Zero Hedge

Does Demand Create Supply?

Does Demand Create Supply?

Authored by Frank Shostak via Mises Institute,

By popular thinking, increases in demand cause economic growth. According to such thought, whenever the economy falls into a recession what is required is to strengthen demand. Since government is seen as an important part of total demand, what is then required is to increase government outlays, thereby lifting overall demand and hence increasing economic growth.

According to the popular view, it is also possible to strengthen overall demand through the inflationary increases in money supply. With more money in their possession, and for given prices, the so-called real balances will increase and this, in turn, will strengthen individuals' expenditure on goods and services. This allegedly will strengthen the economy's overall demand and will strengthen economic growth. A decline in the prices for a given money supply will also boost the real balances and thus the economic growth. But does it make sense that demand is the key driver of the economy?

In the free market economy, wealth-generators do not produce everything for their own consumption. Part of their production is used to exchange for the products of other producers. Hence, in the free market economy, production precedes consumption. This means that something is exchanged for something else. This also means that an increase in the production of goods and services sets in motion an increase in the demand for goods and services. According to David Ricardo,

No man produces but with a view to consume or sell, and he never sells but with an intention to purchase some other commodity, which may be immediately useful to him, or which may contribute to future production. By producing, then, he necessarily becomes either the consumer of his own goods, or the purchaser and consumer of the goods of some other person.

An individual's demand is constrained by his ability to produce goods demanded by others. The more goods that an individual can produce, the more goods he can demand.

Expanding Private Savings: Key To Economic Growth

Without the expansion and the enhancement of the production structure, it is difficult to increase the supply of goods and services. The expansion and enhancement of the production structure hinges on the expansion of production, private saving, and capital investment. Saving supports individuals in the various stages of production. It supports individuals that are employed in the enhancement and the expansion of the production structure. Hence, what matters for economic growth is not just tools, machinery, and labor, but saving and investment in capital goods.

Government Is Not A Wealth-Generator

Contrary to popular thinking, the government does not produce any wealth. Increases in government spending cannot grow the economy. By nature, the government must take from the private, productive economy to facilitate any of its actions. By doing this, the government weakens the wealth-generating process and undermines prospects for economic recovery during a downturn. According to Rothbard,

Since genuine demand only comes from the supply of products, and since the government is not productive, it follows that government spending cannot truly increase demand.

Likewise, an increase in money supply only sets in motion an exchange of nothing for something. This means a weakening in the process of wealth formation and leads to economic impoverishment.

An important factor that makes the fiscal and monetary stimulus appear to "work" is if the amount of private savings is large enough to support non-wealth generating activities while still permitting a growth rate in the activities of wealth generators. It also gives the appearance of wealth as new sectors are stimulated. Additionally, if funded by inflation, the benefits of inflation appear early and are only realized later.

If, however, voluntary saving is declining, then, regardless of any increase in government spending and inflation by the central bank, overall economic activity cannot be revived. In this case, the more the government spends, and the more the central bank inflates, the more will be taken from wealth-generators, thereby weakening any prospect for a recovery. Additionally, these measures will further distort the economy.

As one can see, not only does the increase in the expansionary fiscal and monetary policies not raise overall output, but, on the contrary, it leads to a weakening in the process of wealth generation in general. According to Say,

...the only real consumers are those who produce on their part, because they alone can buy the produce of others, [while]...barren consumers can buy nothing except by the means of value created by producers.

Conclusion

By popular thinking, increases in government spending and central bank inflation strengthens the economy's overall demand. This, in turn, sets in motion increases in the production of goods and services. What we have here is a claim that "demand creates supply." However, to be able to exchange something for goods and services, individuals must first have something that others want. This means that, in order to demand goods and services, individuals must produce something useful first. Hence, supply drives demand and not the other way around. Governments, by nature, must take from the private, productive sector in order to fund their activities. Increases in government spending and the money supply growth rate results in the diversion of savings from the wealth-generators to non-wealth-generators, thus undermining the wealth generating process.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 18:25

Homeowners Face Eminent Domain Bulldozers As Data Centers Demand Ever More Power

Homeowners Face Eminent Domain Bulldozers As Data Centers Demand Ever More Power

Georgia Power isn’t negotiating anymore. The Southern Company subsidiary is seizing dozens of homes and hundreds of easements across Coweta and Fayette counties to ram through a 35-mile, 500-kilovolt transmission line that will feed at least four massive AI data centers. Project Wansley is just the latest flashpoint in a backlash that has been building for months.

QTS Data Center in Fayetteville, Georgia

At least 20 to 30 homes face outright demolition. Another 300-plus properties will get permanent easements for towers planted in backyards and next to pools.

But residents like Ansley Brown are fighting back. Her mother bought their family home in 2003 through a USDA rural development loan for single mothers. Now the utility wants the property for the corridor. Brown’s viral TikTok exposing the lowball offers (she says $70,000 to $100,000 below market) has racked up millions of views and drawn state lawmakers into the fight. 

Ansley Brown, 27, whose mother purchased the family's childhood home in 2003 through a federal USDA loan for single mothers, became the face of the resistance after a TikTok video she posted drew more than 6 million views and caught the attention of state legislators.

Georgia Power says the line is essential.

The company is racing to add roughly 10 gigawatts of new generating capacity over the next five years, with executives openly stating that  about 80% of that power will go to data centers. Meanwhile, transmission has become the bottleneck, and utilities are turning to eminent domain to clear the path.

This isn’t happening in isolation. We’ve been pounding the table on data center resistance, from Northern Virginia counties rejecting new substations to Texas communities suing over water drawdowns and power rate spikes. The pattern is the same: hyperscale demand collides with local infrastructure limits, and the costs get socialized while the profits stay private.

Electricity prices are already feeling the pressure. Utilities across the Southeast and Midwest have warned of double-digit residential rate hikes tied directly to data center load growth. Georgia Power’s own filings show residential customers absorbing a growing share of the bill for transmission and generation built primarily for big tech. 

The same dynamic is playing out with Meta’s Georgia facilities, where local reporting has highlighted water quality complaints, including muddy runoff affecting nearby residents, alongside the power demands.

We’ve seen this movie before with pipelines and wind farms. The difference now is the sheer scale of the load and the speed at which it’s arriving. Data centers don’t just want power; they want it yesterday, and they’re willing to let utilities use the state’s hammer to get it. The pushback in Georgia is a warning shot as more communities draw the same line.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 18:00

Iraq's Oil Collapse Sparks Race For New Export Routes

Iraq's Oil Collapse Sparks Race For New Export Routes

Authored by Simon Watkins via OilPrice.com,

  • Iraq's oil production has collapsed to just 1.39 million bpd after the Strait of Hormuz blockade stranded exports.

  • Baghdad is urgently trying to revive northern export routes through Turkey, including the Kirkuk-Ceyhan system and a new Kirkuk-Nineveh pipeline.

  • China is re-emerging as a major strategic player in Iraq's energy infrastructure, with Chinese firms heavily involved in Baghdad's new north-south pipeline expansion.

April was indeed the cruellest month for decades for Iraq's crude oil production, with an average of 1.389 million barrels per day (bpd) over the period. This compares to a monthly average of 3.47 million bpd from January 2002 to the end of March this year, and an average of over 4.1 million bpd in the three months leading up to the onset of the U.S./Israel-Iran War on 28 February. The last time oil production fell to the current level in the country was in the early 2000s, during and immediately following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Even for a diversified economy, this would spell bad news, but for Iraq, it is existential, with over 90% of its annual budget historically coming from oil and around 95% of that black gold having to pass through the still-blockaded Strait of Hormuz before it is monetised. The effective closure of that key export route meant that Iraq's domestic oil storage tanks quickly filled to maximum capacity, and because it has extremely limited options to transport its crude elsewhere, it has been forced to shut down production wells entirely. As disastrous as it is now, even worse may be to come soon, as these shutdowns can cause permanent damage to wells through a loss of reservoir pressure, water infiltration, and corrosion, among other factors. In Iraq's case, many of its biggest mature southern fields are highly susceptible to these problems. This is why the race has been on in Baghdad to secure other export options, most notably now, pipeline options in the north, but these bring their own sets of problems with them.

Historically, moving oil from the southern part of Iraq administered by the Federal Government of Iraq (FGI) in Baghdad was a largely redundant exercise, with little demand for it from Europe that was not already being filled by oil coming from the country's semi-autonomous northern region, presided over by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Instead, the onus of the FGI's export drive was to the East, especially to China - a route involving the Strait of Hormuz. This was also a pivotal means by which sanctioned Iranian crude oil could be surreptitiously transported to the same destination, rebranded as non-sanctioned Iraqi oil, with all elements involved in this mechanism analysed in full in my latest book on the new global oil market order. Aside from the ongoing conflicts with Washington that this continued practice brought with it for Baghdad, it also meant that the Federal Government could focus on measures aimed at stopping the KRG's oil exports to Europe via a pipeline running into the Turkish port of Ceyhan, thus pressuring its ability to generate financing independent of Baghdad. This was central to Baghdad's long-term objective to destroy the economic infrastructure of the Kurdistan region before rolling it into the remainder of a unified Iraq as just a regular administrative region. The idea was in line with the geopolitical ambitions of Baghdad's superpower sponsors, China and Russia, as also detailed thoroughly in my latest book. These objectives were outlined some time ago by a very senior member of the Russian administration to a senior source who works closely with Iran's Petroleum Ministry, and then exclusively relayed to OilPrice.com: "By keeping the West out of energy deals in Iraq, the end of Western hegemony in the Middle East will become the decisive chapter in the West's final demise." On the other hand, the U.S. and its allies wanted to bolster the independence of the Kurdistan region to act as leverage to extend their influence in the rest of Iraq to the south. Their objective was to have the Kurdistan region expel all Chinese, Russian, and Iranian companies from the region, and then to gradually push for the same to happen in the rest of Iraq.

The key lever Baghdad used to effect this plan to subsume the northern Kurdistan region was a deal struck in 2014, in which the FGI pledged to send the KRG money each month from Iraq's central government budget (17% at the time the deal was made) in exchange for the KRG pledging to send oil produced in its region (around 550,000 bpd at the time of the initial deal) to the FGI. The deal has never worked properly, with either Baghdad accusing Erbil of underdelivering oil (and selling it separately outside the terms of the agreement) or Erbil accusing Baghdad of underpaying from the budget - or both simultaneously. This, though, has caused a big problem for Baghdad since the outbreak of U.S./Israel-Iran War, in that the KRG had the only workable pipeline solution that would enable Baghdad to move its oil anywhere for monetisation through exports. Moreover, the supply/demand dynamics shifted so that European refiners grew desperate to secure any replacement barrels to compensate for those that had come through the Strait. To capitalise on this - but with no fully working pipeline itself, and disagreements with the KRG still simmering away - Baghdad has resorted in recent weeks to transporting oil to Turkey as and when it can through trucks overland.

Something is better than nothing, of course, but these volumes pale into insignificance when compared to those that could be achieved through a working pipeline, and it is this that Baghdad is aiming to get up and running as soon as possible. Not that long ago, the FGI had an oil pipeline that ran from the disputed, federally-controlled Kirkuk province adjacent to Iraq's Kurdistan region to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. It ran northwest from the Kirkuk K1 field through federal territory (the Salahaddin and Nineveh provinces, near Mosul) up to the border town of Fishkhabur. This "original" Kirkuk-Ceyhan Pipeline or Iraq-Turkey Pipeline (ITP) consisted of two pipes, which theoretically had a nameplate capacity of 1.6 million bpd combined and was split into 1.1 million bpd for the 46-inch (1,168-mm) diameter pipe and 500,000 bpd for the 40-inch (1,016-mm) line. This FGI-controlled pipeline's export capacity reached between 250,000 and 400,000 bpd when running normally, but even before the Islamic State entered the picture in 2014, the pipeline was subject to repeated and ongoing attacks by various Sunni militant groups operating in the region. Given its unreliability as an export option, the KRG constructed its own single side-track pipeline, from the Taq Taq field through Khurmala, which joins the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline in the border town of Fishkhabur. This had a nameplate capacity of 700,000 bpd, which was then increased to 1 million bpd, although it has so far reached only 900,000 bpd.

With or without a peace deal between Iran and the U.S./Israel alliance, Baghdad is now pushing ahead with the Kirkuk-Nineveh pipeline as part of the Iraq-Turkey crude oil pipeline extending to Ceyhan Port on the Mediterranean Sea, which is independent of the KRG. The Kirkuk-to-Nineveh line is not a standalone project, but rather is the vital northern leg of the rehabilitated federal network, proving the physical pipe required to carry oil around the KRG's territory and deliver it directly to the Fishkhabur border terminal. The 350,000-bpd design capacity of this Kirkuk-to-Nineveh segment reflects the Oil Ministry's cautious, phased approach, as they cannot safely test the entire 1.6 million bpd nameplate capacity of the old system at once. Opening this 350,000-bpd pipeline allows Baghdad to easily handle the initial trial target of 150,000 to 250,000 bpd of Kirkuk crude next month. Moreover, once the southern Basra-to-Haditha corridor is built, it will plug into this newly opened Kirkuk-Nineveh-Fishkhabur line, creating a seamless, high-volume flow from the Persian Gulf to Turkey - at least, that is the idea.

However, just when the West thought that Iraq might be moving back into its own sphere of influence and away from China's, Beijing's hand has appeared again in this grand pipeline project. To obviate any future problems that might come in transporting oil from its massive southern fields out into the world, Baghdad is working to connect these directly to the northern network, and to achieve this, it has agreed to partner heavily with Chinese engineering firms. This will be part of the US$1.5 billion emergency infrastructure budget approved by former Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani that ties into the 2019 "Oil-for-Projects" agreement between Baghdad and Beijing, fully analysed in my latest book on the new global oil market order. Suffice it to say here that under this framework, Iraq sets aside 150,000 barrels of oil per day in an escrow account to serve as collateral for such work undertaken by Chinese entities. Indeed, Baghdad bypassed traditional open public bidding to directly invite specialised Chinese state companies to fast-track construction of the US$5 billion Basra-to-Haditha pipeline - the 700-kilometre mega-corridor designed to pump 2.5 million bpd from the south up toward the northern networks.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 17:00

Reuters Peddles Fake News After Defense Contractor Misuses Civilian Starlink Terminals

Reuters Peddles Fake News After Defense Contractor Misuses Civilian Starlink Terminals

Reuters dropped another misleading article today - this time attempting to manufacture drama between the Pentagon and SpaceX over Starlink usage during the Iran conflict.

The story framed routine commercial contract discussions and terms-of-service enforcement as major "tensions" and growing Pentagon reliance giving Elon Musk undue leverage.

Reuters' version of events was that SpaceX used wartime urgency to raise the price of Starlink connections on U.S. drones from roughly $5,000 to $25,000 per terminal, forcing the Pentagon to pay up while exposing how dependent the military has become on Musk-controlled infrastructure.

The reality, according to Musk, is that the dispute centered on a more basic issue: a drone manufacturer or contractor allegedly used civilian Starlink terminals on military weapon systems, including drones, in violation of Starlink's commercial terms of service, when the proper government and defense product is Starshield. In other words, Reuters framed the episode as a price-gouging and leverage story, while SpaceX and the Pentagon framed it as a contract-compliance story involving the misuse of civilian satellite service for weapons applications.

Musk was clear in multiple posts that this is a longstanding policy. Commercial Starlink is not authorized for weapons applications and is shut down when discovered.

The Pentagon also pushed back on the story.

Pentagon officials have emphasized the strong partnership with SpaceX, which provides critical capabilities through its Starshield military variant. Starshield terminals are designed for secure government and defense use, connecting to both commercial and dedicated secure constellations.

The Reuters piece, of course, relied on anonymous sources and selectively presented pricing discussions while ignoring the core issue of contract compliance. Musk has consistently maintained that commercial Starlink terms prohibit weaponization, a point he has reiterated across multiple conflicts.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 16:40

Defending The Fourth Amendment To Protect Gun Owners

Defending The Fourth Amendment To Protect Gun Owners

Authored by John Velleco via Gun Owners of America,

All gun owners fully understand the vital importance of preserving the Second Amendment. But right behind that Constitutional Amendment in importance is the need to uphold the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

After all, without robust Fourth Amendment rights, we will never have much of a Second Amendment right. For that reason, both Gun Owners of America and Gun Owners Foundation have regularly filed amicus briefs to guard against erosion of Fourth Amendment rights. We recently filed such an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the High Court to ensure that law enforcement not abuse the investigative technique known as “knock and talk.”

As more and more states seek to ban more and more classes of previously legal firearms, gun confiscation has become an ever-greater threat. Historically, the Fourth Amendment’s protections have been greatest when applied to the home, which also happens to be where most guns are kept. The Supreme Court has discussed the right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion.

However, the courts have recognized that police have the right to “knock” on the door of your home, and “talk” to you - if you agree to speak. In Florida v. Jardines, 569 U.S. 1 (2013), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that all visitors - including the police - have an “implicit license” to “[i] approach the home by the front path, [ii] knock promptly, [iii] wait briefly to be received, and then (absent invitation to linger longer) [iv] leave.” That rule seems entirely reasonable - but it is astonishing how police have come to abuse that “implicit license.”

In a recently decided case from North Carolina, State v. Reel, 297 N.C. App. 205 (N.C. Ct. App. 2024), the police broke every one of the rules, but the search was upheld. The officers suspected drug dealing was going on at a house, so they parked on a side street and crossed the defendant’s side yard - not the front yard. They followed a visitor to the front door, and when the defendant opened the door for the visitor, tried to force their way in behind her. The police never actually knocked. And, they never actually talked - except to demand the door be opened so they could rush in, claiming to have smelled marijuana. When the defendant refused and shut the door, another officer kicked in the door, searching for and seizing drugs. Thus, “knock and talk” was used as a pretext to conduct a warrantless search and seizure in a home. Nevertheless, North Carolina’s two highest courts approved.

GOA’s amicus brief urged the U.S. Supreme Court to impose a “bright-line” rule for law enforcement, so officers would know their limits, and judges would have a clear rule to enforce. We argue that since the “implied license” was based on the fact that any visitor - such as trick-or-treaters or girl scouts - to a house could “knock and talk,” the police could do the same. So we took that justification and suggested it be made the rule – a clear limitation on what the police could do. We proposed the rule to be:

The right of a police officer to conduct a “knock-and-talk” is no greater than a Girl Scout has to approach a house to sell cookies.

Since a Girl Scout cannot walk around your house to the back yard to the back door, neither can the police. Since a Girl Scout cannot come to your house in the middle of the night, neither can uninvited police. No peering through windows. No forcible entry. No hanging around without invitation from the occupant. No repeated trips back to harass the occupant. No surveillance devices. And, the occupant must have the right to refuse to talk, and to revoke the “implied license” for the police to remain and talk whenever he chooses.

The police have a tough enough job. Fuzzy rules of procedure not only jeopardizes the peoples’ liberties, but also law enforcement safety.

Gun owners must be especially vigilant where Fourth Amendment rights are concerned, because the threat of warrantless police sweeps to take guns from law-abiding citizens is not merely theoretical. Not long ago, Texas politician Beto O’Rourke boldly claimed: “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47, and we’re not going to allow it to be used against your fellow Americans anymore.” And the anti-gunners seem to get far more militant every year. Thus, any weakening of the Fourth Amendment jeopardizes the Second Amendment.

GOA will always lead the fight to defend the “right to keep and bear arms,” as well as those other constitutional rights essential to protect guns, and that most definitely includes the Fourth Amendment.

John Velleco is the Executive Vice President of Gun Owners of America.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 16:20

Lavrov Warns Rubio: Get Diplomats & Americans Out Of Kiev Ahead Of 'Systematic Strikes'

Lavrov Warns Rubio: Get Diplomats & Americans Out Of Kiev Ahead Of 'Systematic Strikes'

Russia has again warned Washington to evacuate embassy staff in Kiev as it prepares to launch "systematic strikes" against the Ukrainian capital, in apparent retribution for last week's deadly Ukrainian drone attack on a college dorm in Starobelsk, in Russian-controlled Luhansk Oblast.

It is further and more broadly warning all foreign persons to exit the Ukrainian capital, which has already been getting pounded at various intervals, stretching back days. Russia's foreign ministry slammed the college dorm attack, which killed and wounded dozens - the "last straw" and that the military will initiate "systematic strikes" on assorted targets across the Ukrainian capital from now on.

The statement condemned the Zelensky government, which "deliberately targets civilians and does not hesitate to murder children in cold blood" - and warned that serious escalation is imminent.

AFP/Getty Images

"This was the last straw. Under these circumstances, the Russian Armed Forces will be launching systematic strikes against the Ukrainian military-industrial complex in Kiev, including locations where UAVs are designed, manufactured, programmed, and prepared for use,” the ministry said.

The Russian military will no go after "decision-making centers and command posts" - the statement featured in state media continued.

In Kiev, city residents and bystanders must stay away from the "military and administrative infrastructure facilities of the Zelensky regime" - the statement additionally warned.

Most significantly, the Kremlin didn't just stop at this general public announcement, but directly notified the US State Department and Secretary of State Marco Rubio himself:

Russia said on Tuesday its government has warned U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to evacuate diplomats and American citizens from Kyiv, as Moscow plots fresh strikes on the Ukrainian capital.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov “officially informed” Washington that Russia would be launching “systematic and consistent strikes” against Ukrainian military facilities and what Moscow called “decision-making centers,” in a call with Rubio on Monday, according to the Russian government.  

...The call came after the Russian government issued a statement urging foreign citizens, diplomatic personnel, and international organizations to leave Kyiv, warning that it was preparing to target the capital, with a focus on facilities for designing, manufacturing, and programming drones.

At this moment, there's been little or nothing in the way of any official White House condemnation of the imminent new attacks on the Ukrainian capital.

The fact that Lavrov so bluntly informed his American counterpart is somewhat unprecedented, even after over four years of war. Russia seems to be stating ahead of time that if there's 'collateral damage' against foreign embassies or consulates, that it cannot be blamed. 

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 15:40

NYC Mayor Mamdani's Housing Plan Sparks Property-Rights Alarm Over Forced Transfers To Nonprofits

NYC Mayor Mamdani's Housing Plan Sparks Property-Rights Alarm Over Forced Transfers To Nonprofits Mamdani Releases "Block by Block: The Housing Plan for A New Era"

NYC socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani released "Block by Block: The Housing Plan for a New Era," which presents a sweeping, deeply troubling blueprint to tackle the metro area's deepening housing crisis.

Mamdani told the crowd:

When necessary, we will take aggressive legal action to remove negligent owners and property managers. And for buildings that have suffered chronic neglect, we work to transfer ownership to responsible stewards. Stewards include community land trusts, nonprofits, or even the tenants themselves.

X user Difficult Froyo outlined what he described as the obvious playbook by the socialist mayor:

Rent control so landlords cannot raise rent to properly maintain the property. NYC takes the property and gives it to his political friends that donate to him. This is all going to be a theft scheme.

Another X user asked:

"Insane. If this isn't communism, I don't know what is. Has America really reached the point of communism?"

Mamdani's backdoor property-seizure strategy will likely spook lenders, insurers, and small landlords. That's because it caps landlord income, allows residential buildings to become distressed, then uses the city's enforcement to push properties into nonprofit, community land trust, or tenant ownership.

Via Inconigto... 

The carveout that Mamdani has to allow one-time rent hikes on certain vacant units already shows that Mamdani's team understands that a rent freeze creates financial stress for some affordable-housing owners. 

Ahead Of Speech: Mamdani To Carve Out Struggling NYC Landlords From Rent Freeze Experiment

NYC socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani is expected to announce on Tuesday that certain distressed landlords will be excluded from his proposed rent freeze, offering relief to apartment owners squeezed by debt, rising insurance costs, utilities, and repair bills in the increasingly unaffordable metro area.

Mamdani is expected to make the announcement at Powerhouse Arts in Gowanus, Brooklyn, where he will unveil a plan that would allow eligible owners of apartments financed or regulated by city housing agencies to impose a one-time rent increase on vacant units, even if a broader rent freeze is enacted later this year, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The 34-year-old socialist campaigned on the promise of free bus rides and government-run grocery stores, as well as freezing rents on the city's nearly one million rent-regulated apartments throughout his four-year term, which would offer relief to about 2.4 million residents.

The exemption could apply to roughly 300,000 apartments, about one-third of the city's rent-stabilized stock, though officials expect only hundreds of vacant units to use the rent-increase tool. The move reflects the political and financial pressure Mamdani faces after campaigning on a four-year rent freeze for roughly one million regulated apartments, a pledge that alarmed landlords already squeezed by debt, insurance, utilities, and repair costs.

This rent-freeze exemption will only apply to vacant apartments in the city that are already financed and regulated by the city's housing agencies. Rent increases will be limited by the income caps set by the city. -WSJ

WSJ noted that City Hall has also created a new $5 million loan program to help landlords cover tenants' overdue rent and avoid evictions.

The move comes just ahead of the nine-member Rent Guidelines Board, which is set to vote in June, supporting increases of 0% to 2% on one-year leases and 0% to 4% on two-year leases for rent-stabilized apartments.

The New York Times estimates the median rent-stabilized studio apartment goes for about $1,360 a month, and a two-bedroom rents for about $1,530. The median rent for a market-rate studio is north of $2,000, and for a two-bedroom it's about $2,200.

Last year, the Rent Guidelines Board approved increases of 3% for one-year leases and 4.5% for two-year leases, despite the housing affordability crisis in the metro area.

Related: 

These policies are part of Mamdani's long-awaited housing plan, which also includes new efforts to build multi-family buildings and expand tenant protections. He has laid out a goal of building 200,000 new residences.

"When communities don't build new housing, rents stay high, housing choice stays limited, and many New Yorkers are locked out of neighborhoods where their families can thrive," Mamdani's team wrote in a section of the new plan shared with POLITICO reporters ahead of the release.

Mamdani is trying to balance his pro-tenant rent-freeze campaign promise with the reality that parts of the city's affordable housing network are in financial shambles.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 15:20

Can Spencer Pratt Win?

Can Spencer Pratt Win?

Authored by Mike McDaniel Via AmericanThinker.com,

The Los Angeles mayoral race provides illuminates Democrat party thinking.

There is non-politician, normal American Spencer Pratt running against Communist, Castro-admiring, current Mayor and black woman, Karen Bass, and Indian - the country - woman, and LA Council member, Nithya Raman.

Graphic: X Post

The only debate thus far was a self-inflicted disaster for Bass and Raman, and Bass is refusing to debate again. Asked--yes or no—whether illegal aliens should vote, Pratt answered “no,” and Bass and Raman, looking like cockroaches caught in the open when the kitchen lights came on, sputtered versions of: “well, it depends…” Pratt is the law and order, clean out the insanely violent homeless, no disease-infested discarded needles, no human feces everywhere, sane, fiscally responsible candidate. Bass and Raman are California democrats, which is to say the opposite of Pratt and sane Californians, many of whom have already fled to red states, leaving only people likely to vote for Bass, the woman who can’t imagine any need for rational anti-wildfire policies, like keeping reservoirs filled with water.

In a rational state—California is currently on fire again—Pratt should be a shoo-in.

His political ads are brilliant, influencing future ads. He’s out-fundraising Bass, but this is California.

Kurt Schlichter is a high-powered lawyer, retired army officer, and best-selling author who still lives in California. He grew up there and lived the California dream, seeing California in its glory days when anything was possible. He remains because he’s one of the well-off elite able to weather California’s current, unlivable horrors. And, most importantly, he doesn’t live in LA:  

Nope, Los Angeles is not my problem, and I’m not going to give it another moment of thought. If it wants to drown in a cesspool of hobo dung, it can dive in. Spencer Pratt is absolutely right about everything he says, from the fires to the junkies to the gross incompetence.

Moreover, everybody knows it’s true. But nobody cares. You need to understand something. This isn’t about competence.

When Karen Bass, a black communist mental defective, looks baffled at Spencer Pratt explaining how she’s helped run Los Angeles into the ground, that look of confusion is not because she’s stupid. She is, but it’s because he’s speaking a different language. She’s a literal communist. She’s gone to Cuba and taken notes. Her purpose isn’t to create prosperity and security for the people of Los Angeles. Her purpose, like that of all communists, is to secure power. The same is true of her bizarre, real competitor, some South Asian communist named Nithya Raman.

As is endemic to the Third World, they fetishize power; these Marxists want control. That’s it. It’s not about filling in potholes. It’s not about safe streets. It’s not even about keeping half the city from going up in flames. It’s about control. There is no bottom to Los Angeles. It’s not going to get so bad that people are going to generate some sort of backlash, no matter how clever Spencer Pratt’s ads are, and they are clever. Those ads are only scoring with those of us on the outside. They give us false hope that something can be done. But nothing can be done. The decline is not the point. It’s literally irrelevant to them.

Take Detroit, once also a rich and powerful city. Do you think that at some point, the leftists who control it looked at it and said, “Wow, we have become Detroit. Yikes! Should we try something else”? No. The dysfunction is the function; the squalor doesn’t matter to them. Not at all.

California has the nation’s highest unemployment and the largest illegal population. When its rampant fraud is investigated, it will surely be number one in the nation in that dubious distinction. The streets and freeways are crumbling, crime is out of control, and never-to-be-finished boondoggles like the high-speed rail to nowhere that no one wants, needs or will ride, and an animal and Monarch Butterfly(?) wildlife bridge despoil the landscape.

Schlichter goes on to explain that the remaining Californians will vote for Bass again because they’re Californians and Democrats.

They can’t help themselves:

What’s it going to take to fix Los Angeles, California, and the rest of the blue hellholes?

Gosh, you don’t want to ask that. You’re not going to like the answer.

They will never fix themselves. Never. All the normal people are gone.

You’ve got a few rich leftists and a bunch of welfare cheats, and that’s it. It’s going to take something from the outside to fix them. It would have to be imposed upon them and not gently

That’s not happening anytime soon—if ever.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 14:20

Private Equity To Be Blocked From Buying Homes?

Private Equity To Be Blocked From Buying Homes?

Authored by Matt Stoller via BIG,

Based on a vote last week, it seems very likely Congress will ban corporate ownership of most existing single family homes. "People live in homes," said Trump in January. "Not corporations." While Trump has sometimes talked a big game on constraining Wall Street, he generally hasn't followed through. In this case, though, he did. And somehow, a very corporate-friendly legislature came through as well.

It's almost impossible to believe, but here's the relevant provision in the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act that passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, by a 396-13 margin.

And here's the White House's statement supporting the bill.

As called for during the State of the Union, this legislation includes the President's signature priority: banning large institutional investor purchases of single-family homes. Section 1001 delivers a framework that addresses Wall Street's dominance in the single family housing market and protects Main Street homebuyers.

And the House followed the Senate, which in March passed an even more stringent ban, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren. There are some important caveats here, which I'll go into. But it's still a remarkable accomplishment, and a shockingly weird Warren-Trump alliance, that no one would have predicted a year ago.

So what happened?

I wrote up the full account two months ago, when the Senate acted. The short story is that voters were mad about high housing costs in 2024, and voted against the Democrats as a result. In January, Trump realized voters were now mad at him for high housing costs. And so he wanted to do something. But what could he do? He was trying to impose his will on the Federal Reserve, which could lower rates for homeowners. But that wasn't working out because he couldn't get the Supreme Court or the Senate to go along.

And beyond that, mortgage rates aren't the only driver of costs. So what hiking housing prices? There is a split in both parties over that question. One theory comes from a group of Wall Street-friendly liberals and libertarians, known as the "Abundance movement," who argue the problem is that we're not friendly enough to capital, and the solution is to remove zoning limitations. Yet despite the removal of many such limitations in states like California, there hasn't been a spurt of homebuilding.

A different theory comes from anti-monopolists, who believe that the consolidation of financing power and homebuilding capacity led to supply restrictions. That group argued that Wall Street cash was pouring into single family housing as an asset class, driving up prices for ordinary people. And those buyers, as corporate landlords, didn't serve renters particularly well. There is substantial evidence behind this theory.

Institutional ownership is regionally concentrated, with investors buying up properties in particular cities. In Atlanta, for instance, large institutional investors have dominant shares of the market…

In 2024, the Federal Trade Commission under Lina Khan found that Invitation Homes, a spinoff of Blackstone, had engaged in rampant misbehavior. The CEO told one of his subordinates to “juice this hog” and they did so by deceiving renters, unfairly evicting people, charging junk fees, and so forth…

Congressional documents showed that “renters in institutionally-owned SFR homes often experience higher rent increases, inflated fees, and diminishing quality of housing over time.” And Federal Reserve economists wrote a paper observing that such investors “raise rents at 60 percent higher rates than the average increase when first acquiring the property,” and that rents overall go up.

Big builders are now working with Wall Street to construct single family homes that never go on the market, but instead are rented out from the beginning. This "Build to Rent" sector took off, doubling in market share from 2021-2024. And it is now where institutional capital is focused. Build to Rent allows Wall Street to augment an asset class, and it enables control of housing supply to keep prices up.

Trump usually has an intuitive understanding of where voters are, even if he often chooses other priorities. And on housing, he got that the public is quite populist. Here’s the New York Times’s latest poll, showing that Democrats by a more than two to one margin blame corporate monopolies over supply restrictions for the price of homes and energy. It’s likely not that different among independents or the GOP.

Trump issued an executive order and a Truth Social post on the need to ban corporate ownership of housing. He even criticized the big homebuilders, saying they were “sitting on 2 Million empty lots, a RECORD.” And he called them similar to the oil cartel OPEC. Here’s what Trump said in his order, and honestly, it would be hard for me to write it any better.

A growing share of single-family homes, often concentrated in certain communities, have been purchased by large Wall Street investors, crowding out families seeking to buy homes. Hardworking young families cannot effectively compete for starter homes with Wall Street firms and their vast resources. Neighborhoods and communities once controlled by middle-class American families are now run by faraway corporate interests. People live in homes, not corporations. My Administration will take decisive action to stop Wall Street from treating America's neighborhoods like a trading floor and empower American families to own their homes.

This policy decision by Trump synced up with a bill that Republican Senator Tim Scott and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren had prepared in the Banking Committee to lower housing costs back in July of last year. Their goal was to improve supply, by doing things like encouraging more manufactured housing, speeding up zoning, and providing more public money for homebuilding and cities.

When Trump chimed in with his views, Scott and Warren then included a provision to ban large institutional investors from owning single family homes, setting a limit of 350 homes per investor. They also imposed significant limits on the "Build to Rent" sector. The Scott/Warren bill passed 89-10, an overwhelming majority.

The fly in the ointment was the House of Representatives, notably the Republican Chair of the Financial Services Committee, French Hill. Private equity was pouring in money to help Hill. His goal was to force the Senate to sit down and negotiate something different, removing the institutional ownership caps.

The big question was whether the White House would be able and willing to jam Hill, and force the House to accept the Senate package. It was possible. Trump himself was not particularly focused on housing, as the Iran War, AI, the ballroom, the Federal Reserve and his lawsuit with the IRS were taking up his attention. But if the House Democrats were on board, then the White House could likely swing enough Republican votes to push the Senate bill through.

And that seemed to be doable, even likely. Private equity, especially buying housing, is politically toxic. And the House Democratic lead on the Financial Services Committee is an 87-year old Congresswoman named Maxine Waters, who has traditionally been an assertive liberal icon. So you'd think she'd be supportive, and could cap her long political career with a powerful bill making sure that the American home would be owned by American families.

But Waters, like so many of her generation, just doesn't want to give up power. She's controversial, she's not a good fundraiser, and Democrats are starting to attack the very old leaders who run committees. So instead of shepherding this bill through, she decided to go full pro-industry, and join Hill in opposing the provisions in the bill that would ban corporate ownership. The House majority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, backed her decision, as did much of the "Abundance" world of advocates. The House draft removed the homeownership provisions entirely.

Trump, Warren, and Scott continued to push, and finally they cut a deal with the House. The ban would stay for existing housing stock, but it would not apply if private equity built new housing, aka the "Build to Rent" sector. Corporations that own and rent single family homes would not be forced to sell them, and they can build new ones. But the existing stock of owner-occupied single family homes, roughly 70 million of them, effectively cannot be bought by big business.

There are still some aspects of the bill being negotiated, but in terms of the housing provisions, something akin to what passed the House is likely to be signed into law later this summer. And the legislation, imperfect as it is, will be the most significant housing legislation in decades, and will prevent the acquisition of the existing U.S. housing stock by Wall Street. It will be left to future lawmakers to find ways of letting renters buy out their Build to Rent homes, or further push back institutional capital from owning other parts of the American home. And single family housing isn't enough of a target, one in eight apartments is now owned by private equity.

Still, with this political setup, in this moment, it's a remarkable accomplishment. In some ways, this kind of legislation may have a parallel to Jimmy Carter's deregulatory zeal. Carter wanted to undo FDR's legacy, and fought hard, with a Democratic Congress, to get rid of public utility rules on airlines, banks, telecommunications providers, trucks, and railroads. Torn between the Democratic Party's allegiance to labor and his desire to break that alliance, he was deeply unpopular. But his deregulatory policies stuck. His successor, Ronald Reagan, built on Carter's approach, and it is Reagan, not Carter, who is known as the President that undid the New Deal.

Trump, like Carter, is a fish out of water. Trump's party is not populist, and mostly he has doubled down on support for Wall Street and war. But there are some indications, like this housing bill, that show it's the end for an entire way of doing business. Since Reagan, American policymakers have been aggressive in ensuring that capital can do whatever it seeks in getting the highest return, and the government has sought to turn whatever it can - our houses, our attention, our pain, sports betting - into an asset class for finance. Trump won't end that, just as Carter didn't end the New Deal. But his successor might.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 13:40

Mediocre 2Y Auction Prices At Highest Yield Since Feb 2025

Mediocre 2Y Auction Prices At Highest Yield Since Feb 2025

With Treasury yields sliding 4 days in a row, today's 2Y auction was not seen as especially concerning (certainly not as much as a week ago, when the 10Y was knocking on 4.70%'s door, vs 4.50% where it trades today). Still, while the auction did have it strong sides, it was hardly stellar.

Starting at the top, the $69BN sale of 2Y paper priced at a high yield of 4.071%, up 26bps from 3.812% a month ago, and the highest since Feb 2025. The auction also priced on the screws with the When Issued 4.071%, following three straight tailing auctions, so a modest improvement there.

The bid to cover was 2.640, which was down modestly from 2.653 a month ago, but above the 2.62 six-auction average.

The internals were in line: Indirects (aka foreign buyers) took down 57.6%, up from 56.48% a month ago but below the 57.9% recent average; and with Directs almost flat at 30.1% (down from 31.65% in April, and above the 29.3% recent average), Dealers were left holding 12.30%, up from 11.87% a month ago and just below the 6-auction average of 12.84%.

Overall, this was a forgettable auction with mediocre stats and internals. Then again, with the market trading treasuries and oil as one asset class today (while stocks do their own thing again), and sending sharply much lower on hopes that this time the Iran deal is definitely imminent (unlike all the previous times), it's not like anyone was paying attention to bond market internals today... or frankly anything else for that matter.

 

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 13:27

Strait Talk

Strait Talk

By Michael Every of Rabobank

Strait Talk

Despite many false dawns, markets remain upbeat on prospects for peace between the United States and Iran. Secretary of State Rubio indicated that the US side had thought it would have something to announce on Sunday night, or “maybe today” given that the Sunday deadline has now passed, and it is actually Tuesday. Striking a more cautionary tone, Iranian President Pezeshkian said of prospects that a deal would be made within the day that “nobody could make such a claim”, while President Trump had earlier said that he had urged his representatives not to rush negotiations.

US markets were closed yesterday, but Asian and European equities finished broadly higher with notable gains seen in Japan’s Nikkei (+2.87%), Taiwan’s TAIEX (+3.26%) and the Euro Stoxx 50 (+1.95%). The July Brent crude future tumbled 7.15% to close at $96.14/bbl while WTI traded below $90/bbl before closing the day at $90.88. Bonds were bid across the curve with moves at the short end being especially pronounced.

Al Arabiya reports that it has obtained a copy of the draft memorandum of understanding that reportedly has the support of both sides. Provision of the MOU are said to include:

  • Extension of the ceasefire for 60 days
  • ŸReopening the Strait of Hormuz to international navigation, guaranteeing free passage of commercial vessels and oil tankers without additional transit fees, with the Iranian side committing to take the necessary technical and security measures to ensure safety of navigation, including the removal of mines.
  • ŸEnabling Iran to resume sale and export of oil.
  • ŸContinuation of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program with the aim of reaching a long-term understanding.
  • ŸUS to ease restrictions on Iranian ports and grant specific sanctions waivers for Iran.
  • ŸEnding military operations on all regional fronts, including Lebanon.
  • ŸFreedom of navigation to be restored in Hormuz over a period of 30 days, with maritime traffic set to return to pre-war levels by the end of the 30 day period.
  • ŸNuclear issues to be negotiated over 60 days.
  • ŸSome Iranian frozen assets to be released during the first phase of implementation.

This looks very like an oil-for-oil agreement, but notably excludes any mention of Iran’s missile program or regional proxies, and kicks the contentious nuclear issue into the long grass to be negotiated over the next two months. Considering that Iran’s nuclear program was core to the rationale for the war in the first place, market participants might direct some thought toward what could happen if agreement cannot be reached on that elusive point.

President Trump said this morning that “The Enriched Uranium will either be immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed or, preferably, in conjunction and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, destroyed in place or, at another acceptable location...” An Iranian response to this claim is not yet forthcoming.

Muddying the waters further, news broke this morning that US forces had carried out strikes against two IRGC ships. A CENTCOM spokesman said that the strikes were defensive, and in response to the ships attempting to lay mines in the Strait – which would certainly run counter to the spirit of the provision for Iran to remove mines that has supposedly been agreed. Iran retaliated by reportedly targeting US planes with surface-to-air missiles, eliciting strikes from the US on missile launchers near Bandar Abbas. Despite the tit-for-tat, US sources say that the ceasefire remains in effect.

Similarly, MOU provisions for ending regional war in Lebanon face strains as Israeli PM Netanyahu says that his armed forces will intensify strikes against Hezbollah to “deal them a crushing blow.” There is also likely to be daylight between the US and Israeli positions on Iran’s nuclear program, as the US appears to be prioritising the re-opening of Hormuz through an oil-for-oil arrangement while Israel views Iranian nuclear enrichment as an existential issue. Netanyahu has previously indicated that Israel reserves freedom to act directly against the Iranian nuclear program and has faced criticism from Opposition Leader Yair Lapid for failing to influence the Americans on this point.

For Trump’s part, peace with Iran is very much being tied to progress on the Abraham Accords that seek to normalize relations between Israel and US-aligned Arab states in the Gulf and elsewhere. Progressing the Abraham Accords would allow the US to make a geopolitical silk purse from the sow’s ear of a closed Strait of Hormuz. Already the importance of this has been demonstrated through the UAE’s (a current signatory) decision to leave OPEC and OPEC+ after having been granted US dollar swaplines and Israeli military aid.

Trump took to Truth Social to say that he is “mandatorily requesting” that all countries in the region sign the Accords, calling out Saudi Arabia and Qatar specifically and saying that failure to do so would show “bad intention” and should preclude those countries from benefiting from a peace deal. Clearly things are moving very fast but, as we have been flagging for some time now, there is potential for a world on the other side of this crisis where oil flows West, priced in dollars, with its security underwritten by the US navy, and Hormuz gradually becomes less important as a maritime chokepoint.

While issues in the Gulf continue to steal headlines, there are also major developments in the Ukraine War. Russia has reportedly warned Washington to evacuate embassy staff in Kiev as it prepares to launch “systematic strikes” against the Ukrainian capital. This follows confirmation from Russia on Sunday that it had used a nuclear-capable hypersonic ballistic missile against Ukrainian targets for the third time in the war.

The Russian Ministry of Defence said that the strikes will be a response to a Ukrainian drone attack against a student dormitory building in Starobilsk that killed at least 18 people and injured dozens of others. The BBC reports comments from honorary chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy, Sergey Karaganov, who reportedly said “we need to start punishing Europe for things like this, including with strikes. Symbolic to start with. Then, perhaps, less symbolic.”

Clearly, hoped-for progress in the Strait notwithstanding, geopolitical risk is here to stay and it isn’t necessarily all ‘in the price’.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 13:00

Iran Vows 'Swift, Decisive' Revenge After Overnight US Port Attack, As Sides Seek Deal Allowing Each To 'Sell Their Narrative'

Iran Vows 'Swift, Decisive' Revenge After Overnight US Port Attack, As Sides Seek Deal Allowing Each To 'Sell Their Narrative' Summary
  • CENTCOM denies that US Navy has officially restarted guiding ships through Hormuz Strait amid fresh tanker explosion and fuel leak incident.
  • IRGC says its military shot down an MQ-9 drone and forced an F-35 jet out of Iranian airspace.
  • Tehran formally accuses Washington of "ceasefire violation" while warning a final deal is not yet imminent, while Pentagon cites "self-defense" strikes in Hormuz overnight.
  • Ayatollah Hajj message: US will "no longer have a safe haven for mischief & the establishment of military bases in the region."
  • Teran is demanding "12 billion released now and 12 billion after MOU 30 days runs out to open Hormuz."
//--> //--> //--> Iran agrees to surrender enriched uranium stockpile by June 30, 2026?
Yes 24% · No 77%
View full market & trade on Polymarket


*  *  *

Trump Again Attacks US Media Over Iran War Coverage

In a fresh Truth Social post, Trump even bashes the Wall Street Journal, which ironically enough has by and large defended Trump and seems 'pro-' Iran war in terms of their general op-ed stance and coverage...

CENTCOM Denies WSJ Report

"Project Freedom has not resumed, and U.S. forces are not currently escorting commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz," US Central Command says in a post on X. This comes after WSJ cited US officials to say that that the mission had restarted, but that reporting appeared premature.

Meanwhile on the negotiations front, an insightful line:

Abdulla Banndar Al-Etaibi, a professor at Qatar University, says any negotiation between Iran and the US requires concessions from both parties to secure a deal.

“This is the hard part,” he told Al Jazeera, noting that both Tehran and Washington have realised that they can’t reach their goals through war. “That’s why they’re [moving] towards more diplomacy.”

“At the moment, it’s about the language, and it’s about how both parties can come out and sell a narrative that they want,” Al-Etaibi added.

'Project Freedom' Officially Back On

While it's questionable to what degree US naval patrols of regional waters ever really stopped, US military officials say the navy has restarted escorts to ensure international vessels can safely cross through the contested Strait of Hormuz. The Pentagon is already touting some successes, according to a Tuesday update in the WSJ:

The officials told The Wall Street Journal that a Greek supertanker laden with two million barrels of crude was guided by the U.S. Navy, as it crossed the waterway off the Omani coast.

The ship was stuck in the Middle East Gulf since early March and is now heading to India to deliver its cargo.

The protection is a renewed push of "Project Freedom," an earlier U.S. initiative to guide ships through the vital shipping corridor that was halted roughly 36 hours into the operation.

The officials said the Navy plans to help about a dozen vessels including supertankers and container ships to cross through the waterway over the coming days.

However, some serious security incidents involving shipping (possibly involving sea mines?) in the narrow waterway are still unfolding, also with reports of a fuel leakage incident into Gulf coastal waters:

Despite all of these developments, and rising tensions and even last night's US-Israel brief airstrike raid on Bandar Abbas port, the Trump administration is still touting that a final draft deal is just 'days' away. "I think there is strong alignment and agreement on what a preliminary draft should look like," Rubio has said in fresh comments. "It's either going to be a good deal or there isn't going to be one." Tehran has vowing retaliation for the overnight US attack incident.

Israeli leaders are meanwhile vowing they'll prevent a 'bad deal' from being finalized...

F-35 Engagement, MQ-9 Shootdown

While diplomats in Washington and Tehran exchange heavily caveated peace drafts and attempt a breakthrough, the actual conflict theater of the Persian Gulf is telling an entirely different story. The fragile reality of the current ceasefire is on full display, given that after late Monday's US-Israeli action against Iranian vessels at Bandar Abbas port, the IRGC says it opened fire on a US F-35 fighter jet and multiple unmanned aerial vehicles after they allegedly breached Iranian airspace. As part of the engagement, Iran says that it shot down a US MQ-9 drone (not for the first time of the war). The IRGC claims its air defense units successfully "shot down an MQ-9" Reaper drone during the encounter, while the remaining American "aircraft were forced to flee."

This followed immediately on the heels of the United States saying carried out "self-defense" strikes in southern Iran overnight against various targets, including boats attempting to lay mines as well as even missile launch sites. "US forces conducted self-defense strikes in southern Iran today to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces," US Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins said.

Ceasefire Violation

Tehran has warned that the the ceasefire with the US is in jeopardy, with the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday having condemned the latest US "attacks on vessels as a ceasefire violation".

Iran's Foreign Ministry condemns "multiple instances of maritime piracy against Iranian commercial vessels" by the US in the Hormozgan region over the past 48 hours, according to statement. "Hormozgan is the Iranian province that incorporates Iranian ports and waters on the Strait of Hormuz," it said according to Bloomberg, citing state media, in reference to the province which has Bandar Abbas as its capital. Iran "will not leave any acts of wickedness unanswered and will not hesitate in the slightest to defend the sovereignty and territory of Iran," it said. 

Prior Planet Labs image of Destruction at Bandar-Abbas amid Operation Epic Fury

Some analysis of what may be behind this latest direct fire flare-up:

"Given where the strikes actually targeted – this is right next to where Iran would want to exert control over the Strait of Hormuz," Puri told Al Jazeera. "One interpretation of these strikes … is that it is actually the US military demonstrating that Iran will not be able to mass forces exactly at the Strait of Hormuz itself if they want to institutionalize a toll collection and inspection regime and other things."

"Both sides are signaling intent and capability and commitment during these negotiations, and they’re using actions as well as words. Sometimes they’re using actions in place of words," he added.

Ayatollah's New Threat Against US Bases

Following the engagement, an IRGC military spokesperson issued a blunt warning to Washington against future ceasefire violations, declaring that any new aggression against sovereign territory would be met with a "far more severe" response that would structurally extend "beyond the region."

Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has been in hiding, released a fiery written address via his Telegram channel to mark the Islamic Hajj pilgrimage. In the message he put American bases scattered throughout neighboring Gulf nations on notice, declaring that the US will "no longer have a safe haven for mischief and the establishment of military bases in the region."

Khamenei warned regional Arab capitals that playing host to the Pentagon carries with it certain risks. "The nations and lands of the region will no longer be a shield for American bases," Khamenei wrote in the message, even while extending an apparent olive branch of sorts immediate neighbors: "I sincerely and purely invite all Islamic countries and governments to friendship and cooperation."

Meanwhile some latest from Rubio...

Marking the Hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, his message included as follows:

Iranian leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued a message on May 26 calling for greater unity across the Muslim world against the United States and Israel, saying that the chants "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" will become the rallying slogans of Muslims and "the oppressed of the world."

Deal Status & $12 Billion Confidence-Building Measure

According to reported leaks detailing the active Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) layout, Tehran's compliance hinges on a strict, phased cash release. A source familiar with the text confirmed that Teran is demanding "12BN released now and 12BN after MOU 30 days runs out to open Hormuz." If Washington refuses to front the initial tranche, the mining operations and blockade in the Strait will remain active. The initial funds release has been described by Iranian officials as a confidence-building measure to move things along toward a final agreement.

The Islamic Republic is further seeking to remind the world that a deal is being pushed forward, but it is not imminent:

An Iranian official says that while "there is no toll" on the Strait of Hormuz, the regime is working to regulate the waterway and that ships wishing to cross will likely be required to make some form of payment.

At a press briefing in Tehran attended by the ABC, the regime issued its first direct response to statements from the United States over the weekend, suggesting a deal to end the war was close and would include opening the Strait of Hormuz. 

Iran did say a framework to end the war with the US had been reached, but warned an agreement was not imminent, and its nuclear program was not part of the negotiations. 

Lebanon Unravels

In Lebanon, the National News Agency reported at least 12 civilians were killed during a devastating overnight Israeli strike on the town of Mashghara. Concurrently, Israel’s military has issued a sweeping, forced displacement directive for Nabatieh - a city of 80,000 residents - ordering them to clear out north of the Zahrani River.

On Monday Netanyahu made clear that he had ordered a dramatic expanse of the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Evacuation orders are once again being issued for southern suburbs of Beirut, portending a return to all-out expanded war in the country, also as Hezbollah drones are being sent on northern Israel.

Status of Talks Through the Weekend

via Newsquawk...

  • Over the weekend, US President Trump posted that an agreement has largely been negotiated, subject to finalisation between the US, Iran and various Middle Eastern countries, while the final aspects and details of the deal were being discussed, and will be announced shortly.
  • He followed up by stating that negotiations are proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner, while he informed representatives not to rush into a deal and that time is on their side.
  • Reuters reported that the proposed framework is broken into three stages: 1) formally ending the war, 2) reopening the Strait of Hormuz and 3) opening an extendable 30-day window for broader negotiations on nuclear issues and sanctions relief.
  • Axios further reported, citing a US official, that an agreement would involve a 60-day ceasefire extension during which the Strait of Hormuz would be opened, Iran would be able to freely sell oil, and negotiations would be held on curbing Iran's nuclear programme.
  • However, a US senior official told Axios that the White House doesn’t expect an agreement to end the war with Iran on Sunday and believes it could take several days for the deal’s approval by Iran’s leadership.
  • Elsewhere, Iran's Foreign Minister Araghchi travelled to Doha for talks with Qatar's PM.
Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 12:50

"Warning Signs Flashing Red": Ebola Outbreak Spreading Faster Than Response, Aid Group Says

"Warning Signs Flashing Red": Ebola Outbreak Spreading Faster Than Response, Aid Group Says

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

The Ebola outbreak in Africa could become the deadliest in history because it is spreading faster than responders can deal with it, an aid group said on May 26.

Officials failed to initially detect the outbreak due to a lack of testing sufficient to identify the Bundibugyo virus, a rarer type of virus that causes Ebola. The outbreak is centered in the Ituri province in the northeast of Congo, also known as the DRC, where fighting regularly displaces people from their homes and hospitals.

“The initial failure to detect this outbreak has allowed it to spread to several areas of Ituri province in northeast DRC, where the first cases were identified, as well as to North Kivu (just to the south of Ituri) and South Kivu provinces, and now Uganda,” the International Rescue Committee, one of the aid groups on the ground, said in a report published on Tuesday.

With cases reported in key population centers such as Goma, the capital of North Kivu, and Kampala in Uganda, there is a significant risk of onward spread of the disease, the group assessed.

“The warning signs are flashing red,” Bob Kitchen, vice president of emergencies for the group, said in a statement.

“Eastern DRC is confronting this outbreak more fragile and less prepared than during the 2018–2020 outbreak that killed more than 2,000 people—and with fewer resources to fight it. Increased conflict and cuts to global aid funding have dismantled defenses at exactly the wrong moment.”

The outbreak has risen to 101 confirmed cases, about 220 suspected deaths, and more than 900 suspected cases, about one month after the outbreak was first detected. Other countries, such as Rwanda and the United States, have restricted travel from people who have been in Congo or intensified border checks.

“The delay in detecting the outbreak means that we are now playing catch-up with a very fast-moving epidemic,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization’s director-general, told a meeting of African ministers on Monday.

“We are urgently scaling up operations, but at the moment, the epidemic is outpacing us.”

There are no vaccines or treatments for the Bundibugyo virus. Containment efforts include widespread testing, isolating patients, and monitoring people exposed to known or suspected cases.

Ghebreyesus said that working with the governments of Congo and Uganda and other partners would be key to stopping the outbreak. Governments and other entities on Monday pledged about $500 million to ramp up efforts to respond to and prevent further spread of the outbreak, Dr. Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a post on X.

Technicians install beds and other equipment inside the isolation area for suspected cases at CBCA Virunga Hospital during rehabilitation work aimed at preparing the facility to receive potential Ebola cases in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, on May 22, 2026. Jospin Mwisha/AFP via Getty Images

The International Rescue Committee, which is based in New York, recommended several steps, including relaxing restrictions on the importation of personal protective equipment such as masks, and quickly donating funds to central Africa to support health workers and others.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, another aid group with personnel in Congo, has called for increased funding to expand surveillance and deploy more teams to help locals safely bury Ebola victims.

Patrick Muyaya, a Congolese government spokesman, said in a May 25 post on X that the epidemic was “well contained” in the Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu provinces.

“Every day, response teams are being strengthened and surveillance is being intensified,” he wrote, adding later that “we have the experience and expertise to contain this outbreak.”

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 12:40

Why Oil Markets Could Face A Generational Shock This Summer If US-Iran Talks Fail

Why Oil Markets Could Face A Generational Shock This Summer If US-Iran Talks Fail

President Trump is signaling "make a good deal" or walk away with no deal at all.

Overnight hostilities around the Hormuz maritime chokepoint highlight just how fragile the ceasefire remains as Washington and Tehran try to solidify a peace deal to end the conflict.

The timing of a peace deal is very important because, as we have warned readers, a no-deal scenario would collide with a deteriorating oil-supply backdrop by summer, when global buffers and floating storage begin to run down, and SPR releases become less effective in offsetting lost supply from the Gulf region.

Building on UBS analyst Arend Kapteyn's note from Friday titled "When The Oil Buffers Run Out," Brookings' Robin Brooks and Ben Harris outline in a note that oil markets could face a massive price shock by mid-July as temporary supply buffers run dry.

There appears to be consensus building among Wall Street analysts at Goldman, JPMorgan, UBS, and many other desks that if the Hormuz chokepoint is not reopened in the near term, an energy cliff may materialize in early summer.

The Brookings analysts say crude prices have so far been depressed by three factors: trade rerouting, inventory drawdowns, and market expectations that the U.S.-Iran war would end quickly.

"The bottom line is that the supply shortfall will build in the coming months as temporary buffers are depleted. And if markets grow increasingly pessimistic over an eventual resolution to the impasse in the strait, oil prices may rise materially higher," the Brookings analysts said.

However, they warned that the three factors capping crude prices are fading. Russian floating stocks are likely depleted by the end of April; Iranian floating stocks are expected to be gone by the end of May; and the IEA emergency oil release is projected to be exhausted by July 9.

They continued, "It is fair to say that the scale of the supply shortfall is now well-known to markets. But the timeline on which temporary buffers run out and how this interacts with prices is of critical importance."

"This interaction means non-linear outcomes in prices—in other words, sharp price spikes—are possible the longer this conflict is expected to take. The potential for non-linear outcomes grows the longer oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains severely encumbered," the analysts ended the note.

Shifting back to UBS analyst Kapteyn's note last week on oil buffers, he warned, "Oil prices can move much higher once inventories are depleted."

He continued:

This week saw the largest-ever drawdown in US oil inventories since records began in 1982: commercial inventories and the SPR combined fell by 17.8mb. These stock draws help explain why—despite nearly three months of supply shortfalls from the Middle East—oil is still trading "only" around $105/bbl.

Oil prices and volumes are linked by the price elasticity of demand. A simple relationship allows us to approximate price outcomes under different supply disruptions and degrees of demand destruction:

The oil team estimates that the net supply loss via the Strait of Hormuz is around 9mb/d after SPR releases, equivalent to a ~9% disruption.

At $105/bbl, this implies demand elasticity of roughly –0.2: a 1% increase in prices reduces demand by 0.2% (see chart). Without SPR releases, the supply shock would be closer to 12%, implying a price nearer $123/bbl.

There are two ways in which oil prices could increase much more:

  • First, if inventories are depleted they can no longer buffer the supply shortfall.
  • Second, as the "easy" adjustments in consumption and production are exhausted, demand becomes less responsive to higher prices.

The chart highlights some scary combinations.

For instance, if the global supply shortfall were 14% then even with the current demand elasticity, oil should be trading closer to $140/bbl. If the demand elasticity was 0.15 rather than 0.2, the implied oil price would be $208/bbl, and if the demand elasticity was 0.1 prices would approach $372/bbl.

What we are outlining here is a growing consensus across Wall Street: a no-deal outcome between Washington and Tehran would represent a severe risk for energy markets, with the critical point of no return by early summer. That is when the temporary buffers suppressing crude prices, including emergency stockpile releases, floating storage, rerouted flows, and hopes for a diplomatic off-ramp, begin to lose effectiveness. Once those offsets are exhausted, the market would likely be forced to slap a new war risk premium more aggressively, removing the current ceiling on Brent and WTI.

JPMorgan analysts recently warned about this ...

... the clock is ticking for Washington and Tehran to get a deal done or risk chaos far beyond energy markets that would spill over into shipping, then the global economy.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 12:20

The Fed Should Be Concerned: Job Market Vibes Vs Data

The Fed Should Be Concerned: Job Market Vibes Vs Data

Authored by Peter Tchir via Academy Securities,

The Job Market – Vibes vs Data

It seems like we are on the cusp of an agreement with Iran. We will help analyze the market implications in a SITREP if and when the details are released.

In the meantime, the one question that seems to puzzle everyone, is what is the state of the job market?

Yes, there are all sorts of questions around AI, the AI and data center spend, affordability, and inflation, but the state of the job market seems to be the most puzzling of late.

The juxtaposition of daily discussions about no hiring, and fears of AI job losses, versus some stellar headline data.

Record low consumer sentiment versus ongoing spending remaining strong.

Mixed (at worst) evidence of delinquencies. There is little (that I could find) evidence of a broad-based increase in delinquencies. If you squint hard, you can see evidence of pressure on the lower income part of the population, but as of now, that’s about it.

Unemployment Rate

The last two headline numbers (from the Establishment Survey), as of now (before revisions), were 185k and 115k.Big numbers, an obvious A+ in terms of grading.

While the headline is important, for most of the country, within days of the Non-Farm Payroll (NFP) release, we started to talk less about the headline jobs and more about the unemployment rate. So that seems like a good starting point for exploring the jobs data.

We used the “official” titles from Bloomberg for the Unemployment rate (blue) and the Underemployment rate (black).

The unemployment rate has been trending down and it is close to its best level in 2 years. Let’s give the unemployment rate a grade of A- (though that feels a bit stingy).

The underemployment rate is a broader definition of unemployment. It captures people stuck in part-time, low-paying, or skill-mismatched jobs. The skill-mismatched subcategory (from AI) is the most interesting to me. Is that evidence of AI taking good entry level professional jobs?

The underemployment rate came down early this year, but from the highest levels in the past 5 years. It has been trending higher and is well above the 5-year average. I’d give underemployment a B- grade (though that feels a bit generous).

The unemployment rate is based on the Household Survey.

There are a few things that stand out:

  • The gap higher for both the size of the workforce and those employed, that occurred as of December of 2024, appears to be part of annual revisions. It stands out, but is largely noise.

  • The size of the labor force has not shrunk much since President Trump took office. I honestly have no idea how many illegal workers show up in the data, or whether they don’t show up in the data. Given the crackdown on illegal workers, I bet most of those jobs never showed up in the data (again, I will admit to being confused how people working illegally were counted in the jobs data, but I’m told by people much more into the weeds on this stuff, that it happens). In any case, I was a bit surprised by the labor force data in the past year remaining almost stable.

  • Both the size of the labor force and the number working has shrunk in 2026! I don’t see any way to make fewer workers sound good.

    • The Establishment Survey has jobs of 160k for Jan, -156k for Feb, 185k for March, and 116k for April. Pretty darn good.

    • The Household Survey has -895k in Jan (adjustments included), -185k for Feb, -64k for March, and -226k for April. Even ignoring January, the last 3 months have been awful.

  • While the Household Survey is wildly inaccurate, we seem to accept it for the unemployment rate, so why don’t we spend any time looking at it for signs regarding the job market. Again, just weird that it is deemed so “useless” for jobs, but is A OK for determining the unemployment rate? If we used the change in Establishment jobs the past few months, we’d probably be under 4% - which would be amazing!

  • The final most salient point in how I think about these two data series, is that they tend to converge over time. They can deviate, often for months, but they tend to converge which tells me that we are probably headed for some weaker headline prints in the coming months.

For those of you not familiar with how I think about the two surveys used for jobs data:

  • The Establishment Survey is largely inaccurate, and the Household Survey is wildly inaccurate! From the BLS the NFP data is +/- 122k at the 90% confidence level. For the Household it is +/- 676k at the 90% confidence level! (I used AI for that data, take it with a grain of salt, but you can dig deeper on the BLS site – starting with Employment Situation Technical Note).

    • Imagine reporting your quarterly returns as we made somewhere between losing $1 billion and making $5 billion, but we won’t really know for at least a year.

    • When you really think about the margin of error, it seems almost insane how many really smart people are forced to treat something that amounts to at best, a kind of, maybe reasonable, rough guess as to the current situation as gospel truth. The BLS takes the time to point out that a reading of +50k, gives a 90% confidence that the actual number of jobs is between -72k and +172k (meaning 10% of the time, like once a year, it is likely to be off by more than that!).

I’m almost disgusted with myself (even more than usual) that I am going to try and make a point using data that is just so bizarre!

But the Household Survey is a solid D. If there is any convergence in the two different jobs totals, then we should expect some pain in the Establishment Survey (i.e., the headline number).

I am not sure what to make of the Labor Force Participation Rate (hence the color purple rather than green or red).

  • Lower participation rates can occur when times are good. Families are making so much money that a member of the family can step out of the labor force. Maybe stock market gains are so great that you don’t need to work? Overtime pay is so good, one member can step back?

  • Lower participation rates can occur when times are bad. People get so frustrated with being able to find work, they just give up and drop out of the pool of people trying to get work.

It’s all a bit of a guess, but I suspect the labor force participation is a negative signal.

I continue to believe that the JOLTs data overstates jobs available (it doesn’t fully capture how many ghost jobs are out there, how many ads are on employment websites that are stale or weren’t removed, etc.).

Even if I’m not correct on my assumption that it is overstated, the jobs available picture deteriorated over the past several years and hasn’t really improved. That would provide some support that labor force participation is dropping due to frustration with the ability to find a job.

My “favorite” piece of data is the QUIT data. I like it because it “crowd sourced.” It is one of the few pieces of data where we get to see what the average worker is thinking. People tend to QUIT when they know they can find another job easily! People tend to stay in jobs, even ones they don’t like, until they find a better job, in a tough labor market. That seems to fit.

I don’t like the HIRE rate quite as much, but it is difficult to fake. It did tick higher recently (I put some green on the chart) but it is NOT showing robust hiring.

This whole section earns a C.

Uber Eats or Law School

According to AI “Law school applications have surged roughly 15% to 33%!”

Nothing says, I’m worried about AI, so I should go to law school, because certainly AI won’t affect the need for junior lawyers.

We tend to see law school applications spike when it is difficult for college graduates to get jobs. We saw this with the GFC. Then, at least, it made more sense. Law school is a great place to hide out for a few years and wind up with a pretty good job if you can do well. But right now? If it is a bad time to graduate from college, I am not sure that in 3 years (as AI improves) it is going to be a great time to graduate from law school. I could be wrong, but off hand, becoming a lawyer “suddenly” (see the spike in applications) seems to be a traditional response in a world that is rapidly evolving.

All of which brings me to my least favorite part of the jobs data – the birth/death model!

I know that not all of the adjustment passes through to the establishment number. But I still think it is useful to think about this number.

My contention is, and remains that:

  • At one time people applied for an EIN (Employment Identification Number) because they were creating a real business. Hire a couple of people and make a go of it.

  • I believe that with the gig economy people apply for an EIN when they are looking for a side hustle to make some extra money. One client this past week told me that one of the fintech firms provides basically one click functionality to create an LLC and get an EIN. For those with rental properties, get an EIN for each one? For more sophisticated participants get one for Uber, Lyft, etc.?

The gig economy has become a major way to supplement income. With more tools making it easier to run gig jobs as businesses, more will do it. I believe the Big Beautiful Tax Bill provides some benefits to those running their gig businesses as such.

I think that the number of jobs created for each EIN application is less than 1 (many are already working, so just adding another enterprise to their toolkit), hence the birth/death model methodology massively overstates jobs.

  • Given the large annual job revisions we’ve been getting, I think there is a very strong case, that overstatement of jobs during the course of the year via the birth/death adjustment is the prime culprit.

This year’s birth/death model seems bizarrely similar to last year’s (and the year before):

  • -61k in Jan 2026 vs -105k in Jan 2025 vs -121k in Jan 2024.

  • 90k vs 136k vs 151k in Feb, -47k vs -33k vs -21k in March, and 391k vs 393k vs 363k in April.

We have seen massive downward annual revisions. There has been work done blaming much of it on how the birth/death model works. Since we are repeating the pattern in the data month by month, maybe we can assume we will once again be told at the end of the year that the actual jobs were a lot worse than reported?

This section isn’t particularly “damning” but I find it hard to see how it supports anyone arguing that the labor market is strong!

Where The Jobs Are

The first 4 months of the year have added 304k jobs to the economy (the Establishment data as of today).

221k jobs have been added in the Health Care and Social Assistance industry.

73% of jobs have been added in one industry. Yes, a large and vital industry, but that seems like a lot.

  • Is some of this related to programs enabling you to get paid to take care of a family member? I think those are great programs, but is that job creation in the way we think of job creation?

This sector doesn’t scream “growth.” If anything, it at least whispers “affordability” as for most of us, healthcare is an expense and one that I’ve seen do nothing but go up (despite how it is calculated for CPI).

The US CPI Urban Consumer Medical Health Insurance City Average has declined 22% since the start of 2021! I know they follow some calculation, but whatever the calculation is, it doesn’t reflect the reality of what employees and employers face on the health insurance premium front.

Yet another reason, that the AFFORDABILITY issue is bigger and more painful than the CPI/Inflation issue. But that rant, is a rant for another day.

Bottom Line

There seems to be, at first blush, an inconsistency between the “vibe” on jobs and the published data.

I think that inconsistency goes away if we broaden what official data we look at.

The Fed should be concerned about jobs. At the moment they aren’t, but they should be.

I would like to see a lot more jobs being created in the ProSec™ industries, than we’ve seen of late. Maybe, if we can move beyond the Iran war, the admin will provide even more support, more quickly to these crucial industries! They are working on it as you read this, but if the President is able to direct even more attention to this, it would help.

One last word on AI and jobs. We don’t know what it does for jobs going forward, but the AI and data center buildout is creating jobs right now! We can (and will) debate the outlook for jobs as AI improves and becomes more prevalent, but the buildout does create a lot of jobs – not just in the construction, but also in the power generation and other adjacent businesses.

Without the AI and data center spend, we’d have even more concerns about the current job market, but that spend looks set to continue, which will help, and maybe buy us the time to get ProSec™ more fully ramped up!

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 12:00

NANO Nuclear Soars As It Turns Revenue-Generating With Strategic Acquisition

NANO Nuclear Soars As It Turns Revenue-Generating With Strategic Acquisition

NANO Nuclear announced the acquisition of Secured Transportation Services, instantly converting itself from a pre-revenue developer into a revenue-generating business with in-house secure transport capabilities for nuclear materials.

With the $13 million acquisition of Secured Transportation Services - a nuclear logistics, transportation and services company specializing in the secure transport of radioactive and nuclear materials - NANO continues to vertically integrate itself into what will soon be the leading provider of turnkey nuclear energy solutions to the AI supercycle. Secured Transportation Services generated a profit of about $1.3 million in the twelve months ended Dec. 31, 2025. 

As NANO founder and Chairman Jay Yu put it: “NNE goes from pre-revenue to revenue generating overnight with [this] acquisition.”

Secured Transportation Services provides Nano Nuclear with the logistical infrastructure needed to vertically integrate the nuclear supply chain.

This move adds critical logistics infrastructure to NANO’s portfolio of portable microreactors and advanced fuel fabrication efforts. Secured Transportation Services brings established operations and regulatory know-how for moving sensitive nuclear cargo.

The capability vertically integrates the supply chain and removes a major execution bottleneck for future deployments.

We’ve tracked NANO’s aggressive buildout for months: the modular reactor maker, which according to many is one of the few that carries the promise of powering the AI revolution at a realistic cost, has pushed forward on its microreactor designs and fuel cycle ambitions. This latest deal fits the pattern: rapid, targeted acquisitions that assemble a full-stack nuclear platform.

The company is also demonstrating tangible progress in the deployment of their first-of-a-kind microreactor with the recent acceptance and docketing of their construction permit for the Kronos project in Illinois.

The acquisition also positions NNE to serve the surging power demand from AI data centers and remote industrial sites. Secure, reliable transport of fuel and components becomes a competitive moat as deployment timelines compress.

With this single move, NANO Nuclear has shifted from concept-stage to cash-flowing operations.

Shares of the nuclear micro modular reactor and technology company rose 13% to $29.98 on Tuesday. Shares are up 25% year to date, but they have a long way to go to catch up to their October all time highs north of $60. 

Despite the streak of favorable news in recent months, the nuclear sector has been unduly punished as the market's cash rotation has benefited data centers "picks and shovels" stocks, while ignoring the companies which are expected to power the entire AI revolution. NANO continues to be one of the most shorted names in the space, with 24% of the float shorted.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 11:25

Thomas Massie Files To Run In 2028 After Losing Primary

Thomas Massie Files To Run In 2028 After Losing Primary

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has filed paperwork to run again in 2028, just days after losing the Republican primary for the Kentucky House seat he has held for more than a decade.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) speaks during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Second Amendment hearing in Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington on April 15, 2026. Luke Johnson/Getty Images

The May 25 filing with the Federal Election Commission lists Massie, 55, as a Republican candidate for Kentucky's 4th Congressional District. Massie said the move allows him to keep raising money for his political operation while he decides what comes next.

"This allows me to raise funds to continue my political operations supporting my position as a current office holder and as a potential candidate for federal office," Massie wrote in a post on X. "I haven't made a final decision about which office to seek, if I run."

The filing also comes after Massie drew the ire of President Donald Trump, who opposed him over several policy disputes and Massie's 2025 vote against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Trump cannot run for reelection in 2028.

Trump endorsed former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, who defeated Massie in the recent Republican primary for the seat Massie currently holds. Massie had taken about 76 percent of the primary vote and 99.6 percent of the general election vote in 2024.

As The Epoch Times notes further, during his concession speech, some of Massie's supporters chanted "2028." He asked whether they wanted him to run for Congress again. They said no, then began chanting "president."

"All right, well you've made a compelling argument, ... but I need a medical margarita right now, and we'll talk about it later," Massie said.

During an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" over the weekend, Massie said he would not rule out running for president or county commissioner in 2028.

"I will not rule out anything, and right now I'm not going to rule in anything," he said.

"Look, I've spent the last five days on my farm with my grandkids, and my cattle and my peach trees, and it's a pretty nice life. I don't know if I want to screw that up again. I've been in Congress 14 years, fighting. Every hour that passes, I get decompressed a little bit more. It's like coming up from the bottom of the ocean. And I'll take some time and decide what's next. But I think I will stay engaged in some way or shape. Maybe it's from the outside. I've been exposing what's going on in Washington, D.C. for years and I'll keep doing it."

Massie has served in the House since 2012.

He said on May 22 that he would not be requesting a recount in his race, writing in a May 22 post on X that he does not think he lost due to fraudulent votes, mail-in ballots, or mistabulated results.

"There's a quiet all-out war for the future of our country," he said. "Let us not misdirect our precious resources."

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 11:00

AI Startup Says It Will Pay People $2,000 A Month to Masturbate... Yes, Really

AI Startup Says It Will Pay People $2,000 A Month to Masturbate... Yes, Really

Authored by Jason Nelson via Decrypt.co,

  • Joi AI is hiring 10 “masturbation consultants” at $2,000 for a month to test an AI-guided masturbation feature and document its effects on stress, sleep, mood, and confidence.

  • The feature uses mood-matched AI voice sessions, and consultants would submit written feedback and questionnaires directly to the company.

  • Joi AI says the campaign is intended to collect product feedback while drawing attention to AI’s growing role in sexual wellness and digital intimacy.

Joi AI says it will pay people $2,000 a month to masturbate. Yes, you read that right.

The AI companion startup is hiring 10 “masturbation consultants” to test a feature called Daily Guided Masturbation, which uses mood-matched AI voice sessions to guide users through the experience. Participants would document how regular use affects stress, sleep quality, mood, and confidence. The four-week role is open to adults 18 and older in the U.S. and the U.K.

“The role is real, and we’ve had great responses since the posting went live,” Joi AI Head of Brand and Communication Julie Levin told Decrypt.

The listing describes ideal candidates as “articulate, observant, and impossible to blush”—people who can describe sensations “better than a sommelier describes a wine.” The posting also promises flexible scheduling, and “the most interesting ‘What do you do for a living?’ answer at any party.”

Joi AI is an online platform that includes AI-generated avatars, voice interactions, and personalized chat experiences built around companionship and intimacy. Joi AI describes the new consultant role as structured product testing tied directly to its new feature.

“The role involves testing and giving feedback on the mood-matched AI voice-guided sessions, and providing feedback on the overall user experience,” Levin told Decrypt.

According to Levin, participants complete guided sessions and submit written questionnaires directly to the Joi AI team. Sample prompts ask whether the voice matched the selected mood, how immersive the session felt, and whether lags or pauses disrupted the experience.

The listing comes as platforms including Replika and Character.AI have built large user bases around AI-driven relationships and conversational experiences. Joi AI operates primarily through its website rather than major app stores. Levin said the company has more than 1 million monthly active users worldwide and millions of interactions each month, but declined to disclose total download figures.

Unlike AI assistants like Alexa or Siri, designed to help with everyday tasks, Joi AI operates in a smaller corner of that market focused on sexual exploration, fantasy, and digital intimacy. The company rebranded from EVA AI in April 2025, during what it described as its first Dating Stress Awareness Day campaign.

“Joi AI is focused on making AI companionship more immersive, personalized, and emotionally responsive,” Levin said. “We’re innovating features like Daily Guided Masturbation to make AI a more intuitive part of people’s everyday wellness routines, not just a novelty experience.”

The hiring push also comes as studies suggest AI companion use is becoming more common among people already in relationships, often without their partner’s knowledge. A new report from the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University and the Institute for Family Studies found that among dating, engaged, and married young adults who regularly used AI romantic companions, nearly 3 in 10 said their real-life partner did not know about it.

AI companion platforms are also facing growing legal scrutiny, including lawsuits alleging psychological harm to minors and deceptive chatbot behavior. Examples include a settled case against Character.AI over a Florida teen’s suicide and a separate lawsuit from Pennsylvania accusing the company of allowing a chatbot to pose as a licensed psychiatrist.

Levin said the hiring campaign was intended to generate discussion as well as recruit testers.

“It was both,” Levin said. “We are genuinely looking for people who can provide thoughtful feedback in this category, but the campaign was also designed to spark conversation around how people are increasingly using AI for masturbation as a healthy, relaxing habit.”

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 10:40

Conference Board Consumer Expectations Hit YTD Highs, Inflation Fears Dip In May

Conference Board Consumer Expectations Hit YTD Highs, Inflation Fears Dip In May

With war (and rising gas prices) now fully embedded in respondents' minds (along with record high stock prices), it is perhaps not entirely surprising that The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence dipped in May (but was better than expected).

The headline index dipped 0.7 points to 93.1 in May, down from an upwardly revised 93.8 in April.

The Present Situation Index - based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions - retreated by 3.2 points to 121.2.

The Expectations Index - based on consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions - rose by 1.0 points to 74.4 - the highest since Dec 2025.

Source: Bloomberg

“Consumer confidence edged downward in May as the inflationary impacts of the war in the Middle East intensified,” said Dana M Peterson, Chief Economist, The Conference Board.

“Consumer appraisals of current business conditions and the current labor market were moderately less positive compared to last month. This was somewhat offset by modest improvements in consumers’ expectations for business conditions and the labor market six months from now. Meanwhile, income expectations eased in May, as those anticipating less income rose.”

Consumers’ average and median 12-month inflation expectations ticked downward but remained elevated.

The overall trend of the labor market remains weaker...

Among age groups, confidence ticked up for consumers aged 35-54, but trended downward for older and younger consumers, both month-over-month and on a six-month moving average basis.

By income, confidence among higher income groups trended upward on a six-month moving average basis.

By generation, confidence improved for the Silent Generation (the oldest group) but was little changed or lower among other generations.

By political affiliation, Republicans remained the most optimistic, while Independents were the only group that saw confidence tick up on a month-over-month basis.

Consumers’ write-in responses on factors affecting the economy continued to skew towards pessimism in May. References to prices and oil and gas increased in frequency for a second consecutive month, while mentions of war, geopolitics, and conflict remained elevated—likely signaling consumers’ underlying concerns about the inflationary impacts of the war in the Middle East on their wallets.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 10:11

Key Events This Holiday-Shortened Week: PCE, Durables, Consumer Confidence And Fed Speakers

Key Events This Holiday-Shortened Week: PCE, Durables, Consumer Confidence And Fed Speakers

SSDD: with stocks set to hit new record highs, the hope this morning once again is that the days may be numbered for the war in Iran, with momentum building since the start of the weekend that a deal could be in the works. Brent, which ended last week at $103.54/bbl, is this morning trading at $97.87/bbl, around -5.48% lower than Friday’s close. However, Brent had got as low as $96.02 late yesterday before news overnight that US and Israeli jets conducted fresh strikes in Southern Iran, hitting missile launch sites and mine-laying boats. These actions were described as "defensive" and not an end to the ceasefire with Iran.

Net net, optimism is still elevated that an agreement can be made to end the war. We have been here before, of course, but it has felt for some time that the move towards peace has been three steps forward and one or two back. It is now 48 days since the main kinetic encounters, and according to DB's Jim Reid, such a prolonged truce and ceasefire would not have held if the US genuinely wanted to continue strikes, unless there was absolutely no alternative. Last night's targeted action is clearly a warning shot that the ceasefire is fragile though, so we will have to see what the next few days of negotiations bring.

Moving on to the rest of this week, inflation once again dominates with important price data across the US, Europe and Japan. In the US, the clear focal point is Thursday’s April personal income and spending report (Thursday), which contains the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge. DB economists expect core PCE inflation at around +0.3% month-on-month, unchanged from March, with the year-on-year rate edging higher. This release matters not just for the inflation print itself, but for how it fits with the broader narrative of sticky services inflation and resilient demand.

On the real economy side of the same report (Thursday), economists expect momentum to cool after a very strong March, with personal consumption growth slowing back to around +0.3% month-on-month and personal income rising by roughly +0.4%. This comes after a hawkish speech from Waller on Friday. He discussed how the recent labor market and inflation data had caused him to reevaluate the balance of risks with inflation becoming the “driving force” behind monetary policy in the near term. In particular, he noted that he would support changing language in the statement to remove the easing bias and make it clear that “a rate cut is no more likely in the future than a rate increase”. In light of this there is a lot of Fedspeak to watch this week. You can see a list in the day-by-day calendar at the end as usual but keep an eye on Minneapolis’s Kashkari (today) and Dallas’s Logan (tomorrow), both of whom had dissented against the easing bias in the April statement. They are likely to repeat their view that the stance of monetary policy should be more balanced, particularly as inflation risks remain front of mind.

Staying with the Fed, last Friday, DB's Chief US economist, Matt Luzzetti, wrote an interesting piece entitled “overinsured” where he discusses how the Fed has delivered 175bps of rate cuts in this cycle even as inflation has remained well above target, framing the last round as “insurance” or “risk management” cuts in response to elevated downside labor market risks. Matt suggests that relative to a set of standard policy rules, the first set of cuts in 2024 was appropriate. But following the second set last year, and the recent acceleration of inflation, the fed funds rate is now significantly below all policy rule settings. This finding is robust to different plausible estimates of r-star and the use of economic forecasts instead of current inflation and unemployment in the policy rules. 

Beyond PCE, Thursday also brings durable goods orders (Thursday), where our economists look for a modest headline increase consistent with steady but unspectacular capital spending momentum. Earlier in the week, the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index (tomorrow) is expected to edge lower, potentially reflecting the cumulative impact of higher rates and policy uncertainty. Weekly initial jobless claims (Thursday) remain an important high-frequency signal on labor market conditions, although holiday effects may add some volatility.

In Europe, attention turns to the May flash inflation prints at the end of the week, with Germany, France, Italy and Spain all reporting on Friday, ahead of the Eurozone aggregate the following week. DB economists expect inflation to remain above target across the region. Alongside the data, the ECB publishes the account of its April meeting (Thursday) and its Financial Stability Review (Wednesday), offering further insight into how policymakers are balancing lingering inflation pressures against softer growth and financial stability considerations.

In Asia, Japan is the key focus. Friday’s Tokyo CPI (Friday) will provide an early read on national inflation trends, alongside April industrial production and retail sales (Friday). Our economists expect inflation measures to firm modestly, underscoring that price pressures remain present even as activity data stay mixed. Elsewhere, China releases industrial profits (tomorrow), Australia publishes its April CPI (Wednesday), and the RBNZ announces its latest policy decision (tomorrow), where most economists expect the cash rate to be left unchanged.

On the corporate side, earnings highlights include US tech names such as Dell, Marvell and Salesforce, alongside consumer-facing firms including Costco and Dollar Tree, with most results clustered around mid-to-late week.

Courtesy of DB, here is a day-by-day calendar of events

Tuesday May 26

  • Data: US May Conference Board consumer confidence index, May Dallas Fed manufacturing activity, Philadelphia Fed non-manufacturing activity, April Chicago Fed national activity index, March FHFA house price index, Q1 house price purchase index, France April retail sales
  • Central banks: ECB’s Sleijpen speaks
  • Earnings: AutoZone, Zscaler
  • Auctions: US 2-yr Notes ($69bn)

Wednesday May 27

  • Data: US May Richmond Fed manufacturing index, business conditions, Dallas Fed services activity, China April industrial profits, Japan April PPI services, France May consumer confidence, Italy March industrial sales, EU27 April new car registrations, Australia April CPI
  • Central banks: Fed’s Kashkari, Logan and Cook speak, ECB Financial Stability Review, RBNZ decision
  • Earnings: Marvell, Salesforce, Synopsys, Snowflake
  • Auctions: US 2-yr FRN (reopening, $28bn), 5-yr Notes ($70bn)

Thursday May 28

  • Data: US April PCE, personal income, spending, durable goods orders, new home sales, initial jobless claims, France April PPI, Italy May consumer confidence index, economic sentiment, manufacturing confidence, April PPI, Eurozone May economic confidence, Canada Q1 current account balance, Norway Q1 GDP
  • Central banks: Fed’s Jefferson, Goolsbee, Musalem and Williams speak, ECB’s account of the April decision, ECB’s Lane, Cipollone and Schnabel speak, BoE’s Lombardelli and Breeden speak, BoC Financial Stability Report
  • Earnings: Costco, Dell, Autodesk, SSE, MongoDB, Dollar Tree
  • Auctions: US 7-yr Notes ($44bn)

Friday May 29

  • Data: US April advance goods trade balance, retail inventories, wholesale inventories, May MNI Chicago PMI, UK May Lloyds Business Barometer, Japan May Tokyo CPI, consumer confidence index, April jobless rate, job-to-applicant ratio, retail sales, industrial production, housing starts, Germany May CPI, unemployment claims rate, France May CPI, April consumer spending, Q1 total payrolls, Italy May CPI, April unemployment rate, Canada Q1 GDP, Sweden Q1 GDP
  • Central banks: Fed’s Daly, Bowman and Paulson speak, ECB’s Panetta, Radev and Muller speak, BoE’s Bailey speaks

Finally, looking at just the US, the economic data releases this week are the durable goods report and the PCE inflation report on Thursday. There are several speaking engagements with Fed officials this week, including events with Vice Chair Jefferson and Vice Chair for Supervision Bowman; Governors Cook and Waller; and Presidents Goolsbee, Logan, Williams, Musalem, Barkin, Schmid, Paulson, and Daly

Tuesday, May 26 

  • 09:00 AM FHFA house price index, March (consensus +0.1%, last flat)
  • 09:00 AM Case-Shiller home price index, March (GS -0.3%, consensus -0.1%, last -0.1%) 
  • 10:00 AM Conference Board consumer confidence, May (GS 91.5, consensus 92.0, last 92.8)
  • 10:00 AM Dallas Fed manufacturing index, May (consensus flat, last -2.3)

Wednesday, May 27 

  • 04:00 AM Dallas Fed President Logan (FOMC voter) speaks: Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan will take part in a panel on monetary policy at an event hosted by the Bank of Japan. Text is expected. In a statement explaining her dissent from the implicit easing bias in the April FOMC’s post-meeting statement, Logan said she was “increasingly concerned about how long it will take inflation to return all the way to the FOMC’s 2 percent target.” Logan stressed that “PCE inflation has exceeded 2 percent for more than five years” and that “even before recent increases in the prices of energy and other commodities, [measures of inflation that strip out extreme price changes or categories where prices are more volatile] had been running meaningfully above 2 percent.” In addition, she noted that “the conflict in the Middle East raises the prospect of prolonged or repeated supply disruptions that could create further inflationary pressures.”
  • 10:00 AM Richmond Fed manufacturing index, May (consensus +4, last +3)
  • 03:55 PM Fed Governor Cook speaks: Fed Governor Lisa Cook will deliver a speech on AI, the economy, and the financial system at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR)’s Policy Forum. Text and moderated Q&A are expected.
  • 08:00 PM Fed Vice Chair Jefferson speaks: Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson will deliver a speech on monetary policy and supply shocks at an event hosted by the Bank of Japan. Text and Q&A are expected. On April 7th, Jefferson said he saw “our current policy stance as appropriately positioned to allow us to assess how the economy evolves.” Jefferson said he “remain[s] cautious about [the] outlook,” as “uncertainty about the economy is elevated, and the rise in energy prices and the conflict in the Middle East add to that uncertainty.”
  • 10:25 PM Chicago Fed President Goolsbee (FOMC non-voter) speaks: Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee will take part in a panel on monetary policy and the world economy at an event hosted by the Bank of Japan.

Thursday, May 28 

  • 08:30 AM Personal income, April (GS +0.5%, consensus +0.4%, last +0.6%); Personal spending, April (GS +0.7%, consensus +0.5%, last +0.9%); Core PCE price index, April (GS +0.29%, consensus +0.3%, last +0.3%); Core PCE price index (YoY), April (GS +3.31%, consensus +3.3%, last +3.2%); PCE price index, April (GS +0.44%, consensus +0.5%, last +0.7%); PCE price index (YoY), April (GS +3.78%, consensus +3.8%, last +3.5%): We estimate that personal income and spending increased by 0.5% and 0.7%, respectively, in April. We estimate that the core PCE price index rose 0.29% in April, corresponding to a year-over-year rate of +3.31%. Additionally, we estimate that the headline PCE price index increased 0.44% in April, or increased 3.78% from a year earlier.
  • 08:30 AM GDP, Q1 second release (GS +2.0%, consensus +2.0%, last +2.0%); Personal consumption, Q1 second release (GS +1.7%, consensus +1.7%, last +1.6%); Core PCE inflation, Q1 second release (GS +4.26%, consensus +4.3%, last +4.3%): We estimate no revision on net to Q1 GDP growth at +2.0% (quarter-over-quarter annualized), reflecting an upward revision to consumer spending growth (+0.1pp to +1.7%) due to stronger utilities and public transportation details in the quarterly census survey (QSS), offset by downward revisions to inventory accumulation and net exports growth.
  • 08:30 AM Initial jobless claims, week ended May 23 (GS 210k, consensus 212k, last 209k): Continuing jobless claims, week ended May 16 (consensus 1,780k, last 1,782k)
  • 08:30 AM Durable goods orders, April preliminary (GS +1.0%, consensus +3.9%, last +0.8%); Durable goods orders ex-transportation, April preliminary (GS +0.4%, consensus +0.5%, last +0.9%); Core capital goods orders, April preliminary (GS +0.3%, consensus +0.4%, last +3.4%); Core capital goods shipments, April preliminary (GS +0.5%, consensus +0.6%, last +1.2%): We estimate that durable goods orders increased 1% in the preliminary April report (month-over-month, seasonally adjusted) based on our tracking of commercial aircraft orders. We forecast a 0.3% increase in core capital goods orders—reflecting the continued increase in the new orders components in manufacturing surveys in April but payback for an outsized increase in the series itself in March—and a 0.5% increase in core capital goods shipments—reflecting the continued increase in core capital goods orders in recent months.
  • 08:55 AM New York Fed President Williams (FOMC voter) speaks: New York Fed President John Williams will deliver a speech at the Reykjavik Economic Conference in Iceland. Text and moderated Q&A are expected. On May 14th, Williams said monetary policy was “in a good place,” which he characterized as “mildly restrictive,” and noted that he did not “see that there’s any reason to raise rates right now, or lower rates.”
  • 10:00 AM New home sales, April (GS -3.0%, consensus -3.5%, last +7.4%) 
  • 10:15 AM St. Louis Fed President Musalem (FOMC non-voter) speaks: St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem will deliver a speech at the Reykjavik Economic Conference in Iceland. On May 6th, Musalem said that “the risks have been shifting towards more risk on the inflation side than the employment side” and that “there are very plausible scenarios under which the economy would require us to keep the policy rate at its current level for some time.”
  • 03:00 PM Richmond Fed President Barkin (FOMC non-voter) speaks: Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin will take part in a fireside chat at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School in Washington, DC. Moderated Q&A is expected. On May 21st, Barkin noted that “with inflation above our 2% target for over five years now, it’s worth asking whether the cumulative impact of so many waves risks loosening the anchor.” At the same time, Barkin emphasized downside risks to employment from AI, noting that “everyone I talk to is talking about AI and AI-related job loss.”

Friday, May 29 

  • 06:50 AM Kansas City Fed President Schmid (FOMC non-voter) speaks: Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid will deliver a speech at the Reykjavik Economic Conference in Iceland. Text and moderated Q&A are expected. On May 14th, Schmid said that “continued inflation [is] the most pressing risk to the economy,” while “unemployment remains relatively low by historical standards, and the labor market is functioning effectively.”
  • 08:30 AM Advance goods trade balance, April (GS -$84.0bn, consensus -$86.4bn, last -$87.4bn): We estimate that the goods trade deficit narrowed by $3.4bn to $84.0bn, driven by a decline in imports of computers and other electronic products from Asia.
  • 09:10 AM Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Bowman speaks: Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman will deliver a speech on monetary policy at the Reykjavik Economic Conference in Iceland. Text is expected.
  • 09:15 AM Philadelphia Fed President Paulson (FOMC voter) speaks: Philadelphia Fed President Anna Paulson will take part in an event hosted by The Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey. Audience Q&A is expected. On May 19th, Paulson said that she saw the current stance of policy as “mildly restrictive and that restrictiveness is helping to keep inflation pressures in check while the labor market remains stable.” As a result, Paulson noted, “keeping rates steady allows us to assess how the economy is evolving and the risks to both price stability and the labor market.” Paulson said that “assuming the labor market remains in balance, rate cuts would only become appropriate once we have seen sustained progress on inflation.” She also noted that she thought it was “healthy that market participants have taken on board scenarios where the funds rate remains unchanged for an extended period, as well as scenarios where further tightening becomes necessary.”
  • 10:00 AM Wholesale inventories, April preliminary (consensus +0.4%, last +0.6%)
  • 12:40 PM San Francisco Fed President Daly (FOMC non-voter) speaks: San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly will speak at the 2026 Reagan National Economic Forum in Simi Valley, California. On May 7th, Daly said that she thought “the phrasing of the [FOMC’s post-meeting] statement is less important than the actions.” Daly noted that “if the [Middle East] conflict ends and oil prices come back down and that doesn’t get passed into the broader economy, then I expect the underlying dynamics that we were facing prior to the conflict to return.” Daly characterized the current monetary policy stance as “slightly restrictive,” which would help put some downward pressure on inflation. She noted that she did not see the labor market as a source of inflationary pressure.

Source: DB, Goldman

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 10:00

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