

In a July 29 notice of violation issued to UCLA, the DOJ said that Jewish students reported being assaulted or denied access to campus facilities due to their faith. In one instance, a student was knocked down by protestors, suffered a head injury, and had to be hospitalized, the DOJ stated.

The DOJ gave UCLA until Aug. 5 to reach a voluntary agreement resolving the issue, failing which, the agency planned to file a federal lawsuit against the university by Sept. 2, the notice said.

In the July 31 message, Frenk said that UCLA has taken “robust actions” to make its campus safe for all students.

Earlier this year, the university instituted new policies to manage campus protests and has taken action against conduct violating the institution’s policies, he said.

UCLA has launched an initiative aimed at extinguishing anti-Semitism on the campus “completely and definitively,” Frenk wrote.

“As part of this initiative, UCLA is implementing recommendations of the Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias,“ he wrote. ”These include enhancing relevant training and education, improving the complaint system, ensuring enforcement of current and new laws and policies and cooperating with stakeholders.”

Frenk said federal research grants are not “handouts,” that researchers from the university “compete fiercely” to secure such funding, and that the work conducted by these researchers is crucial to America’s safety, health, and economic future.

On Aug. 4, senior leaders at the university held a town hall attended by 3,150 faculty and staff to discuss the issue, following which the university estimated that grant suspensions by federal agencies would put $584 million in funding at risk, Frenk said.

“We are doing everything we can to protect the interests of faculty, students, and staff—and to defend our values and principles,“ he said. ”The UC Board of Regents and the UC Office of the President are providing counsel as we actively evaluate our best course of action.”

Removing Discrimination, Harassment

Other U.S. universities have agreed to adhere to the federal government’s policies, often after the Trump administration threatened federal funding cuts.

Columbia University was, until recently, in conflict with the administration over the issue of alleged anti-Semitic incidents on campus. In March, government agencies cut $400 million in university funding because of this issue.

Last month, the university announced it would pay $200 million to resolve allegations that it discriminated against Jewish students, securing restoration of federal grants in return.

“While Columbia does not admit to wrongdoing with this resolution agreement, the institution’s leaders have recognized, repeatedly, that Jewish students and faculty have experienced painful, unacceptable incidents, and that reform was and is needed,” the university said, announcing its deal with the federal government.

On July 30, Brown University said it reached an agreement with the federal government after being in conflict over the issue of violating Title IX, which prohibits sexual discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal funding.

Under the deal, the university committed to making policy adjustments such as using the Trump administration’s definitions of “male” and “female” for athletes and housing on campus. This includes installing female-only floors at dormitories and offering male and female bathrooms. The university also vowed to take measures to address anti-Semitism on campus.

The agreement restores federal funding to the university for research and ends the government’s investigation into racial and sexual discrimination.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon applauded the deal.

“Restoring our nation’s higher education institutions to places dedicated to truth-seeking, academic merit, and civil debate—where all students can learn free from discrimination and harassment—will be a lasting legacy of the Trump administration, one that will benefit students and American society for generations to come,” she said.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/08/2025 - 13:25

Gen Z: Nationalists vs. Communists

Authored by Adam Sharp via Daily Reckoning,

Young Americans are fracturing along ideological fault lines.

They are breaking into two camps. For lack of better terms, we will call them the far-right and far-left.

Unfortunately, there are few surveys which ask these kinds of questions. Pollsters still query along legacy party lines, Democrat vs. Republican, even though those labels are losing relevance.

Fortunately I have two teenage kids, and friends in the same boat. So I have a pretty good read on young Americans’ political leanings.

Most kids I know fall into one of two buckets. Let’s call them America First nationalists and hardcore socialists.

Girls are more likely to be on the far-left, while young men are increasingly right-wing. This gender divide couldn’t be clearer, at least in my area.

This shift to the extremes is understandable. Both sides are angry, and for good reason. The system isn’t working for them.

Young people today see a world in which they have no chance of affording a house. See the chart below, which shows how the average age of homebuyers has soared over recent decades.

The median homebuyer is now 56 years old! That’s up from 31 in 1981. Wages simply haven’t kept up with housing costs. The American dream is increasingly out of reach.

As kids, Gen Z was told to go to college and they’d get a 6-figure desk job. Now they’re graduating, often saddled with unpayable debt, into a rough market for new white-collar workers. Blue-collar workers are having less trouble finding steady work, but inflation is a pervasive problem.

The young left sees the solution in more socialism. The young right wants politicians to put America first and shrink the government. Both want to end corruption and tear down the status quo.

Strangely, on certain issues these two seemingly distant emerging political wings agree.

Increasing Nationalism

On both the left and the right, different kinds of nationalist sentiment is rising. Both right and left are increasingly against immigration, for example. For too long, mainstream politicians spurred immigration into the States. Broad support for this is ending.

And the more hardcore wings of each side are increasingly angry about America’s many foreign entanglements. They want the war in Ukraine to end. And Gen Z as a whole tends to disapprove of American support for Israel. This is in sharp contrast to older conservatives, who still tend to support Israel.

In general, young people want more focus on America’s issues, and less on the world’s. Again, this is completely understandable. Our youth is struggling, and they see trillions of dollars being spent overseas. Meanwhile our debt load continually rises.  It is politically and economically unsustainable.

Consequences and Direction

For the past 30 years, the left has dominated the culture wars. Think political-correctness, DEI, LGBTQ propaganda in schools, and immigration. Even mainstream conservatives gave way on these issues.

Now everything is changing.

The young right is on the rise, and the consequences of this shift will be dramatic and long-lasting.

A recent post by Robert Sterling on X summed up the situation perfectly:

The left has no idea the monster they’ve created with Gen Z men. Absolutely no idea.

These guys spent their formative years navigating an unprecedented social experiment—COVID lockdowns; DEI struggle sessions; pronouns, micro-aggressions, land acknowledgements, intersectional justice—and, as a demographic, they simply snapped. They stopped fearing cancellation, they realized black marks on social credit scores don’t leave permanent stains, and they started owning—rather than futilely trying to defend against—the accusations of villainry they had suffered since young age.

It’s a wholesale reactionary movement against a political system—more than that, a culture at large—which, rightly or wrongly, they see as dedicated to their emasculation. A system that, in their view, creates little of value, affords them scant opportunity, celebrates that which is ugly and mediocre and profanes that which is sacred.

From the fires of this crucible is emerging the most right-wing generation I’ve ever seen. And from the unhinged group chats of today are emerging the legislators and congressmen of tomorrow.

The left has no idea what they have done, and they can’t imagine what the second- and third-order effects of this will be.

Nailed it. Historically, major political shifts are driven by disaffected young men. That’s where we are with America’s youth today. Especially on the right.

President Trump is responsible for some of this shift, but I suspect the young right movement will eventually outgrow his brand of conservatism. Don’t get me wrong, Trump is a vast improvement from Biden and past GOP leaders. But he’s still too mainstream for these disaffected young Americans.

For the past 3 decades, mainstream Democrats, neocons, and RINOs had their way with the direction of America. This new generation will lead the way to change that.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/08/2025 - 12:45

This is something to watch again. Here is another update on lumber prices.
SPECIAL NOTE: The CME group discontinued the Random Length Lumber Futures contract on May 16, 2023.  I switched to a physically-delivered Lumber Futures contract that was started in August 2022.  Unfortunately, this impacts long term price comparisons since the new contract was priced about 24% higher than the old random length contract for the period when both contracts were available.
This graph shows CME random length framing futures through August 2022 (blue), and the new physically-delivered Lumber Futures (LBR) contract starting in August 2022 (Red).
On August 8, 2025, LBR was at $652.50 per 1,000 board feet, up 24% from a year ago.
Click on graph for larger image.

There is somewhat of a seasonal demand for lumber, and lumber prices frequently peak in the first half of the year.
The pickup in early 2018 was due to the Trump lumber tariffs in 2017.  There were huge increases during the pandemic due to a combination of supply constraints and a pickup in housing starts.  

Trump Orders Surge Of Law Enforcement In Washington To Combat Crime

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President Donald Trump had ordered the federal government to increase law enforcement presence in Washington to combat violent crime, the White House said on Aug. 7.

U.S. Capitol Police Officers patrol the East Front plaza of the Capitol Building in Washington on March 7, 2024. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

“President Trump has directed an increased presence of federal law enforcement to protect innocent citizens,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, noting that the city “has been plagued by violent crime for far too long.”

The White House said that additional law enforcement officers would be deployed on the streets for seven days commencing midnight following an 11 p.m. roll call on Thursday at an established command center.

The operation, led by U.S. Park Police, will involve officers from the U.S. Capitol Police, Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Protective Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Enforcement and Removal Operations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Marshals Service, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. The number of officers had not been disclosed.

District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Before the announcement, Trump said on Aug. 5 he was considering placing the District of Columbia under federal control after the recent assault of former Department of Government Efficiency staffer Edward Coristine.

The assault allegedly involved underage gang members. Two 15-year-olds were arrested in connection with the attack, and police said they are still looking for other members of the group.

“Crime in Washington, D.C., is totally out of control,” Trump stated on Truth Social. “If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore.”

The president demanded that the city—which is run by a locally elected city council and mayor—change its ordinances regarding the prosecution of minor offenders. He said that offenders as young as age 14 should be subject to trial as an adult for violent offenses.

“Local ‘youths’ and gang members, some only 14, 15, and 16-years-old, are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent Citizens, at the same time knowing that they will be almost immediately released,” he stated.

On March 28, Trump signed an executive order establishing the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force, which will be tasked with ensuring “maximum enforcement” of federal immigration law in the city, reviewing federal prosecutorial policies on pretrial detention for criminal defendants, and monitoring the city’s sanctuary-city status.

The order also directed the task force to work with local law enforcement to facilitate the deployment of “a more robust local law enforcement” in areas of Washington and to ensure strict enforcement of “all applicable quality of life, nuisance, and public-safety laws” in the city.

The Associated Press and Joseph Lord contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/08/2025 - 12:05

Trentadue To Trump, Bondi: Release The OKC Tapes

During last night’s ZeroHedge panel on the Oklahoma City bombing, attorney Jesse Trentadue (whose brother Kenneth Trentadue was murdered by the FBI then covered up in the wake of the OKC bombing) had two requests for the Trump administration: “[release] the videotape of the bombing and unseal John Matthews’ deposition, because the Department of Justice has it sealed, and President Trump’s Department of Justice is fighting to keep it sealed.”

Trentadue filed a FOIA lawsuit in 2008 to get the surveillance tapes — which the FBI is on record acknowledging exist — but the bureau has told him “they can’t find it”.

“You would think if you had a videotape showing who committed this horrific crime, wouldn't that have been exhibit number one in McVeigh's criminal trial? The reason it wasn't because I believe that second person was an FBI operative who got out of that truck.”

Investigative reporter and author Peter Schweizer, who hosted the ZH panel, responded: “Let’s make sure that those two messages are delivered to Pam Bondi.” 

Well as our other guest, Margaret Roberts, pointed out… it already has been delivered… by Jesse.

“Those are the two critical calls to action. Jesse has a letter on Attorney General Bondi’s desk since March asking the Justice Department to stand down from its opposition to unsealing the John Matthews deposition.”

Roberts recently published her book Blowback: The Untold Story of the FBI and the Oklahoma City Bombing (available here).

She continued, “The other area here that needs addressing is the FOIA process. This is supposed to be the citizens’ last resort for obtaining records that belong to the American public. This story belongs to the public, not locked away in secret government vaults. The many exclusions available to the secret keepers inside these government agencies make it almost impossible.”

“Jesse has navigated this flawed process so masterfully, and yet this FOIA action to release the videotapes has just been sitting marooned for more than a decade. John Matthews told Jesse he had been pressured by the FBI not to tell his story… FOIA needs to be fixed.”

Check out the full discussion here, shorter than our typical debates but packed with info:

https://t.co/c1e9mSWnIp

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 7, 2025

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/08/2025 - 11:45

From BofA:

Next week, we will initiate our 3Q GDP tracker ... [August 8th comment]
emphasis added

From Goldman:

[W]e boosted our Q3 GDP tracking estimate by 0.2pp to +1.2% (quarter-over-quarter annualized). Our Q3 domestic final sales estimate stands at -0.1%. [August 7th estimate]

And from the Atlanta Fed: GDPNow

The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the third quarter of 2025 is 2.5 percent on August 7, unchanged from August 5 after rounding. After this morning’s wholesale trade report from the US Census Bureau, the nowcast of the contribution of inventory investment to third-quarter real GDP growth increased from 0.76 percentage points to 0.82 percentage points. [August 7th estimate]

Schiff: Interest Rates Should Be Higher, Not Lower

Via SchiffGold.com,

Along with Trump, market watchers are salivating for rate cuts. But rates should be higher, not lower - and in a free market, they would be.

In a free market, interest rates are determined by the supply and demand for credit. Savers provide capital (supply) while borrowers like businesses, consumers, and governments create demand. Rates would reflect the real cost of capital. They would balance risk, inflation expectations, and real economic conditions.

Instead, we trust a small handful of individuals with full implied mastery of an infinitely complex system with endless interdependent factors that even they admit they don’t fully understand. It’s absolute madness when this same system, left to its own devices, would self-correct on its own if we allowed it to. In that self-correcting system, rates would be drastically higher than they are now.

All central planning does is distort markets by trying to override the natural order in favor of the preferred reality of bankers, bureaucrats, politicians, and academics. While you can achieve a brief illusion of success, you can’t do that forever. Meanwhile, most people have too little understanding of the dynamics, and too short an attention span to realize what’s actually happening. That includes politicians.

The prevailing popular sentiment always seems to be that we can just make the economy great by declaring lower interest rates and printing money, and that monetary easing is both necessary and inevitable. But while investors focus on short-term gains, the underlying conditions almost never support rate cuts in today’s economy. 

Real interest rates are still low by historical standards, and the federal government continues to run huge fiscal deficits. Inflation is still a problem and consumer prices are going to keep going up. Lowering rates even more will make those problems worse.

As Peter Schiff said recently on Fox Business:

“We still have a lot of inflation in the pipeline from all the money the Fed’s been printing over the last, you know, couple of decades.”

Peter also mentioned the inflationary impact of Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which adds fuel to the fire the Fed has already lit and stoked:

“Plus we have the Big Beautiful Bill, that is highly inflationary, because of its massive increases in already big deficits. So I think there’s a lot of inflation that’s coming, and you’ve got the impact of tariffs that is lagging a bit, but it’s going to be there.”

As for Powell, in the face of political pressure and opposition in his own ranks, he at least seems to understand that inflation is still too high, staying steadfast that rates shouldn’t be lowered yet. But he even went as far as leaving the door open to hike them (albeit vaguely, as the Fed always does):

“And so now you have Powell saying I’m going to do ‘whatever it takes’ (to bring down inflation), and that is going to require rate hikes.”

Artificially low rates incentivize borrowing, discourage saving, and misallocate capital into speculative ventures. The asset bubbles and malinvestment can take years to unwind, which then leads to calls for even more intervention. That’s the cycle we’re seeing now, and the one we see over and over.

So while Powell is right for not cutting rates, he was already wrong to have dropped them as low as they already are. The bigger and much more important fact is that Powell’s job shouldn’t exist at all. In a free market, rates would be drastically higher, as they would have to go sky-high for the system to properly correct. If left to their own devices, the blatant unsustainability of the US debt would ring all the market’s alarm bells with regard to default, pushing up Treasury yields. 

Abysmal personal savings would drive rates higher still, as the average American has basically nothing in the bank, and has retirement accounts consisting of a social security ponzi and 401ks filled with stocks that only go up because the currency keeps becoming less valuable. 

Look at US household saving rates as just one basic example. They spiked right around the time everyone got handed a wad of free, freshly-printed money. Now, five years later, they’re even lower than they were before the spike.

US Personal Savings, 10-Year

Global demand for dollars and Treasuries help keep rates down, but as confidence in the dollar drops more and more, rates will have to keep going up to continue attracting that capital. Ultimately, the Fed can only mess with short-term rates, and trying to keep them artificially low  can only give the illusion of succeeding for so long.

The market’s desire for lower interest rates is understandable, especially in the face of sluggish growth, instability, and high borrowing costs. Ultimately, the solution is not more central planning or different leadership at the Fed, but abolishing central monetary planning altogether. Rather than waiting for the Fed to “get it right,” policymakers and economists should be asking whether the Fed should be setting rates at all. While more people are asking this question than probably at any other time in modern economic history, the established orthodoxy continues to refuse to regard it as anything but a total non-starter.

A free-market approach to interest rates would result in massively higher rates and promote sounder long-term decision-making, both by investors and by governments. But it would cause tremendous economic pain as the low rate-addicted economy figures out how to grapple with its paper-thin security blanket being ripped away. 

It’s hard to imagine a Fed Chair, or president, who would be willing to publicly encourage this kind of reset.

 

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/08/2025 - 10:20

JPMorgan Changes Fed Call After Miran Appointment, Now Sees September Rate Cut

On Thursday President Trump named current CEA Chair Stephen Miran to serve as Fed governor for the remainder of outgoing Governor Kugler’s term. That term ends at the end of January, and the president indicated that the administration is continuing to search for a “permanent replacement.”

Like Peter Navarro, Miran has a PhD in economics from Harvard, and has also offered some unorthodox economic views, particularly about reforming the Fed. Almost all the substantive reforms he’s suggested would require Congressional action, something that does not appear to be immediately likely.

Separately, Bloomberg confirmed what we have been saying for months, namely that current Governor Waller is now the favorite in the race to succeed Powell as Fed chair. Waller is viewed as a widely respected policymaker who would represent continuity and whose nomination would very likely be cheered by markets, yet his recent Fed contrarian calls (he was one of two dissenters last week) have made him a darling in the eyes of the Trump admin. 

As JPM chief economist Michael Feroli reminds us, last year, Miran penned an opinion piece arguing for hawkish monetary policy, although as Feroli adds, he "very much doubts that remains his view today." And while getting Miran approved by the Senate after it gets back from recess on September 5 but before the next FOMC meeting starts on September 16 would be a Herculean task, many thought that about getting OBBBA done before July 4.

Historically, new governors or Fed presidents have sometimes abstained from voting at their first FOMC meeting. But Feroli - and we - suspect that may not be the case now. So, according to the JPM analyst, in the off chance Miran is governor by the time of the next meeting, that could imply three dissents. That’s a lot of dissents.

For Powell the risk management considerations at the next meeting may go beyond balancing employment and inflation risks, and JPMorgan now sees the path of least resistance is to pull forward the next 25bp cut to the September meeting, while also continuing to look for three like-sized cuts at the subsequent three meetings before pausing indefinitely.

But what about the S&P printing new record highs every day? Well, as Feroli notes, "it's not unprecedented for the Fed to ease when stocks are at or near all-time highs" although he caveats that "it’s rarer when stocks are at the highs and inflation is above target and inflecting higher." So, an ease next meeting isn't likely to be broadly welcomed by the Committee, according to JPMorgan.

At the last FOMC meeting, Powell framed the labor market risks in the context of the unemployment rate. Simplifying to that one dimension, a rate of 4.4% or higher could get a larger-sized cut at the next meeting, while a rate of 4.1% or lower could prompt a few dissents for a full employment, above-target inflation cut. 

More in the full JPM note available to pro subs.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/08/2025 - 10:01

Disney Settles Legal Dispute With Gina Carano Over Her Firing From 'The Mandalorian'

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

Disney has settled a legal dispute with actress Gina Carano following her dismissal from “The Mandalorian,” according to both parties.

Carano announced on social media that she had “come to an agreement” with Disney and its subsidiary, Lucasfilm, resolving the lawsuit she filed last year over her termination.

“I am humbled and grateful to God for His love and grace in this outcome,” she stated on X.

“I am excited to flip the page and move onto the next chapter. My desires remain in the arts, which is where I hope you will join me.”

The actress and former MMA star also expressed her gratitude to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the owner of X, who helped fund her lawsuit. Carano said that Musk had backed her case without asking anything in return.

“I want to extend my deepest most heartfelt gratitude to Elon Musk, ... a man I’ve never met, who did this Good Samaritan deed for me in funding my lawsuit,” she wrote.

A Lucasfilm spokesperson stated that the company will “look forward to identifying opportunities to work together with Ms. Carano in the near future” after the case resolved, adding that she has always been a well-respected actress.

The terms of the settlement have not yet been disclosed. Disney did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Disney fired Carano in 2021 over a social media post it described at the time as “abhorrent and unacceptable” for allegedly “denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities.”

In a now-deleted post, Carano stated that “because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views.”

Carano played rebel ranger Cara Dune on two seasons of “The Mandalorian” before she was terminated from her role. The actress had argued the firing was discriminatory and filed a lawsuit last year.

Her lawyers argued that Disney and Lucasfilm had targeted Carano for “harassment, termination, and public defamation” because she expressed views that did not align with the company.

In July last year, U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett denied Disney’s bid to dismiss the case, ruling that “the court cannot conclude, as defendants urge it to, that plaintiff’s continued employment by defendants would inhibit or intrude upon defendants’ rights to expressive association.”

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/08/2025 - 09:45

Under Armour Shares Crash As Kevin Plank's Turnaround Plan Hits Wall

Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank's turnaround plan has hit a wall, with the athletic apparel and footwear maker forecasting worse-than-expected adjusted EPS and revenue, both missing Bloomberg Consensus estimates. 

The struggling Baltimore-based brand, once expected to challenge Nike but now severely falling short, said it expects revenue this quarter to decline between 6% and 7%, compared with the nearly 3% drop projected by analysts tracked by Bloomberg.

The takeaway from Under Armour's Q2 guidance is that its turnaround plan is losing momentum amid mounting macro headwinds, tariffs, and soft consumer demand:

• Revenue Drop: A projected 6–7% decline, more than double Wall Street's expected 3% fall, points to weaker demand, especially in the North America market, despite efforts to reposition the brand with premium products.

• Margin Pressure: A sharp gross margin contraction of 340 to 360 bps from tariffs, supply chain costs, and unfavorable channel mix suggests cost pressures are outweighing pricing gains.

• Earnings Downturn: Adjusted EPS guidance of just 1 cent to 2 cents versus the 26-cent consensus is a massive shortfall, implying that higher costs and weaker sales will erode profitability. 

• Limited Profitability: Even excluding restructuring costs, projected operating income of $30 million to $40 million is modest for a brand trying to reestablish growth.

While the new tariffs are creating major headwinds, the more unexpected and ominous sign is that demand across its North American market is shrinking amid Plank's turnaround plan. 

"Moving ahead, we're focused on strengthening our brand positioning with premium products and increasing our average selling prices through innovative offerings, optimizing our top-volume programs, and creating a more compelling full, price-to-value proposition. Regardless of the backdrop, this is about building a fearless, thoughtful, and stronger Under Armour," Plank wrote in a statement. 

Under Armour delivered mixed Q1 results, slightly better than last year in profitability but still showing soft top-line growth and ongoing demand issues in key markets. 

Summary of Q1 results (courtesy of Bloomberg): 

Adjusted EPS 2.0c vs. 1.0c y/y, estimate 2.5c (Bloomberg Consensus)

Loss per share 1.0c vs. loss/shr 70c y/y, estimate EPS 1.2c

Net revenue $1.13 billion, -4.2% y/y, estimate $1.13 billion

• Apparel revenue $747 million, -1.4% y/y, estimate $735.5 million

• Licensing revenue $24.4 million, +12% y/y, estimate $22.6 million

• Footwear revenue $266 million, -14% y/y, estimate $291.8 million

• North America revenue $670.3 million, -5.5% y/y, estimate $672.1 million

• Asia Pacific revenue $163.4 million, -10% y/y, estimate $155.7 million

• EMEA revenue $248.6 million, +9.6% y/y, estimate $244.5 million

• Latin America revenue $54.6 million, -15% y/y, estimate $57.5 million

Adjusted operating income $24.4 million vs. $8 million y/y, estimate $20.7 million

Inventory $1.14 billion, +2% y/y, estimate $1.1 billion

Total location count 442, +0.2% y/y, estimate 443 (2 estimates)

Operating income $3.32 million vs. loss $299.7 million y/y, estimate $6.04 million

Shares are down as much as 20% in premarket trading, set for the largest decline in three years. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/08/2025 - 09:25

The post The Impact of Trump Tariffs on the Trade Deficit appeared first on CEPR.

 

This week, I speak with Timothy Ferriss, an American entrepreneur, investor, author, podcaster, and lifestyle guru. He is known for his 4-Hour self-help book series — including The 4-Hour Work Week, The 4-Hour Body, and the 4-Hour Chef. He’s written five number one bestselling books, including Tools of the Titans. He also has a new card game called Coyote. In this episode, they discuss trying to figure out how his body works, how his psychology works, how his emotional world works.

A list of his favorite books is here; A transcript of our conversation is available here Tuesday.

You can stream and download our full conversation, including any podcast extras, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Bloomberg. All of our earlier podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here.

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Deven Parekh, Managing Director, Insight Partners, a global venture capital and private equity firm. He has made 140 investments in enterprise software, data &, consumer internet businesses in N. America, EU, India, Southeast Asia, Israel, Africa, Latin America, and Australia.
He was named to CB Insights’ Top 100 Venture Capitalist.

 

 

 

Favorite Books

 

 

Published Books

 

 

 

 

 

The post MiB: Tim Ferris on The Productivity Mindset appeared first on The Big Picture.

Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: 1st Look at Local Housing Markets in July

A brief excerpt:

Tracking local data gives an early look at what happened the previous month and also reveals regional differences in both sales and inventory.

Closed sales in July were mostly for contracts signed in May and June, and mortgage rates, according to the Freddie Mac PMMS, 6.82% in May and 6.82% in June (somewhat higher than for closed sales in June).

In July, sales in these early reporting markets were up 0.9% YoY. Last month, in June, these same markets were up 0.9% year-over-year Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA).

Important: There were the same number of working days in July 2025 (22) as in July 2024 (22). So, the year-over-year change in the headline SA data will be similar to the NSA data.
...
This was just several early reporting markets. Many more local markets to come!

There is much more in the article.

US Startup Scoops Up Bankrupt Northvolt's $5B European Gigafactory Assets

By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com

California-based Lyten has signed a binding agreement to acquire nearly all remaining assets of failed European battery firm Northvolt, including its Swedish and German gigafactories and all remaining intellectual property. In the deal, announced on Thursday, the company confirmed it would take over Northvolt Ett, Northvolt Labs, and Northvolt Drei, including projects developed with more than $5 billion in capital investment.

According to Energy-Storage.news, the assets include 16GWh of operational lithium-ion capacity at Ett, with an additional 15GWh still under construction at Drei. Lyten plans to immediately restart production at Ett and the adjacent R&D complex, while continuing construction in Germany. Several Northvolt executives are expected to join Lyten as part of the transition, the Financial Times reported. 

Northvolt, once the EU’s flagship battery champion, filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. in late 2024 and in Sweden this March. Its collapse followed escalating delivery delays, cost overruns, and financing shortfalls. At its peak, the company had raised more than $10 billion and was considered central to Europe’s energy storage ambitions, according to Reuters.

This latest deal follows Lyten’s earlier acquisition of Northvolt’s Polish energy storage division, Northvolt Dwa, as well as the California-based lithium-metal battery firm Cuberg. The company now controls nearly all of Northvolt’s former assets. Per Energy-Storage.news, Lyten’s chief business officer Keith Norman said lithium-ion deliveries from Dwa will begin in Q4, with plans to later integrate lithium-sulfur chemistry based on demand.

Lyten is also in talks with Canadian officials to acquire Northvolt Six, a Quebec-based facility with integrated cell, cathode, and recycling lines. A $200 million funding round completed in July will help finance the acquisition, restart manufacturing, and support the company’s lithium-sulfur transition roadmap.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/08/2025 - 07:20