Dies-aster: California Diesel Nears $10 A Gallon As Global Fuel Crisis Deepens New AAA data show US diesel prices reached a record $6.05 a gallon, signaling severe tightening in global refined-fuel markets. The squeeze reflects converging pressures: damage to Russian refinery capacity and diesel export halts linked to the Russia-Ukraine war, ongoing disruption at Hormuz, expanding threats to Red Sea shipping, and renewed Chinese […]

Democracy, As Scheduled By Molly Schwartz, cross-asset macro strategist at Rabobank After breaking above $100/bbl on Wednesday, the rally in Brent crude oil continued yesterday, climbing almost 7% on the day and closing at $108/bbl, the highest price since May. US Treasury yields followed with a sharp bull-flattening, with the 2-year marking its highest level since July 2024 at 4.58%, and the 10-year making its way up to […]

Gulf States & Iran To Hold Unprecedented Meeting Monday, Seeking Hormuz Strait Deal Breakthrough Iran and some Gulf states are formally meeting in order to push and finalize an Iran+Oman-backed deal and framework for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, coming at the end of a week where multiple tankers have been attacked, including unprecedented US strikes on an Iranian civilian vessel. “Gulf foreign ministers plan to meet […]

UMich Sentiment ‘Expectations’ Plunge Near Record Lows As Republicans Lose Faith, Inflation Fears Rebound After July’s rebound to pre-war levels, a re-escalation in the MidEast (and soaring fuel costs) sent confidence back towards YTD lows. Preliminary September data was expected to show UMich headline sentiment sliding further. ‘Slide’ is not exactly how we would describe preliminary September confidence data’s collapse (headline […]

Jeff Currie Warns Odds Of $5 Gas By Midterms Are “Extremely High” Jeff Currie Featured on BBG TV Veteran commodities strategist Jeff Currie has spent the summer warning that scarcity in physical commodity markets is becoming a persistent source of inflationary pressure and giving way to a commodities supercycle. After appearing on CNBC on Thursday, he joined Bloomberg Television on Friday morning to amp up that message, warning […]

MbS Begs Trump For Bigger Anti-Houthi Intervention, As Over 100 US Advisers On Ground We’ve been documenting the Houthi rapid advance along Yemen’s western coast, as the Iran-aligned rebel group closes in on owning more vital Red Sea chokepoint coastal real estate. As of Friday, after having the day prior entered the strategic port of Mocha, it is being widely reported including in Al Jazeera that the Houthis have taken control […]

Rate-Hike Odds Soar Despite Lowest Core Consumer Price Inflation Since 2021 Following fuel-driven jump in Producer Prices, consensus was for a concomitant jump MoM in Consumer prices this morning, after last month’s decline as energy prices have rebounded (though we warned that amid all the interventionist-y chatter, nothing would surprise us less than ‘cool’ print to offset the PPI scare). And analysts were right with headline CPI […]

UK Prime Minister Burnham Rejects Calls For National Data-Center Moratorium Authored by Matthew Gooding via Data Centre Dynamics, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has ruled out a national moratorium on data centers. Speaking in the UK parliament on Wednesday, Burnham said the government’s AI Growth Zone scheme would help ensure communities hosting new data centers would feel the economic benefits of developments. Responding to a […]

Twin Chokepoint Shock: Houthis Seize Mayyun Island In Bab el-Mandeb Strait As Hormuz Disruptions Persist Three converging threats to watch are intensifying pressure on global energy markets: damage to Russian refining capacity, ongoing disruption at Hormuz, and new, expanding Houthi threats to Red Sea shipping. The resulting physical market squeeze extends well beyond the Gulf area. Record-high diesel prices in the US and other […]

Futures Rise As Oil Prices Drop Ahead Of CPI Report Futures are higher thanks to an overnight retreat in oil prices (which is unlikely to hold now that Houthi rebels effectively control the entire Red Sea) and bond yields which track oil tick for tick, but the tone could quickly shift with the week’s biggest catalyst, August CPI data, due before the cash open. As of 8:00am ET, S&P and Nasdaq futures gain 0.6% with Mag 7 […]

Meanwhile In London’s Trafalgar Square… Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News, They put it up… On Thursday morning, a five-metre tall overweight black woman in a tight blue dress and matching heels was unveiled on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth and described to the public as a contemporary “everywoman.” City Hall has called Lady in Blue a symbol of ‘confidence and purpose’. CNN framed the same object as a victory […]

More Than 62,000 Arrested For Speech-Related Offenses In Britain, Report Finds Via American Greatness, More than 62,000 people were arrested in Britain for communications offenses over a five-year period, according to a new civil liberties report warning that the country’s increasingly broad speech restrictions are having a chilling effect on free expression. Big Brother Watch found that 62,199 people were arrested between 2021 […]

Brent Nears $110 Then Tumbles On IEA Demand Destruction Warning As Houthis Threaten Saudi Oil Escape Route, Diesel Shock Goes Global Brent crude futures nearly topped $110 a barrel in the overnight hours but fell 3.5% to the $103 handle by 6 a.m. ET, after reports from the International Energy Agency that soaring fuel costs could spark global demand destruction. The global benchmark remained on course for its biggest weekly […]

US Agencies Accuse China-Based AI Firms Of ‘Malicious’ Copying Of American Models Federal cybersecurity and intelligence agencies on Tuesday accused six China-based artificial intelligence companies of running industrial-scale campaigns to extract proprietary features from leading U.S. models. DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, MiniMax, StepFun, and Z.AI were all named in the joint advisory. Officials alleged the companies, “likely […]

Ukraine Wants To Tax Sex To Fund The War Authored by Martin Armstrong via Armstrong Economics, How desperate must a government become before it considers taxing pornography to purchase drones for a war it cannot win? Ukraine is now reportedly considering legalizing parts of its adult entertainment industry to generate additional tax revenue for the war against Russia. Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak estimates legalization […]

US Home Delistings Decline As Sellers Become More Willing To Make Deals Property delistings nationwide recorded a year-over-year decline toward the end of this summer, as sellers showed more patience than they did a year ago and a larger share were willing to cut prices, according to Realtor.com. The August 2026 Monthly Housing Trends Report, released on Sept. 2, indicated that delistings declined 12.6 percent in August from a year […]

Huge Fire Along Saudi ‘Hormuz Bypass’ East-West Oil Pipeline After Alleged Houthi Strikes Update(1815ET): While unconfirmed, this would mark a huge escalation of the Houthi entry into what’s been creeping all summer into a regional war: Yemen’s armed forces targeted Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline; satellite data shows fires at six points along the route that transports crude oil from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea. (IRIB […]

Migrants Placed In Tiny British Village Will Out Number Locals By 10 To 1 Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News, The official line is that 1,256 single adult males will be placed at the old MoD depot on the edge of the Oxfordshire hamlet. Yet the document villagers pulled out of the consultation pack talks about “accommodation for 3,510 service users.” That is not a rounding error. In a place of 350 people and 46 children, […]

What More Evidence Does The Blob Need That Michael Gove Was Right? Authored by Toby Young via The Daily Sceptic, When I think of Michael Gove perusing the latest PISA league tables, proving yet again that his education reforms have transformed the life chances of English schoolchildren, a line from Broadcast News, the 1987 romcom, comes to mind. “It must be nice to always believe you know better, to always think you’re the […]

Mideast Chaos Sends Supertanker Rates Soaring To $800,000 A Day Supertanker rates on the Baltic Exchange’s benchmark Middle East-to-China shipping route have surged to a staggering $800,000 a day. With US forces having destroyed five Iranian-linked tankers and Tehran threatening further escalation in recent days, prospects for near-term stabilization remain limited. The freight surge signals that crude oil and refined products […]

Austria’s Headscarf Ban For Under-14 Schoolgirls Comes Into Force Via Remix News, Austria’s new nationwide ban on “traditional Muslim” head coverings, including hijabs and burqas, for girls under 14 in both public and private schools, has now taken effect as of Sept. 7, 2026. in Vienna, Lower Austria, and Burgenland. The start date coincided with the start of the new school year. Austria’s remaining states will follow with a ban […]

We Are In World War Xi Authored by Karen Siegemund and Bradley A. Thayer via American Greatness, As the Russo-Ukrainian war continues, Americans may blame Russian leader Vladimir Putin for starting “World War III.” It is correct that World War III has started, but its cause is the People’s Republic of China (PRC), not Russia. The war did not start with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 or with the appeasement of Russia in the […]

25 Years Later, Air Travel Still Bears The Imprint Of 9/11 Authored by Jeremy Lott via The Epoch Times, The terror attacks 25 years ago this week had enduring costs for America’s commercial aviation sector. Today’s domestic fliers are on balance worse off for it, with higher costs, fewer choices, and more delays. That’s because, on Sept. 11, 2001, men who were part of the al Qaeda Islamist terror network bought tickets and […]

Diesel Crunch Set To Worsen As Refining Capacity Falls Short, Industry Warns The global diesel market – already trading at record prices – is set to further tighten in the coming months and keep fuel prices high, raising the prices of all goods and threatening the inflation targets of the central banks. Industry officials, who gathered at the APPEC petroleum conference in Singapore this week, warned that the market has not seen the […]

Oil Tanker Rates Hit Record Highs as Middle East Shipping Risks Soar By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com Oil tanker rates have jumped to record highs as escalating risks to shipping in and out of the Middle East are prompting traders and tanker operators to undertake inefficient and more expensive trade routes. While the crude oil supply is actually there, shipping it through the Strait of Hormuz remains a very risky endeavor, […]