The post Affordability and an Abundance Agenda for Health Care appeared first on CEPR.



 

 

This week, I speak with Matt Cherwin, Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Marek Capital, an alternative asset management firm launched in 2024. He is responsible for the firm’s investment strategy, portfolio construction, research and risk management.

Previously, he spent 16-years at JPMorgan Chase & Co where he held titles of Chief Investment Officer, Group Treasurer, Co-Head of Global Spread Markets, Global Head of Securitized Products, and Global Head of Asset-Backed Trading.

His framework for analyzing markets relies on five vectors: Money, Capital, Credit, Liquidity and Regulation.

A transcript of our conversation is available here Tuesday.

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

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Bill Miller IV, Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager at Miller Value Fund. Previously, he was at Legg Mason Capital Management covering specialty finance + consumer spaces with a focus on high-yielding securities. Miller competed in the Poker World Series Main Event. He began his career working for his father, famed investor Bill Miller III.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post MiB: Matt Cherwin, Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Marek Capital appeared first on The Big Picture.

The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Danish Blend coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads:

• David Zaslav Gets the Last Laugh.  The Warner Bros. mogul’s $111 billion deal with David Ellison reveals the next stage of the business: The rich get richer, the big get bigger and everybody else is left in the dust. A look inside the Ellison empire and how Warner Bros. Discovery’s much-mocked CEO wound up in a stronger position than anyone expected. (Hollywood Reporter) 

• Coding After Coders: The End of Computer Programming as We Know It. Yes, In the era of A.I. agents, many Silicon Valley programmers are now barely programming. Instead, what they’re doing is deeply, deeply weird. (New York Times) see also After the AI Revolution. What does the economy — and society — actually look like on the other side of the AI transformation? Like a prism, AI will reveal the civilizational differences between China and the U.S., making visible the invisible within each society. (NOEMA) 

• They Came to Spy on America. They Stayed to Coach Little League. Soviet spies who settled into American suburban life and couldn’t quite bring themselves to leave. In the wake of the Cold War, some Soviet bloc spies decided their fake American lives weren’t so bad. (Politico)

• Sucker: My year as a degenerate gambler: When I set out to report on the sports-betting industry—its explosive growth, its sudden cultural ubiquity, and what it’s doing to America—my editors thought I should experience the phenomenon firsthand. Mindful of my religious constraints, they proposed a work-around: The Atlantic would stake me $10,000 to gamble with over the course of the upcoming NFL season. The magazine would cover any losses, and—to ensure my ongoing emotional investment—split any winnings with me, 50–50. Surely God would approve of such an arrangement, my editors reasoned, because I wouldn’t be risking my own hard-earned money. (The Atlantic)

• Inside the Space-Age Bid to Build Millions of Homes in Factories. Operation Breakthrough, a 1970s federal moonshot to build 26 million homes using advanced manufacturing, has lessons for today’s abundance movement. Operation Breakthrough, a 1970s federal moonshot to build 26 million homes using advanced manufacturing methods, has lessons for today’s abundance movement. (CityLab)

• The Status Economy: How the signaling game has shifted from logos and luxury goods to taste, access, and knowledge. “Every purchase is now a status signal. Discover The Status Economy — three reports exploring the categories defining cultural credibility and taste in 2026. “For the last decade, fashion has been the most direct way to communicate status, knowledge, and cultural credibility. Today, that concentration has broken apart. For Cultural Pioneers, everything is now a signal. Every purchase, product, and experience functions as a marker of taste, knowledge, and cultural credibility, regardless of category. We’re calling this shift The Status Economy. Across three reports, we take a deep dive into the categories defining status in 2026.  (Highsnobiety)

• Building Brasília: A twentieth-century experiment in urban planning promised progress—but carried immense financial and human costs. (JSTOR Daily)

• Tech legend Stewart Brand on Musk, Bezos and his extraordinary life: ‘We don’t need to passively accept our fate’ The Whole Earth Catalog creator reflects on Silicon Valley’s evolution and our collective agency. He was at the heart of 1960s counterculture, then paved the way for the libertarian mindset of Silicon Valley. At 87, Brand is still keen to ensure the world is maintained properly – not just today, but for the next 10,000 years. “We don’t need to passively accept our fate.” (The Guardian)

• How the ‘Neo-Vintage’ Era Became the Hottest Thing in Watches From ornate perpetual calendars to classic divers, watches from the 1980s and 1990s hit the sweet spot between value, reliability, and soul. (GQ)

• Hollywood’s Most Invisible Job Gets Its Own Oscar: After nearly a century, the Oscars are finally honoring the art of casting. But those who built the category say the toughest questions are just beginning. (Wall Street Journal)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Matt Cherwin, co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of Marek Capital. The alternative asset management firm launched in 2024. Previously, he spent 16-years at JPMorgan Chase & Co where he held titles of Chief Investment Officer, Group Treasurer, Co-Head of Global Spread Markets, Global Head of Securitized Products, and Global Head of Asset-Backed Trading.

 

YouTube Lays Claim to Another Crown: The World’s Largest Media Company

Source: Hollywood Reporter

 

Sign up for our reads-only mailing list here.

~~~

To learn how these reads are assembled each day, please see this.

 

The post 10 Weekend Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

China Owns Canada's Only Antimony Mine And Shuttered It In Critical Minerals Power Play

Submitted by The Bureau's Sam Cooper (emphasis our own), 

In the rugged interior of Newfoundland, an hour's drive west from the Canadian Forces Base in Gander, sits a dormant mine with profound implications for the nation's security and prosperity. Beaver Brook could be the largest North American producer of antimony — a critical mineral threaded through the entire spectrum of modern military hardware, from small arms and artillery shells to advanced missile seekers and night-vision goggles.

But China owns the mine and shut it down in early 2023 — one year before Beijing imposed export controls blocking antimony sales to U.S. military end users, driving prices from about US$5,900 per tonne to more than US$50,000.

Antimony forms in crystalline masses, often clustered in dark silver needles — nature's own suggestion of the gunmetal world it enters. It was little known before Washington recognized that Beijing had quietly secured a near-monopoly over the world's critical mineral supply, antimony among them. The metal fires every conventional round, hardens military components, and provides the infrared edge that defines lethality in modern conflict. Armies could not sustain combat for even a single day without it — a reality that has driven urgent U.S. efforts to stockpile it, revive domestic processing, and cut reliance on China and Russia.

The Newfoundland mine was acquired in December 2009 by Hunan Nonferrous Metals Corporation, a Chinese state-linked producer, for $29.5 million. It went silent in 2013 — the year Xi Jinping secured his presidency — revived in 2019 under China Minmetals Rare Earth Group, employed roughly 100 workers, shipped concentrate to China, and was abruptly shuttered again in 2023. It has not produced since.

In a microcosm, The Bureau's reporting on Beaver Brook surfaces a contest that is reshaping geopolitics in ways inconceivable only a few years ago — one waged not with weapons but through control of the materials that make weapons. The questions it raises for Canada are urgent.

Is Beijing deliberately keeping this strategic mine dormant to constrain global supply and freeze out Western competitors? Are Chinese party-state mining operatives in Canada blocking what could be Ottawa's trump card in its stalled trade negotiations with Washington — an administration now spending billions and scouring the Western Hemisphere, from Greenland to Argentina, to secure non-China-dependent supply chains? Could Canada invoke national security powers to compel Beijing's divestiture and reclaim the asset? And would it dare to — while Mark Carney moves Canada into deeper strategic alignment with Beijing, spanning electric vehicles and the critical mineral supply chains that sit at the heart of the new global security order?

Some in the industry have been watching Beaver Brook for exactly this reason.

Anthony Vaccaro, president of The Northern Miner, told the Central MinEx 2025 conference that the stakes for antimony were rising. "It's an important mineral. We need it. We need to make sure our military is strong, but China is absolutely dominating it," he said. "Prices have been surging on antimony and the Americans have woken up to it."

He cited The Northern Miner's own 2004 assessment — that at full production, Beaver Brook would rank as North America's only primary antimony mine, producing about five percent of the world's supply. The contrast between Ottawa and Washington's response is telling.

Perpetua Resources is developing a lower-grade antimony deposit in Idaho on more than $80 million in Defense Department funding and a federal financing commitment of up to $2 billion. Canada's better deposit sits idle in Chinese hands.

"That is what the U.S. government is looking to secure," Vaccaro told the conference.

"Well, lo and behold, Newfoundland and Labrador has the biggest antimony potential mine in all of North America. Who owns it? Why isn't it in production? The Chinese own it. We have this critical asset that's Canadian, on care and maintenance by the Chinese."

The minister most directly responsible for Canada's critical minerals file is Tim Hodgson, appointed by Prime Minister Mark Carney as Minister of Energy and Natural Resources. His ministry oversees the federal critical minerals strategy, the sovereign minerals fund, and the Investment Canada Act framework governing foreign control of strategic assets.

The Bureau submitted questions to Ministers Hodgson, Anand, and Joly before publication. The questions have been acknowledged, but not answered before deadline for this story.

China Minmetals is not a commercial mining company in any sense Western regulators would recognize. It is one of China's largest state-owned resource conglomerates — Communist Party leadership embedded, operations spanning mining, metals production, trading, and engineering across dozens of countries. By its own description, it is a "national team" and the "main force to ensure the security of resources."

It is directly supervised by China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. In practical terms, that places the company inside China's industrial strategy — particularly in sectors considered essential to technology manufacturing, defense systems, and the global energy transition. In 2021, the company became a core shareholder in the formation of China Rare Earth Group, a state-directed merger designed to concentrate Beijing's control over a strategically vital mineral industry.

Ottawa's response to China Minmetals' outsized strategic presence in Canada has been notably absent.

In November 2022, it ordered three Chinese companies to divest from Canadian critical mineral firms on national security grounds — Power Metals Corp., Lithium Chile, and Ultra Lithium, all minor lithium exploration plays.

Canada's only primary antimony mine remained untouched. In November 2024, the government approved Zijin Mining Group's acquisition of a Pan American Silver critical minerals asset, citing rigorous scrutiny and security undertakings. Fourteen months later, Zijin announced a C$5.5 billion all-cash takeover of Toronto-based Allied Gold Corporation.

The Bureau's review of corporate records identified a Canada-based executive connected to China Minmetals — the enterprise that controls Beaver Brook — whose involvement in discussions about the mine's future was flagged by a Canadian mining source. Independent review of the same executive's profile disclosed a concurrent role at Zijin Mining Group, the firm now acquiring Allied Gold and the Pan American Silver asset.

The same pattern reaches into Canada's Arctic.

Through MMG, China Minmetals controls the Izok Corridor Project in the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut — a 1,083-square-kilometer package of high-grade copper, zinc, lead, silver, and gold claims, among the most significant undeveloped mineral corridors in the North.

MMG has linked its development to the proposed Grays Bay Road and Port, which would open the first all-weather land route and deep-water Arctic port in that part of the country. Commercially, that unlocks the ore body. Strategically, it determines who builds Canada's Arctic infrastructure.

The proposition carries immediate military concerns.

On March 12, 2026, Prime Minister Carney announced $35 billion in Arctic military and infrastructure spending — repackaging funds first earmarked by Justin Trudeau's government in 2022 — and referred the Grays Bay Road and Port to his government's Major Projects Office for fast-track approval. The same road MMG has identified as essential to unlocking the Izok Corridor. Canada's sovereignty-asserting Arctic plan would, if executed, directly accelerate the strategic position of a Chinese state enterprise in Canada's North. Carney's plan also specifically designated 5 Wing Goose Bay in Labrador as a Deployed Operating Base — a forward platform for F-35s and allied NORAD training operations — deepening the military significance of a province that also hosts, an hour's drive from 9 Wing Gander, the dormant Beaver Brook antimony mine in Chinese state hands.

The sovereignty concern in Canada's Arctic was already on record in Ottawa six years ago. A 2019 House of Commons Standing Committee report warned that China had shown "considerable interest" in Arctic shipping routes, infrastructure, and resource access. Duane Smith of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation delivered the plainest verdict: "We stand here on the edge of the continent waving our maple leaves at China, at Russia, at the U.S. and at any others who have designs on our Arctic."

The Chinese academic literature is candid about why. A 2023 paper by researchers including Menglong Li of Jilin University frames China's Arctic position with notable directness. Russia dominates the Northern Sea Route, it says, and Canada and Russia treat Arctic passages as internal waters.

China — though not an Arctic state — is a legitimate outside stakeholder whose role should grow, the paper argues.

The paper quotes Xi Jinping directly: "I hope that the international community will attach great importance to development issues, promote the establishment of global development partnerships, and achieve stronger, greener, and healthier global development. A sustainable Arctic is the only way out. The peace, stability, and sustainable development of the Arctic region will be beneficial to the whole world and accelerate the pace of economic globalization," the quote from Xi continues.

"In this era of great change, we should abandon the confinement of the Cold War mentality and strengthen cooperation between the East and the West. We should not distinguish by ideology but work hard for the common interests of all mankind. If human society can reach beneficial cooperation on the Arctic issue, it will become a template for resolving other disputes, and it will be a new chapter in history to sell part of the interests in exchange for the common development of all mankind."

Reading between the language of environmentalism and globalism and humanism, General Secretary Xi's hardened CCP language and objectives can be easily discerned.

China Minmetals' global reach has sometimes broached conflict.

Its subsidiary MMG — the same entity straddling the Nunavut deep-water port that Carney's $35 billion Arctic plan has now fast-tracked — operates Las Bambas, one of the world's largest copper mines, in Peru's Apurimac region. Acquired in 2014 for $5.85 billion and in production since 2016, Las Bambas topped the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre's global ranking of transition mineral conflicts in 2024, with more than 100 documented allegations of abuse. Indigenous communities report polluted water, blocked ancestral lands, and environmental assessments they say concealed risks to local aquifers. Lima declared states of emergency over unrest at the mine four times between 2015 and 2022. Three protesters were killed by gunfire in 2015. More than 300 people have been charged or jailed for opposing its operations, according to monitors including the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders. MMG says it pursues dialogue and operates in compliance. The record tells a more complicated story.

In Brazil, MMG's February 2025 acquisition of Anglo American's Barro Alto and Niquelândia nickel mines for $500 million drew antitrust complaints from a Dutch-Turkish rival — whose $900 million bid was passed over — filed in Brasilia and Brussels. Critics warned the deal could hand China 52 to 62 percent of Brazil's nickel output. The American Iron and Steel Institute asked the White House to intervene, arguing it would give Beijing direct influence over a metal critical to electric vehicle batteries and stainless steel. The European Commission opened a formal probe in November 2025 into MMG's state ties. The transaction remained under scrutiny in early 2026.

Understanding how Beijing built its Western Hemisphere mining positions — and why governments from Ottawa to Washington were so slow to see it — requires going back further.

While Western industrial policy in the 1990s and 2000s operated on the assumption that trade made war obsolete — a variant of Fukuyama's "End of History" thesis — Chinese strategic planners were reading their history differently. The lesson they drew from the past century of American dominance was not that economic integration creates peace. It was that whoever controls the physical inputs of modern industry controls the terms on which everyone else does business.

The Chinese Communist Party's minerals strategy was, like most of its 5-, 25-, and 100-year plans, patient, systematic, and nearly invisible to Western publics until reversing it became expensive. China produces approximately 48 percent of the world's mined antimony and refines the overwhelming majority of what is processed globally. For gallium — essential to semiconductors and communications equipment — China controls 98.8 percent of refined global output. For rare earth elements, which power the magnets in every electric vehicle, every wind turbine, and most advanced weapons systems, China accounts for roughly 60 percent of mining and over 90 percent of processing. The International Energy Agency has calculated that China dominates refining for 19 of the 20 key strategic minerals the energy transition and defense industry require.

Back to Newfoundland.

One year after China Minmetals shuttered North America's most significant antimony mine, on August 14, 2024, Beijing announced that antimony exports would require a government license, effective the following month. In October, Chinese shipments fell 97 percent against the prior month. In December, Beijing escalated: it banned antimony exports to United States military users specifically — the first time China had directed a critical minerals restriction against a single country rather than the world at large. The price at Rotterdam doubled in two months, then doubled again.

In February 2025, China added tungsten to its export control list. In April, seven heavy rare earth elements were placed under licensing requirements globally. Then, in January 2026, China issued Announcement No. 1 of 2026, prohibiting all dual-use exports to Japan for military end users or any purpose that could enhance Japan's military capabilities.

The trigger was Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's statement that a Chinese military attack on Taiwan could legally constitute a threat to Japan's survival. On February 2, 2026, President Trump announced Project Vault: a strategic reserve for critical minerals backed by a $10 billion Export-Import Bank loan. Two days later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio convened 54 countries and the European Commission at the State Department for the first Critical Minerals Ministerial, launching FORGE — the Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement — as the successor to the Minerals Security Partnership. Eleven new bilateral frameworks were signed. The stated ambition: a preferential trading bloc for critical minerals, with minimum price floors designed to make Western production viable against Chinese state-subsidized output.

Canada attended the FORGE ministerial. It was not among the eleven countries that signed a new bilateral critical minerals framework with Washington.

The U.S. Defense Department has committed $245 million in antimony offtake to U.S. Antimony Corporation, the only antimony smelter in North America, based in Thompson Falls, Montana, currently running at a fraction of its mandated target.

Perpetua Resources, developing the Stibnite gold-antimony project in Idaho, has received more than $80 million in Defense Department funding.

"Perpetua never would've been able to build a mine here five or ten years ago," Vaccaro told Central MinEx 2025. "It's this federal funding. So critical."

Vaccaro's presentation ranged broadly — critical minerals, great-power competition, a world reorganizing around strategic resource control. But on Beaver Brook, he zeroed in on something specific: what he described as circulating chatter in Canadian mining and political circles about Beijing's real intentions for the mine.

"I will tell you, there's rumors that the Chinese use this — that Beaverbrook is on care and maintenance, but if the price of antimony stays high and other projects come on, they can turn the tap on, flood the market a little bit, drive the price back down, discourage others from entering," he said.

"There's rumors that that's one of the games they're playing. There's certainly nothing stopping them currently from doing that. So I think this is going to be a very interesting asset to look at as possibly a microcosm for what's going on on that big geopolitical scale."

There is a harder lens through which to view Beaver Brook — the hardened geopolitical logic that sovereignty is expressed not only through the votes of citizens, but through jobs, productivity, presence, and utility. By that measure, a dormant mine in Chinese hands in the interior of Newfoundland is a statement of power, and not Ottawa's.

Then there is polar projection — the map centered on the North Pole that NORAD has always used, the one that shows the world as it actually is rather than as Mercator flattened it. Russia and Canada face each other across the Arctic Ocean. Greenland bridges them. Newfoundland's coast is the eastern hinge of North America's Arctic exposure, closer to Moscow than to Vancouver.

The province no longer hosts permanent U.S. military bases — Fort Pepperrell, Argentia, and Ernest Harmon Air Station belong to another era. But 9 Wing Gander, roughly an hour's drive from Beaver Brook, anchors search and rescue and continental air operations on the island. To the north, Five Wing Goose Bay in Labrador serves allied low-level training and NORAD-related activity. The province sits at the intersection of Arctic strategy and transatlantic defense — North America's eastern gateway to the North Atlantic, close neighbor to Greenland across the Labrador Sea — at a moment when both are being urgently renegotiated.

The questions The Bureau put to Carney's mining minister Tim Hodgson, a Goldman Sachs banking alumnus, were direct: Has the government assessed Beaver Brook as a strategic asset within North American defense-industrial supply chains? Has any national security review been conducted into Chinese state control of Canada's only primary antimony mine? Does the 2023 rationale for not requiring Chinese divestiture — policy uncertainty — still apply, given Beijing's subsequent ban on antimony exports to United States military users? Has Ottawa raised Beaver Brook with Washington as part of critical minerals cooperation? Has any mechanism been considered to restart production? The questions were acknowledged. They were not answered before deadline.

Ottawa's inaction and China's potentially intentional dormancy of one of the world's most significant antimony deposits is not a question of market inertia or supply and demand.

It is a test of sovereignty — one that sharpens as Newfoundland's geostrategic salience grows, its ports and radar installations forming a bulwark near American strategic assets in Greenland at a moment of intensifying Beijing activity in the Arctic, including through state-linked mining footholds like the Izok Corridor in Nunavut.

Meanwhile in Glenwood, where Beaver Brook workers have waited for work that did not return, life is slower than it might be. A Tim Hortons. A gas station. A Legion hall. Population roughly 700. Canada's latent potential in microcosm.

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/13/2026 - 19:45

Panic Buying Sweeps India As War Disrupts Cooking Gas Supplies

Long lines are forming outside cooking gas dealers across India as fears of shortages spread following disruptions to fuel imports linked to the war in the Middle East.

At a small distribution shop in Pune, gas dealer Vishal Vilas Mandhare has watched demand surge in recent days. Customers arrive carrying empty cylinders, pressing him and his staff for answers about when the next delivery of liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, will arrive.

"The dealers are facing as much trouble as the customers," he told Bloomberg, “just a different kind.”

India depends heavily on LPG for everyday cooking, and millions of households rely on regular cylinder refills to prepare meals. But since hostilities in the Middle East began disrupting a major share of India’s fuel imports, panic buying has spread, straining the country’s vast distribution system.

India is the world’s second-largest consumer of LPG and imports about 90 percent of the fuel it uses. Shipments for the week beginning March 9 are estimated at about 270,000 tons, the lowest level since April 2023, according to data from the analytics firm Kpler. Supplies from the Middle East have been sharply curtailed after attacks on Iran by the United States and Israel led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical route for energy shipments.

India’s LPG network includes roughly 26,000 distributors serving more than 333 million households. While many families receive subsidized cylinders through government programs, migrant workers and small businesses that rely on the open market have been particularly hard hit. As supplies tighten and authorities ration deliveries, informal distributors have begun charging higher prices.

The rush to secure cylinders has also strained booking systems. Indian Oil Corp.’s online reservation portal briefly crashed on Thursday amid the surge in demand, adding to delays and prompting complaints from customers.

People queue up to book LPG cylinders at a gas agency in Prayagraj on Wednesday. (PTI Photo)

Government officials say they are working to stabilize supplies. Oil Minister Hardeep Puri recently told Parliament that India is seeking additional LPG cargoes from countries including the United States, Norway, Canada, Algeria and Russia. Authorities are also in discussions with Iran to ensure safe passage for shipments headed to India.

Domestic refiners have been ordered to increase output, raising local LPG production by 28 percent, Mr. Puri said. The government has also raised retail LPG prices for the first time in a year in an effort to moderate demand.

State-run companies say the national distribution network continues to function, though demand has surged in some areas. “The network remains stable and adequate,” a spokesman for Bharat Petroleum Corp. said, adding that distributors in some regions were seeing unusually high bookings driven by precautionary purchases.

"There is no shortage of gas anywhere. Consumers will continue to receive LPG cylinders at the prescribed price. Both gas agencies and the public must avoid unnecessary hoarding," said District Magistrate VK Singh. 

Yet, there is definitely a shortage of commercial LPG cylinders. 

In Prayagraj, several hotel and restaurant operators claim commercial cylinders are being sold for ₹2,500– ₹2,600 in the open market.

A dhaba owner in George Town said he called the delivery worker of his gas agency on Tuesday morning to request a commercial cylinder. The worker allegedly said it could be arranged for ₹2,500. “I urgently needed it for my business, so I agreed,” he said. -Hindustan Times

For dealers like Mr. Mandhare, the current rush has echoes of past crises. During the Covid-19 pandemic, many faced similar scenes of anxious customers lining up for essentials. “We know how to handle upset and panicked customers,” he said. “This is nothing we can’t handle.”

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/13/2026 - 19:20

CDC: Little-Known Virus With No Vaccine Spreading In US

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The human metapneumovirus (HMPV) is spreading in the United States, including in California and the Great Lakes region, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A person receives a vaccine in Los Angeles in a file photograph. Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

Symptoms include cough, fever, and nasal congestion, and, unlike better-known respiratory viruses, HMPV does not have a vaccine or known treatments, the CDC stated.

“There’s no specific treatment that’s generally recommended,” Dr. Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of California–Davis Children’s Hospital, said in a video released by the school.

“For the youngest children, using a bulb syringe to clear the congestion can be useful. Sometimes a humidifier or vaporizer may be useful, especially if they have something like croup as a complication of infection and trying to make sure that they don’t get dehydrated and get enough fluids.”

Hospitalized patients typically receive supportive care, or oxygen if they need it, and intravenous fluids to prevent or treat dehydration.

Of nationwide tests that were positive for respiratory viruses in the week that ended on Feb. 28, 5 percent tested positive for HMPV—the highest percentage for HMPV since mid-2025. The percentage is lower than that of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) but higher than that of COVID-19, according to the National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System.

California and New Jersey are among the states that have recently reported HMPV cases. According to the CDC, cases have been recorded in all regions of the country.

Data voluntarily reported to the California Department of Public Health from clinical laboratories show an increase in HMPV test positivity to 8.6 percent during the week that ended on Feb. 28, a spokesperson for the department told The Epoch Times in an email on March 10.

The HMPV levels in California at this point are higher than during four of the past five respiratory virus seasons. The seasons run from the fall into the following year.

“While levels are currently higher than previous seasons, HMPV most commonly causes mild respiratory illness in people of all ages,” the spokesperson said. “Severe illness is less common. However, it can occur in young children, older adults, those with chronic medical conditions, and people with weakened immune systems.”

Blumberg also stated that symptoms are usually mild but that the virus can lead to more severe complications, particularly in young children, the elderly, and others with weaker immune systems.

HMPV usually starts circulating later in the season than influenza and RSV, researchers with the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health and other institutions said in a study published in February.

They found that the virus also peaks later, often in April.

The researchers said that the study shows that HMPV was “an important cause” of respiratory symptoms among both children and adults.

Experts recommend practicing good hygiene during the virus season to prevent HMPV and other viruses, including covering one’s mouth when coughing or sneezing and frequently washing one’s hands.

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/13/2026 - 18:55

UBS And Goldman Map The Paralysis Across Hormuz Chokepoint

The second week of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran is coming to a close, with no visible off-ramp yet emerging, even as the White House continues to project victory. Goldman now expects the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz to persist for three weeks, a timeline that suggests further intensification of what the IEA has already described as an unprecedented global energy shock.

Focusing on the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint, data from UBS and Goldman desks show that flows through the critical waterway remain muted by the end of the week.

Current situation in the Hormuz and Gulf area:

Oil & gas tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz, in number of ships, entering and exiting the Gulf

Crude loadings by ports in the Middle East (Mb/d)

Iran's crude loadings by port (Mb/d)

Map of oil & gas infrastructure in the Persian Gulf

Iranian attacks on vessels (direct & attempted)

Map of ships' locations when struck in the Gulf region since early March

Summary of attacks on energy infrastructure

In addition to UBS, Goldman's tracking of Persian Gulf exports also shows limited activity through the strait.

The estimated total hit to oil flows from the Persian Gulf stands at 16 mb/d (16 times larger than the peak April 2022 hit to Russian oil production).

According to S&P Global, only 22 tankers crossed the Strait of Hormuz since March 1, with most tankers operating with AIS signals off.

With an incoming energy shock, the analysts show which countries have the largest buffers, as well as the countries with the least.

Details on the 32-nation IEA SPR dump.

Both notes only suggest that paralysis in the critical waterway is set to persist into next week. Even if the IRGC's conventional military capabilities have been severely degraded, the more immediate threat to commercial vessel traffic in the waterway is the IRGC's asymmetric warfare, which includes low-cost kamikaze drones and naval mines.

More in the full notes available to pro subs.

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/13/2026 - 17:40

The Order Of Battle

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

Don’t lose your shit over mines in the Strait of Hormuz and the oil price shooting up. Iran has many thousands of mines. But something has to lay them out in the water. Iran has no more naval ships. They have small boats. The US can see everything moving on the surface, or sitting at docks. We are blowing them up methodically. The news outlets who want the US to fail in this operation (because: Trump) want you to think that we had no plan for dealing with this problem. That’s not so.

There are very few mines actually laid so far. Tankers are not going through the Strait of Hormuz because their captains are nervous. Their ships and their cargos are worth millions and the insurance costs millions. So, they’re waiting in place, hanging back. The US still has work to do destroying Iran’s shoreline defenses of missile and drone launch sites. Iran is firing all they’ve got left. Whenever they launch something, we see the geo-location on our satellites and radars. The mobile launchers are a little trickier because, obviously, they shoot and move. But they don’t always move fast enough, and there isn’t an endless supply of them.

The US Navy decommissioned its four Avenger-class minesweeper ships in the Persian Gulf in September, 2025, but replaced them with more agile Littoral Combat Ships (LCSs) capable of countering submarines and clearing mines. Two LCS ships — USS Santa Barbara and USS Canberra — quietly deployed in March 2025.

An LCS uses an Airborne Laser Mine Detection System and an Airborne Mine Neutralization System via helicopter. In the water, it uses mine-hunting sonar and the Unmanned Influence Sweep System — all operated from unmanned surface vessels. The unmanned sweep vehicle triggers magnetic, acoustic, or combination mines, with the LCS at a safe distance.

The LCS vessels are armed with an 11-cell SeaRAM launcher for point defense that fires Rolling Airframe Missiles — fast, radar-guided missiles designed to knock down incoming anti-ship missiles and drones at short range. They also carry Longbow Hellfire missiles with updated software and hardware specifically to counter drones. The Longbow Hellfire uses radar-guided technology enabling it to engage targets through battlefield clutter, with a range of up to eight kilometers — giving the LCS the ability to engage drones before they get close. The LCS ships will be accompanied by Arleigh Burke-class destroyers equipped with Aegis and full missile defense suites for protection against the full spectrum of Iranian threats.

The oil markets are extremely sensitive to any changes in the oil environment, and war induces the most extreme changes.

Even outside of war, weird things happen.

April 20, 2020, was the apex of Covid-19 paranoia when everyday life was shutting down all over Western Civ.

The price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures — specifically the May 2020 contract, which was expiring the very next day — crashed to an historic low of negative $37.63 per barrel.

That is, sellers were literally paying buyers to take oil off their hands. By the following day, April 21, prices had rebounded back into positive territory, though still at very depressed levels around $10–$15 per barrel.

The current situation with oil in the $100 range is not going to be a one-day event, but it won’t last forever, either, so do your deep-breathing exercises and calm down.

Of course, in America right now, a seditious news media will take every opportunity to induce exquisite anxiety in the public-at-large to deflect from the order-of-battle that President DJT is carrying out to 1) improve America’s geopolitical position and relations, and 2) to defeat the forces both external and domestic that seek to wreck the country.

Which is why you might see that the next move in the order of battle will be against the wrecking crew in our own country, including the political figures behind the decade-long conspiracy to undermine the president, the administrative rogues running the “resistance” in government agencies, the Lawfare ninjas queering the justice system, and the big money that funds the hundreds of NGOs attempting to instigate a color revolution here.

I have visions of perp walks and indictments coming in on the zephyrs of spring.

It looks just now like Majority Leader John Thune and his RINO herd will trample the SAVE Act (election reform) into failure. But consider that Mr. Trump’s FBI has had more than a month to analyze the Fulton County, Georgia, ballot evidence from the 2020 election (while only last week it seized the Maricopa County, AZ, records, and for all we know the agency also has 2020 ballot evidence from Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada, too).

So, prepare for the public to be shocked and amazed at what has been discovered, and expect to see a sharp attitude change among embarrassed US Senators who will be compelled to come on-board for election reform.

Somewhere in all that, you might expect Cuba to fall — a momentous event, actually, considering the cumulative mischief Cuba’s government has provoked all over the western hemisphere since 1958. We don’t even have to do anything to make it happen, just respond in the aftermath with emergency food and fuel relief, and perhaps some help averting the vengeful slaughter of the old Castro governing network. We don’t want a bloodbath there.

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/13/2026 - 17:15

401(k) Hardship Withdrawals Hit Record High

The AI bubble and data center buildout have helped catapult equity markets to new highs (pre-Middle East conflict), minting a record number of 401(k) millionaires. However, beneath the surface, hardship withdrawals from 401(k) plans have also climbed to a record, reinforcing the view that the K-shaped economy is becoming more entrenched.

Vanguard's How America Saves 2025 report shows that hardship withdrawal activity "increased to a new high" of 6% in 2025, up from 4.8% in 2024 and about 2% before the pandemic.

The increase marks the sixth straight annual rise since Congress eased the rules in 2018 by removing the requirement that participants first take a 401(k) loan. Vanguard said the median hardship withdrawal was about $1,900 for avoiding foreclosure or eviction (36%), paying medical expenses (31%), and covering tuition (13%).

"Given that it's now easier to request a hardship withdrawal and that automatic enrollment is helping more workers save for retirement, especially lower-income workers, a modest increase isn't surprising," the Vanguard report said.

The report noted, "For a small subset of workers facing financial stress, hardship withdrawals may serve as a safety net that may not otherwise have been available without plan-implemented automatic solutions."

The report shows the K-shaped economy is continuing with no end in sight as the cost-of-living crisis rages on, forcing those with the weakest financial profiles to tap into 401(k)s and retirement accounts just to stay afloat.

"Withdrawing from your 401(k) has become one of the easiest ways to access excess capital," Shelby Rothman, founder of EnJoy Financial, told CNBC Select.

Rothman said, "Nearly half of Americans don't have $1,000 for unexpected expenses — no emergency fund, no available credit. Nothing."

 

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/13/2026 - 16:50

29% Of Americans Have Finally Figured Out The Problem... 71% To Go

Authored by James Hickman via SchiffSovereign.com,

A new Gallup poll finds that 29% of Americans now say government itself is the country’s biggest problem.

That’s a higher percentage than people who think America’s biggest problem is the economy. Or immigration. Or inflation.

Think about that for a moment.

The institution whose entire job is to solve problems has become, in the eyes of the public, the single biggest problem of all.

Joseph Tainter described exactly this phenomenon in his 1988 book, The Collapse of Complex Societies. Tainter studied empires from Rome to the Maya and found the same pattern every time: as societies grow, they create layers of bureaucracy and complexity to solve problems.

Eventually the bureaucracy becomes so bloated and expensive that it stops solving anything — and starts generating new problems instead.

And you can see it playing out in real time. Rather than address why it is failing to solve problems with the $5 trillion plus it already collects, a growing number of politicians simply want to extract more wealth from the people who create it.

Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Ro Khanna just introduced the “Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act” — a 5% annual wealth tax on America’s roughly 938 billionaires, which they optimistically estimate would raise $4.4 trillion over ten years. That’s about $440 billion a year.

Sounds like a lot. Until you remember the federal government is running $2 trillion deficits every single year. Sanders’ grand plan wouldn’t cover a quarter of the annual shortfall.

And that’s the best case — which assumes no billionaire leaves the country, no assets decline in value, no capital flees to friendlier jurisdictions.

Britain tried something similar when the Labour government abolished its 110-year-old “non-dom” tax regime. The result? Over 10,000 millionaires left the country, and tax revenue actually fell.

But even setting aside the question of whether it would “work,” a 5% annual tax on existing wealth — compounding every year — is an extraordinarily destructive idea.

It’s not a tax on income. It’s a tax on assets — on the factories, businesses, and investments that employ people and produce things.

If you tax at 5% annually, within 15 years you’ve confiscated more than half the wealth. You haven’t funded the government. You’ve just driven capital, talent, and entire companies to friendlier places.

Then what? America is poorer. There are fewer businesses, fewer jobs, fewer wealthy people left to tax. Growth slows. Tax revenue declines. The deficit gets worse, not better.

The federal government already collects $5.2 trillion a year in tax revenue. The problem was never insufficient taxation. It’s a spending addiction that no amount of taxation can feed.

And we know that’s true because the entire federal budget in 2019 was $4.4 trillion.

If Congress had simply held spending at that level, the government would have posted an $800 billion surplus last year. Even adjusted for inflation, they would have roughly broken even — without making a single spending cut.

Instead, spending surged 59% to over $7 trillion.

And what did Americans get for it? Roads and bridges are still crumbling. Social Security is still barreling toward insolvency. Is America safer? Is inflation down? Do we receive more government services?

No.

The only people it’s working out for are the Somali immigrant fraudsters who are part of the network that steals $600 billion from taxpayers every year.

And the bureaucrats in California, where the legal graft funnels $100 billion in government grants to DEI initiatives, intersectionality programs, and non-binary construction apprenticeships.

Of course this dysfunction is not just at the federal level.

In Los Angeles, fire victims who lost their homes in the devastating Palisades fires have been receiving citations from the city’s fire department — for failing to clear brush on properties that already burned to the ground.

In Baltimore, where the Francis Scott Key bridge collapsed in March 2024, the city initially said that reconstruction would cost $1.7 billion and be complete in 2028. Nine months later they revised their cost estimate to $5.2 billion, and completion to 2030.

These people just cannot execute.

This is what late-stage institutional decay looks like. Not a dramatic collapse, but a slow, grinding loss of competence and legitimacy — where the government’s primary function shifts from solving problems to perpetuating itself.

But here’s the thing — history shows that this kind of decay is less “end of the world” and more forest fire. Painful, yes. Destructive, absolutely.

But forest fires clear out the deadwood, return nutrients to the soil, and make way for new growth. It’s happened to every overgrown empire in history, and what comes after is almost always better than what came before.

The sensible course of action is to make sure, one, you have fire insurance, and two, you’re positioned for the new growth.

That’s what a good Plan B is all about.

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/13/2026 - 16:25

'President Boasberg' Protects Powell, Quashes DOJ 'Pressure Campaign' Subpoena Over Fed Renovation

Another day, another activist judge deciding they're the president... 

On Friday, chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has blocked subpoenas issued by the Trump Justice Department to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and the Fed Board of Governor

Boasberg claims that the subpoenas were served for an improper, pretextual purpose, and that "a mountain of evidence suggests that the Government served these subpoenas on the Board to pressure its Chair into voting for lower interest rates or resigning," and that the government produced “essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Powell of a crime; indeed, its justifications are so thin and unsubstantiated that the Court can only conclude that they are pretextual.” The order explicitly quashes the subpoenas.

The subpoenas were issued as part of a DOJ probe into the Fed’s management of its headquarters renovation project - an investigation that Powell and others have called a pretext. Powell himself issued an unprecedented video statement in January 2026 saying the threatened indictment stemmed from his Senate testimony and the Fed’s independent interest-rate decisions rather than any actual crime. He described it as part of broader administration pressure to politicize monetary policy.

White House officials have criticized the Federal Reserve over its handling of renovations to two historic buildings in Washington: the Marriner S. Eccles Building, the Fed’s headquarters, and the 1951 Constitution Avenue building.

Renovation costs for the Fed’s headquarters have risen to $2.5 billion, $700 million over budget, according to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought.

Last July, Trump indicated that Powell’s handling of the renovation project could be grounds to fire him, saying, “I think it sort of is.”

“When you spend $2.5 billion on, really, a renovation, I think it’s really disgraceful,” he said.

The Fed responded to the criticism, stating on its website that major systems in both buildings, whose construction dates back to the 1930s, are “obsolete and in need of replacement for health and safety reasons.”

The decision has drawn praise from those defending Fed independence and sharp criticism from Trump allies who view it as judicial interference. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) has already said he will block confirmation of Trump’s nominee to replace Powell until the probe is dropped.

Warsh’s nomination by President Donald Trump is bogged down because of an effective blockade imposed by Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who sits on the Banking Committee. That panel is the first hurdle for would-be Fed board members such as Warsh.

Tillis has vowed to vote against passing along Warsh’s nomination or any other Fed nominee to the full Senate for a confirmation vote as long as a criminal investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell remains in progress.

Now Tillis says that if the Trump admin appeals Boasberg's ruling, Warsh's confirmation will be delayed even further. Moments later, DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said that the decision will be appealed. 

Boasberg’s Record of Interventions in Trump-Related Matters

This just the latest instance where Judge Boasberg has stepped in to block, quash, or otherwise limit actions or probes tied to Trump - including:

• 2017 — Trump Tax Returns FOIA Lawsuit: Boasberg dismissed a Freedom of Information Act suit seeking President Trump’s personal tax returns, ruling they remained confidential without Trump’s consent or congressional approval. This effectively quashed public access efforts.
• 2022–2023 — January 6 Committee & Jack Smith Grand Jury Subpoenas: As chief judge overseeing the D.C. grand jury in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s post-2020 election conduct, Boasberg denied a Trump spokesperson’s attempt to claw back financial records subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 Committee. He also ordered former Vice President Mike Pence to testify before the grand jury (partially rejecting executive-privilege claims) and approved nondisclosure orders on phone records of Republican senators — actions Trump allies strongly opposed as advancing the probe against him.
• March 2025–2026 — J.G.G. v. Trump (Alien Enemies Act Deportations): In the highest-profile clash, Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order halting the Trump administration’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport Venezuelan migrants (alleged gang members) to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. He ordered in-flight deportation planes to turn around. When flights proceeded anyway, he found “probable cause” of criminal contempt due to the administration’s “willful disregard” of his order and initiated contempt proceedings (repeatedly revived despite appeals-court stays). He later ordered the government to facilitate the return of over 100 deported individuals to allow due-process hearings. Appeals courts (often Trump-appointed panels) repeatedly limited or paused his contempt efforts, but the core blocking and remedial orders stood as major interventions against the policy.
• 2025 — American Oversight v. Hegseth (“Signalgate”): Assigned to the lawsuit alleging Trump administration officials (including Cabinet members) violated record-keeping laws by using the Signal app for sensitive military discussions, Boasberg issued preservation orders and described aspects of the conduct as concerning, while stopping short of ordering full message recovery.

Bukele was right...

Bukele: “We had to remove corrupt judges and corrupt attorneys and prosecutors."

Activist judges must be impeached and removed. pic.twitter.com/pg5NdQwjJe

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) February 26, 2025

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/13/2026 - 15:50

META Delays AI Rollout Because It Sucks, May License Gemini; Musk Reboots xAI 'From The Foundations Up'

Mark Zuckerberg bet the farm on AI supremacy, and this year's crop is infested with bugs.

According to a new report, Meta has quietly pushed back the launch of its next-generation foundational AI model, internally code-named Avocado, from this month until at least May. The reason? Internal tests showed it underperforming on key benchmarks for reasoning, coding, and writing - trailing rivals like Google's Gemini 3.0, even as it beat Meta's own prior efforts and older Google models.

The model, code-named Avocado, outperformed Meta’s previous A.I. model and did better than Google’s Gemini 2.5 model from March, two of the people said. But it has not performed as strongly as Gemini 3.0 from November, they said. -NYT

This delay arrives after Zuckerberg has poured unprecedented resources into the race. Meta is guiding for $115–135 billion in capital expenditures this year alone - nearly double last year's spend - with the overwhelming majority earmarked for AI data centers, compute clusters, and infrastructure. The company has also signaled longer-term commitments approaching $600 billion in U.S. investments, plus a $14.3 billion stake in Scale AI that installed its CEO, Alexandr Wang, as Meta's chief AI officer. The new "TBD Lab" was tasked with fruit-themed breakthroughs: Avocado as the core model, Mango for images/video, and a bigger "Watermelon" on the horizon, the NY Times reports.

Zuckerberg once promised these efforts would "push the frontier" toward superintelligence. Now, insiders say Meta is even weighing temporarily licensing superior models from competitors like Google to keep its products competitive. 

As a result, Meta has delayed Avocado’s release to at least May from this month, the people said. They added that the leaders of Meta’s A.I. division had instead discussed temporarily licensing Gemini to power the company’s A.I. products, though no decisions have been reached.

Not great... 

Musk Reboots xAI...

While Zuck licks his wounds, Elon Musk is reorganizing xAI - ordering another round of job cuts at the two-year-old startup over poor performance of its coding product, FT reports. Grok's coding capabilities have lagged behind rivals like Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex - however Musk on Thursday revealed the company's 'Macrohard' or "Digital Optimus" which can 'basically automate entire companies' by observing and intelligently simulating their functions. 

Musk has brought in managers from SpaceX and Tesla as "fixers" to audit employee work, focusing on data quality issues in model training and firing those deemed inadequate. This has forced out several more co-founders - including Zihang Dai (a senior technical leader who admitted xAI was behind on coding) and Guodong Zhang (who ran pre-training for Grok models and was blamed for coding shortfalls, departing Thursday). Only two of the original 11 co-founders remain: Manuel Kroiss (“Makro”) and Ross Nordeen. Previous exits include Greg Yang, Tony Wu, Jimmy Ba, and even Toby Pohlen, who briefly led the "Macrohard" digital agents project before leaving after 16 days.

Posting on X Thursday, Musk said "Same thing happened with Tesla."

xAI was not built right first time around, so is being rebuilt from the foundations up.

Same thing happened with Tesla.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 12, 2026

The upheaval follows the $1.25 billion merger of SpaceX with xAI, amid pressure to meet ambitious goals - including space-based AI data centers, Moon factories, and Mars colonization - and a potential blockbuster stock market listing by June. According to FT, xAI staff have been wilting under "extremely hardcore" demands, though a company memo denied mass layoffs. 

Yet Musk is aggressively course-correcting: redeploying Tesla's Ashok Elluswamy to reboot Macrohard and develop the "digital Optimus" - blending real-world AI with Grok models. He's also been reviewing past interview rejections, apologizing publicly - "Many talented people over the past few years were declined an offer or even an interview at xAI. My apologies" - and reaching back out to promising candidates. This week, xAI poached Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg from the hot AI coding app Cursor to supercharge "Grok Code Fast."

Many talented people over the past few years were declined an offer or even an interview @xAI. My apologies.@BarisAkis and I are going through the company interview history and reaching back out to promising candidates. https://t.co/tvhipa1lu1

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 13, 2026

Meanwhile, the massive Memphis supercluster - already with over 200,000 GPUs and expanding toward 1 million - benefits from X data integration, giving xAI unique advantages in scale and real-time training.

* * * Please consider supporting ZeroHedge with the purchase of a hat, t-shirt, or multitool. Thank you.

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/13/2026 - 15:20

56% Of Americans Now Suspect COVID-19 'Vaccines' Caused Mass-Deaths

Authored by Nicolas Hulscher, MPH,

Public opinion is shifting... and they want action.

A new Rasmussen survey of 1,158 likely U.S. voters - conducted September 7–9, 2025, with a ±3% margin of error - reveals that 56% believe side effects from the COVID-19 shots have likely caused a significant number of unexplained deaths. Nearly one-third (32%) say it’s very likely. Only 35% still dismiss the idea.

This shows that what was once called a “conspiracy theory” has become the mainstream view. The majority of Americans now believe vaccine harms are real and widespread.

Support for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reflects this shift. Half of voters (50%) say government health officials deserve criticism for their handling of the pandemic, while 42% even think CDC employees should be fired for their role in misleading the public.

Among those who strongly believe the shots caused deaths, over 70% want CDC firings.

Partisan divides remain—70% of Republicans, 46% of Democrats, and 54% of independents think the vaccines likely caused deaths—but the skepticism crosses party lines and racial groups.

In fact, black (64%) and Hispanic (57%) voters are even more likely than white voters (54%) to suspect deadly vaccine effects.

According to the survey, RFK Jr. is viewed favorably by 45% of voters, with strong support among Republicans and independents, even as Democrats turn sharply against him.

The takeaway: A credible, nationally representative poll now confirms most Americans believe COVID-19 shots have killed many people, and they want accountability from the CDC and government health leaders.

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/13/2026 - 14:20

Trump Admin Sues California To Block Electric Vehicle Mandate

Authored by Kimberley Hayek via The Epoch Times,

The Justice and Transportation Departments filed a lawsuit against California on Thursday to stop what they say is an illegal electric vehicle (EV) requirement, alleging that the state is mandating fuel economy standards that federal law places in the exclusive domain of the federal government.

Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced the lawsuit, which was filed for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The suit takes aim at regulations formulated by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which mandates automakers comply with stricter mileage standards.

CARB has implemented stringent rules, such as the Advanced Clean Cars II act approved in August 2022, which requires that 35 percent of new vehicles sold in the state must be zero-emission starting in 2026, gradually increasing to a complete ban on new gas-powered car sales by 2035.

The Clean Air Act bans states from establishing their own tailpipe emission standards for trucks and cars. However, California can get an exemption to the ban if it obtains a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Following the waiver approval, California can implement its own emissions rules. The waiver would allow state officials to enforce tougher standards than national ones, influencing automakers nationwide due to the state’s large market share.

However, federal law bars states from implementing their own fuel economy laws, officials argue in the suit.

California’s waivers were revoked in June 2025 when Congress passed resolutions under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which President Donald Trump signed into law, preventing California from implementing the stricter standards. California and 10 other states filed a lawsuit, arguing that the CRA does not apply to EPA waiver decisions as they are not “rules.” The case is currently ongoing.

The Golden State’s new laws seek to require manufacturers to redesign the vehicles they sell across the country, increasing prices and curtailing consumer choices, officials state.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta have not returned a request for comment.

Newsom previously accused Trump of “destroying” the state’s clean air and “America’s global competitiveness.” He also said that without the high standards, the low air quality in the state would cost California taxpayers an estimated $45 billion in health care costs.

The federal government’s legal action aligns with Trump’s “Freedom Means Affordable Cars” program, which targets the remaking of corporate average fuel economy standards and could save American families about $1,000 on the average new vehicle and also trim $109 billion in costs over five years, according to the Department of Transportation.

“Oppressive, expensive electric vehicle mandates drive up costs for American consumers and violate federal law,” Bondi said in a statement. “California is using unlawful policies from the last administration to create exorbitant costs for our citizens—this Department of Justice is proud to stand with President Trump and Secretary Duffy to bring litigation that will make life more affordable for American consumers.”

Duffy said the lawsuit is part and parcel of initiatives to halt EV policies.

“I was proud to stand alongside President Trump to unveil our plan to eliminate the Biden-Buttigieg EV mandate and allow auto manufacturers to produce cars American families actually want to buy at a more affordable price. But Gavin Newsom is determined to continue pushing Democrats’ radical EV fantasy—even if doing so is illegal,” Duffy said in a statement.

The departments filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California against the California Air Resources Board and its executive officer. The case claims the Energy Policy and Conservation Act overrides state rules, which gives NHTSA sole authority over fuel economy.

“This lawsuit continues [the Environment and Natural Resources Division’s] war on regulatory overreach by California that is set on undermining the national market for motor vehicles through unlawful state policies,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division said in a statement.

“The state vehicle standards we are challenging today are preempted by federal law, just like the standards that were blocked by a court in our challenge to California’s so-called Clean Truck Partnership.”

NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison also criticized EV policies.

“This litigation will help automakers design and produce cars and trucks to meet one federal fuel economy regulation. It was a mistake by Presidents Obama and Biden to enable California to set its own backdoor fuel economy policies, which have now spiraled into a costly patchwork quilt of individual state fuel economy requirements. This litigation will correct that misstep,” Morrison said.

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/13/2026 - 13:00

Michigan Synagogue Attack Suspect Was Naturalized US Citizen From Lebanon, CNN Immediately Blamed Trump

An armed man who allegedly rammed his truck into a Michigan synagogue on March 12 has been identified as a naturalized United States citizen born in Lebanon, according to federal officials.

Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, was fatally shot by security officers after he drove through a hallway at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township near Detroit in a vehicle that then caught fire, authorities said.

The Epoch Times' Rachel Roberts reports that none of the synagogue’s staff, teachers, or the 140 children at its daycare center were injured, according to Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard. He said the suspect was found dead inside his vehicle.

A security officer was hit by the vehicle and knocked unconscious, but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, Bouchard said. About 30 law enforcement officers were treated for smoke inhalation.

West Bloomfield Police Chief Dale Young said Temple security officers “engaged the individual and neutralized the threat.”

Ghazali came to the United States in 2011 on an immediate relative visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen and was granted citizenship in 2016, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

The FBI is leading the investigation. Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the bureau’s Detroit office, described the incident as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.”

Rabbi Arianna Gordon from Temple Israel thanked the synagogue’s security team, police officers, and teachers for getting the children out safely, calling them the “true rock stars of the day.”

Synagogues around the world have increased security since the United States and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran on Feb. 28.

Police respond to the scene of a shooting and vehicle attack near Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., on March 12, 2026. Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP

Over the weekend, two people were arrested following an attack in which improvised explosive devices were thrown during a counterprotest of an anti-Islamist group’s protest in New York City. The New York Police Department said that two devices outside Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s residence could have injured or killed someone and that the suspects were inspired by the ISIS terrorist group.

‘Terrible Thing’

U.S. President Donald Trump said the Michigan attack was a “terrible thing,” while Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said it was “heartbreaking.”

“I want to send our love to the Michigan Jewish community and all of the people in the Detroit area,” Trump said on March 12.

Jewish Federation of Detroit CEO Steven Ingber said on March 12 that his organization was trained and prepared for such an attack.

“I’d love to say that I’m shocked, that I’m surprised, but I’m not,” he told reporters.

Law enforcement responds to a call at Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., on March 12, 2026. Corey Williams/AP Photo

The majority of Detroit-area Jewish residents live in Oakland County, Michigan’s second-largest county, with roughly 1.3 million residents. Temple Israel has more than 12,000 members, according to its website, and describes itself as “the nation’s largest Reform synagogue.”

Minutes after the attack, CNN’s Juliette Kayyem floated the idea that President Trump’s military actions against Iran triggered the violence.

WATCH: CNN’s Juliette Kayyem seems to blame President Trump waging war on Iran for inciting violence against Jews, including now at a synagogue in Michigan, AND warns of “attacks against Iranian Americans”...

“[The sheriff] said specifically in the last two weeks, he has been in… pic.twitter.com/QgrnviU4AO

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 12, 2026

She added, “one of them is going to be incitement, radicalization, in particular, as Islamic terrorist groups are utilizing the war like ISIS to go online and to lure people to violence … One, of course, what we’ve seen today attacks against the Jewish community and then, of course, attacks against Iranian Americans.”

“And so all of that is part of this horrible stew of terrorism and incitement that we live in now in a world online and in a world where violence is too prevalent. And so once again, the fact that the sheriff said two weeks, that’s not a coincidental two weeks,” Kayyem further blathered.

This was the second attack at a place of worship in Michigan within the past year. Last September, a former Marine, Thomas Jacob Sanford, allegedly shot four people dead at a church north of Detroit and set it on fire.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Sept. 29 that the suspect in that attack hated the Mormon faith. He was fatally shot by police during the incident.

 

* * * Please consider supporting ZeroHedge with the purchase of a hat, t-shirt, or multitool. Thank you. Tyler Durden Fri, 03/13/2026 - 12:40

US Senate Votes To Include CBDC Ban In Bipartisan Housing Bill

Authored by Vince Quill via CoinTelegraph.com,

The United States Senate voted on Thursday to include an amendment in the 21st Century Road to Housing Act that would prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

The CBDC prohibition will remain in effect until Dec. 31, 2030, according to the amendment in the bill. The legislation, which passed 89-10, stated:

“The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or a Federal Reserve Bank may not issue or create a central bank digital currency or any digital asset that is substantially similar to a central bank digital currency, directly or indirectly through a financial institution or other intermediary.”

The 21st Century Road to Housing Act, which includes the CBDC ban amendment. Source: US Senate

However, the bill does not prohibit any dollar-denominated digital currency that is “open, permissionless, and private,” such as stablecoins.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and President Donald Trump have presented dollar-pegged stablecoins as a way to extend US dollar hegemony, while Trump and other Republican lawmakers have taken a hardline stance against CBDCs.

Lawmakers slam CBDCs as authoritarian surveillance technology

More than 30 US lawmakers signed a letter on March 6, urging the Senate to pass a permanent CBDC ban, rather than a temporary moratorium.

“A CBDC would give unelected bureaucrats unprecedented power over Americans’ finances and threaten basic economic freedom,” Representative Ralph Norman, one of the signatories of the letter, said.

A letter signed by 31 US lawmakers urging a permanent ban on CBDCs. Source: Representative Ralph Norman

Representative Warren Davidson, a long-time critic of CBDCs, has also criticized regulated dollar-pegged stablecoins as having the same surveillance capabilities as CBDCs.

Davidson also warned that regulations under the Guiding and Empowering Nation’s Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act create an avenue to “control” and “coerce” the US population through financial surveillance techniques and programmable money.

Hedge fund manager Ray Dalio also recently warned that CBDCs would expand the government’s control over people’s finances. 

“There will be no privacy, and it's a very effective controlling mechanism by the government,” Dalio said in an interview with independent journalist Tucker Carlson.

CBDCs likely won’t be yield-bearing, meaning they do not offer inflation protection and can be automatically taxed or frozen by the government, he added.

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/13/2026 - 12:20

Weekend At Bernie's In Iran As IRGC Now Run The Country, Use Strait As Toll Road

By Ben Picton, senior market strategist at Rabobank

Mine, Yours

Major US, European and Asian equity indices all closed in the red yesterday as Brent crude prices again breached the $100/bbl level. Ten year sovereign yields were sharply higher for most countries (Sweden being an exception), with UK Gilts conspicuous for posting an 8.7bps increase. Short end yields rose even faster as markets priced in higher policy rate paths.

Canadian two year yields were up 9.8bps and in New Zealand yields rose 10.1bps. Canada now has 41bps worth of policy rate hikes priced into the forward curve for this year and New Zealand has 77bps priced. Prior to the outbreak of war, the market was still pricing cuts in Canada and it was still seen as uncertain that the RBNZ would be raising rates at all in 2026. Market bets on Fed rate cuts this year are evaporating fast.

Market optimism following Donald Trump’s comment earlier this week that the war is “very complete” and news that the G7 will coordinate on the release of 400mn barrels from strategic reserves appears to have been short-lived. Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei (the new one) has issued his first public statement, in which he echoed previous IRGC vows to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed.

There was a bit of a ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ vibe about this as Khamenei himself did not appear on camera. Rumors that he was injured – perhaps severely – in the opening strikes of the war are now circulating alongside suggestions that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps are now running the country and that Khamenei is being used as a convenient figurehead to give the impression of continuity under external pressure.

Despite Khamenei’s vow to keep the Strait closed market pricing is still signalling optimism that the war will be relatively short – although this optimism waned somewhat over the last 24 hours. Prediction markets have a ceasefire before month end as a 21% probability (down 5pts since yesterday), before April 30th as a 45% probability (-2pts since yesterday) and before June 30th as a 61% probability (unchanged).

The Brent crude forward curve remains heavily backwardated, with prices converging back to $75/bbl by mid next year. There has been some speculation in recent days that the US government could play a bit of “mine, yours” in oil derivatives in an attempt to reduce energy prices. Some point to the wild gyrations in crude prices on Monday to suggest that this might have already happened, while others have nod towards a hastily-deleted X post by Energy Secretary Chris Wright claiming that the US navy had escorted an oil tanker through Hormuz as an indication of funny business going on in paper oil markets.

Whatever the case, the FT is today reporting comments from CME Chief Executive Terry Duffy that government intervention in oil derivatives would be a “biblical disaster”. Crypto bros might counsel newly-minted oil traders on the virtues of physical custody, while our own Michael Every has drawn parallels to how pricing in the former Soviet Union worked: “the price of bread is only three roubles, comrade. There is simply none available.”

Not one to be deterred, Secretary Wright said overnight that naval escorts of tankers through the Strait could begin by the end of the month. One might have thought that the (largely unsuccessful) experience of Operation Prosperity Guardian in the Red Sea would serve as a cautionary example that naval escorts could prove ineffective in restarting shipping, but the reaction to Wright’s deleted X post suggests that the market would see this as progress. Nevertheless, the end-of-month timeline implies that prospects of de-escalation in the short term are remote.

The situation in the Strait itself remains troubling. Three commercial ships have been struck over the last two days, with the IRGC saying that “American aggressors and their allies have no right of passage.” The FT reports that ships stuck on the wrong side of Hormuz are ‘Sitting Ducks’ and comments earlier this week from US officials that Iran had begun laying marine mines also complicate the picture for any near-term resumption in shipping.

News emerged yesterday that India and Bangladesh-bound cargoes have been granted permission to transit, and China-bound cargoes have been moving for days. The fact that some shipping is being allowed seemingly confirms that mine laying operations remain limited in scope, but that does not mean that Iran cannot escalate if it chooses to. CNN reports that Iran still has 80-90% of its mine-laying fleet and retains the capability to lay ‘hundreds’ of mines, so the IRGC could conceivably play a bit of “mine, yours” with world energy markets for months.

If Iran allows China and India oil through the Strait, that's more than half of normal oil traffic already (7mmb/d). Throw in the Saudi East-West pipeline for redirection (another 7mb/d) and the blockade suddenly shrinks a lot pic.twitter.com/64xoGJpiHG

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 13, 2026

As it stands. the IRGC is now effectively playing Little John with the Strait by insisting that anyone attempting transit must have Iranian permission. The world’s most important hydrocarbon chokepoint has – for now, at least – become an Iranian toll road. Is this acceptable to the United States, or broader Western civilization? Almost certainly not. That makes a Trump TACO all the more improbable, even if it were actually possible without catastrophic loss of US prestige.

So, tanker traffic through the Strait remains at a virtual standstill. Khamenei said in his statement that Tehran believes in “friendship” with Gulf neighbours, but that American bases in Gulf states will continue to be targeted. The message to GCC states is not subtle: break from the US, or suffer the economic and military consequences of continued association.

Of course, while the Iran war continues to dominate all of the headlines, other issues are bubbling away in the world economy. Problems in private credit markets remain a point of risk, perhaps even more so now that swings in commodity and equity markets are precipitating margin calls that need to be funded somehow. A number of funds have placed limits on redemptions, others have sought injections of new capital, and shares in Blackstone, Blue Owl, and KKR have come under pressure. Rising bond yields and widening credit spreads don’t help, and Bloomberg has noted that financials are the worst performing sector of the S&P500 over the last week.

Many portfolios have incorporated private credit exposures in recent years, to the extend that “the golden age of private credit” became a somewhat notorious meme in markets. Some investors have undoubtedly seen their portfolios bolstered as a result of incorporating these exposures, but others may now be hoping that private credit doesn’t ‘mine, theirs’.

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/13/2026 - 11:40

Italian Diplomatic Sources Deny Talks With Iran To Open Hormuz

Update(1140ET): Italy denies talks with Iran, but still nothing official on a public level from government ministers:

No negotiations are under way with Iran to guarantee safe passage through the Hormuz Strait for Italian ships or oil tankers, an Italian Foreign Ministry source has told Reuters, denying a report in The Financial Times.

“In their diplomatic contacts, Italian leaders want to favour the conditions for a general military de-escalation, but there is no under-the-table negotiation aimed at preserving only some merchant ships at the expense of others,” the source said.

* * *

Amid very confused and mixed messaging coming from Washington over the status and future fate of Hormuz oil transit, the EU is trying its hand at a solution.

France ⁠and ⁠Italy have ​opened 'tentative' talks ‌with Iran ‌seeking ⁠to ⁠negotiate a deal to ​guarantee safe ​passage for their tankers ⁠through vital strait which remains a crucial chokepoint for stalled global crude transit, the ​Financial ⁠Times reports Friday, citing people briefed on ⁠the efforts.

This comes as US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said in a Friday morning Pentagon briefing there is "no clear evidence that Iran has laid mines" in the Strait. This contradicts an avalanche of reporting from earlier this week which said at least a dozen mines were laid.

The two key overnight and morning headlines which have most impacted oil markets remain confirmed India-Iran talks for safe passage, and now EU efforts to do the same...

Regardless, it's more than obvious that the waterway is de facto shut - with perhaps the exception of some Chinese or possibly an Indian vessel being allowed through - also amid persisting threats of rocket and drone attacks.

According to the Financial Times, "European capitals have opened the tentative discussions in an attempt to restart oil and gas exports without expanding the conflict, three officials briefed on the talks told the FT, as shipping companies look to western navies to provide potential escorts for their tankers."

"France is one of the countries involved in the talks, two of the officials said," the report continues. "The first official said Italy had also made attempts to open discussions with Tehran on the issue."

As for whether the war expands or not, that's in no way under Europe's control - but remains something pertaining only to Israel, the United States, and Iran - the main players in the conflict.

The case for some shred of optimism or hope? However, Trump and Hegseth's bellicose tones on Friday morning, vowing to keep ramping up military action over Tehran, underscores continued extreme uncertainty:

If Iran allows China and India oil through the Strait, that's more than half of normal oil traffic already (7mmb/d). Throw in the Saudi East-West pipeline for redirection (another 7mb/d) and the blockade suddenly shrinks a lot pic.twitter.com/64xoGJpiHG

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 13, 2026

Meanwhile the Trump administration has sought to push back against reporting by CNN and others which alleges war-planners didn't actually take into account that attacking Iran would result in Hormuz's closure or blockage.

Here's how Hegseth responded to the charge on Friday morning - while trying to paint a general picture that the mainstream media is clouding the picture, and just trying to make Trump 'look bad':

"This is always what they do, hold the strait hostage. CNN doesn't think we thought of that? It's a fundamentally unserious report," Hegseth said. "The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better."

Skeptics have pushed back against Pentagon and White House claims of lengthy preparations and plans to use military force to clear the Strait of Hormuz, and yet now 13 days into a war with Iran and there's been no US action in the waterway, and not so much as a single US naval escort that anyone is aware of.

Source: Yeni Safak

So far there does seem to be a constant flow of words on the issue coming from the White House and Pentagon - and yet a clear strategy still hasn't been articulated, much less clear action taking shape.

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/13/2026 - 11:39

Job Openings Unexpectedly Surge By Almost 400K: Biggest Increase Since 2024

Is the mini recession in the US job market ending? 

After slumping in late 2025, it has been a rocky road for the US labor market, especially after the February payrolls print shocked with how bad it was. But according to the latest JOLTS job openings and turnover report published by the BLS moments ago, by the time the February NFP picture was taking place, the seeds of a recovery may have been planted already thanks to a surge in US job openings, which rose by 396K in January, the biggest increase since Nov 2024, to 6.946 million from 6.550 million and the highest since last October.

Looking at the details, we find the the biggest increases were in finance and insurance (+184K), which is odd for a sector about to be swept by the private credit crisis. Other sector that saw a big jump in job openings were Trade, Transportation and Utilities, driven by a 130K increase in retail trade jobs; Private education and health services job opening also jumped by 123K, while Leisure and Hospitality increased by 185K. Professional and business services was the only major sector to see a sharp drop in job openings.

The jump in job openings means that after hitting a 5 year high, the labor demand deficit was cut in half, and in January there were 422K fewer job openings than unemployed workers, a big drop from the 953K the month prior.

Despite the jump in openings, the shift wasn't big enough to change the openings to unemployed ratio, which remained at 0.9x, the lowest it has been since 2021.

And another indication that the labor market slump may be ending, after slamming hard at the end of 2025, both the number of hires and quits has rebounded, although it is still too early to determine if this is a regime change or just a dead cat bounce.

Overall, today's JOLTs report was unexpectedly strong and should put to rest some of the fears sparked by last Friday's catastrophic jobs report.

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/13/2026 - 10:39

The post When Pete Hegseth Says “Lethality” He’s Talking About Killing Iranian School Girls appeared first on CEPR.