"Exponentially Deteriorating": Baltimore's Lawlessness Spreads Into Suburbs As Democrats Lose Control

Maryland is one of many blue states that have transformed into a failed progressive experiment, where net migration flows are negative as productive, working-class taxpayers flee the state, not just because of high taxes and the power bill crisis, but also because they've had enough of left-wing politicians and their failed criminal justice and social reforms that have fueled a decade of violent crime chaos.

We've extensively covered more than a decade of violent crime, riots, population collapse, and the exodus of taxpayers and businesses from imploding Baltimore City, which has been hit hard by a commercial real estate crisis in parts of the downtown area. But rarely have we focused on Baltimore County, just north of the city, where, yet again, left-wing politicians who masquerade as competent managers but are merely DEI activists have unleashed years of lawlessness through failed policies.

FOX45 News spoke with Mickey Hoppert, a retired sergeant with the Baltimore County Police Department who has spent more than two decades on the force, warned about the lawlessness of juveniles in the Towson metro area:

I wouldn't say that it's out of control, but it's getting there. Baltimore County is slowly, actually it's not slowly, it's exponentially deteriorating, and there are more and more pockets of bad elements coming into the county and wreaking havoc.

"I wouldn't say that it's out of control, but it's getting there. Baltimore County is slowly, actually it's not slowly, it's exponentially deteriorating," Mickey Hoppert, retired sergeant with the Baltimore County Police Department, said. "There are more and more pockets of bad… pic.twitter.com/oc7hizFsdt

— FOX Baltimore (@FOXBaltimore) May 5, 2026

Hoppert identified Towson as a major hub for juveniles to meet up and cause chaos over the last ten years.

"It's easy access here," he said. "Bus lines come here. Friends and family can bring them here."

He pointed out that current juvenile laws in the deeply blue county do not support officers and have been nothing but demotivating towards the department.

"When I say nobody supporting them, I mean the judicial system, the judges, they're not supporting them because the laws don't allow them to. The newer laws that have been enacted by lawmakers," Hoppert said. "Revamp the laws. Go back in and look at the laws and see what they can do to change them and make them more, more beneficial to the public and actually make it so that there is a consequence for the action that the juvenile commits."

The current reading of population data in Baltimore County indicates it has lost population since 2020. The decline is modest, but it shows that population growth is quickly losing momentum as residents flee not just the county, but the state, seeking common-sense politicians in red states that offer low taxes and law and order.

At the state level, the failures are piling up for left-wing Gov. Wes Moore, whose polling data has sunk and alarmed the Democratic Party. The governor faces an ongoing trust issue with voters as Sinclair Broadcasting's David Smith wages an informational war on the unhinged leftist in the state.

Since Gov. Wes Moore took office in January 2023, Maryland's fiscal profile has deteriorated sharply. The state entered Moore's first term with a roughly $5 billion surplus, but by 2025, it was facing a $3.3 billion deficit. This swing from surplus to deficit only suggests how Democratic leftists in Annapolis spent taxpayer funds on failed progressive experiments.  

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 20:25

From Civilian To Military Economy: This Is What A Declining Empire's Economy Looks Like

Authored by Bryan Lutz via DollarCollapse.com,

“A government always finds itself obliged to resort to inflationary measures when it cannot negotiate loans and dare not levy taxes, because it has reason to fear that it will forfeit approval of the policy it is following if it reveals too soon the financial and general economic consequences of that policy.”

~ Ludwig von Mises, The Theory of Money and Credit (1912)

Empires don’t announce their decline.

They reveal it in the data…

And on Monday, the U.S. Census Bureau quietly published the latest installment.

Rome elevated the military as the empire decayed.

Britain did the same after 1914.

And after 1971, when Nixon severed the dollar from gold, America began the same process.

The factory floor is where it shows up first…

So let’s look at it.

March 2026 defense capital goods orders: up 18 percent month-over-month.

But, year-over-year, it’s a much larger number: up 80 percent.

Non-defense capital goods? Down 1.2 percent, which makes it the sixth contraction in seven months.

Strip out defense production, and the headline factory number moves negative.

Now, the United States isn’t exactly in full-on war economy yet. It’s what a peacetime empire economy looks like in late stage.

Here’s what the transition looks like on the chart, defense versus non-defense aircraft orders, last 24 months:

One of those lines is paid for by the Pentagon writing a check. The other is paid for by airlines and freight companies deciding they want to expand. Guess which kind of order an empire prioritizes when it’s running out of money.

And here’s where it gets interesting.

Ludwig von Mises wrote in 1912:

“A government always finds itself obliged to resort to inflationary measures when it cannot negotiate loans and dare not levy taxes, because it has reason to fear that it will forfeit approval of the policy it is following if it reveals too soon the financial and general economic consequences of that policy.”

You see, a Federal government has three ways to pay its bills.

1. It can tax.

2. It can borrow.

3. Or it can print.

If the US government were to tax citizens for $2.5 trillion in defense spending they’d revolt by Tuesday.

If they were to borrow it from foreigners who are already net sellers of Treasuries? Good luck.

That leaves the printer.

Every empire elevates the military as the civilian economy decays. Rome did it under Diocletian. The British did it after 1914. America started in 1971.

The Vietnam-era proof is the cleanest.

After the war ended, federal spending kept rising. The 1969 federal surplus of $3 billion turned into a $23 billion deficit by 1972, with the war winding down.

America didn’t exactly demobilize after that. Instead, they redirected attention.

In fact, look at where the redirection is going right now.

The Pentagon’s 2027 national security request will exceed $2.5 trillion. The cost of the Iran war isn’t even in that budget.

And the money supply just surged to a multi-year high. The Fed has quietly restarted QE.

So, the Pentagon gets more airplanes.

You can see what that printing looks like in the chart, below. Federal interest expense just crossed $1 trillion trailing twelve months, and M2 is heading vertical:

Mises predicted this curve. The Census Bureau is now reporting it.

And that’s why every empire’s late-stage transition ends the same way.

Eventually, the currency thins out, military thickens up, and the middle class evaporates between them.

Weimar Germany. Late-stage Rome. The Soviet Union in its last decade.

Each time, the people who held the State’s paper got wiped.

Each time, the people who held gold got out.

This week, the Fed will move closer to the cut. The Treasury will sell another half-trillion next week. Defense will keep ordering. And Civilian CapEx will keep contracting…

This is what a declining empire’s economy looks like. There just hasn’t been an announcement yet.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 19:50

When The Persian Gulf Supply Shock Meets The Warsh Fed: Stagflation & The Coming AI Bubble Bust

Authored by David Stockman via InternationalMan.com,

Here is a salient place to start regarding the economic impact of the Donald’s misbegotten war on Iran: To wit, approximately 7 billion ton-miles of freight moves by truck each and every day in the USA, which heavy truck fleet consumes upwards of 2.9 million barrels per day (mb/d) of diesel fuel.

Alas, the price of diesel fuel was about $3.55/gallon both a year ago and as of early January 2026, but has since soared by more than+$2.00 per gallon to around $5.60 recently. That’s a 56% rise in the cost of pumping goods and commodities through the arteries of the US economy. On an annualized basis, the diesel fuel bill for the US truck fleet went from $155 billion per year to $250 billion per year at current oil prices.

The big question, of course, is through which channel these drastically higher fuel acquisition costs will be absorbed—in higher prices or reduced output?

And that pertains not just to the microcosm of the trucking sector, but the entire GDP now being battered by the Donald’s elective war-based dislocation of the world’s 175 million BOE/day oil and natural gas markets.

We’d bet it will be a combination of both inflation and deflation, otherwise known as stagflation. The mix of these outcomes depends upon supply and demand conditions in individual sectors of the economy in part, but also, and ultimately and more importantly, on the Fed.

That is, whether the nation’s central bank pumps incremental demand into the economy via credit expansion with a view to “accommodating” the soaring price of energy today, and, soon, food and other commodity inputs to GDP, too; or holds firm on the printing press dials and allows the now cresting energy and commodity shocks to work their way through the interstices of the $30 trillion US economy.

Of course, during the previous comparable petroleum supply disruption of the 1970s, the Fed made the huge mistake of printing the money to counteract what was a “supply shock” in the form of soaring petroleum prices. But that led—just as sound money advocates had always held—to double digit increases in the general price level by the end of the decade, and thereafter the trauma of the Volcker administered application of the monetary brakes.

With the Fed fixing to welcome a new Chairman, as recent congressional hearings remind, it is therefore a question of whether or not the Kevin Warsh Fed will want to take its place in the monetary policy villains gallery along with Arthur Burns and the hapless William G. Miller.

We think not. We actually believe that for the first time since Volcker we are about to get a Fed chairman who understands the requisites of sound money and noninflationary finance, as well as the profound error of Keynesian demand management at the central bank.

And not only that. As far as we can tell, he also has the experience from his prior service on the Fed during the so-called Great Financial Crisis and the cajones to lean heavily against the supply shock now emanating from the Persian Gulf.

Of course, in a perfect world of honest money and free markets—including in the production of money and credit—there wouldn’t be any central bank “leaning” to do. Under an honest gold standard, for instance, the impending petroleum supply shock would cause relative price changes, thereby generating a sharp curtailment of activity in petroleum intensive sectors and the reallocation of activity, output, jobs and capital to less petroleum intensive sectors. That’s what the miracle of free markets do when they are allowed by the state to operate.

We obviously do not have anything close to free money and capital markets today. Yet we may be lucking out with the arrival of a new Fed Chairman who might well attempt to stand up a sound money proxy—at least in part—to simulate the deflationary and re-allocative impulses that would otherwise arise in the face of a world scale supply shock.

That is to say, Warsh may permit the incoming Persian Gulf supply shock to curtail output in heavily impacted sectors rather than monetize it, as did his failed predecessors during the 1970s.

Moreover, one thing which may help Walsh lean in this anti-Keynesian direction is the the need to avoid the tattered legacy of the private equity deal lawyer who proceeded him. As it happened, Powell had no clue that the blue suits who soon surrounded him at the Eccles Building were wrong-headed Keynesian monetary statists through and though.

Accordingly, when the far smaller supply shock from the Black Sea dislocation at the on-set of the Russia-Ukraine War came cascading through the global energy and food commodity markets, Powell joined the Burns/Miller brigade and kept on “accommodating”.

That’s evident in the graph below, which depicts the domestic services inflation rate excluding energy.

This is the Fed’s go to inflation metric because it arguably measures a subset of prices in the US economy that are mainly driven by so-called domestic “demand”, which is the very thing the Fed claims to be expert at calibrating.

We think Fed “demand management” is pretty much mischievous nonsense.

The fact is, however, when the Ukraine War incepted in February 2022 the domestic services less energy index was already rising at a 4.1% Y/Y rate. So there was no room for “accommodation” at all.

In fact, the Ukraine War supply shock had caught the Fed with its monetary pants down. The Fed funds rate was effectively zero in nominal terms at the time (February 2022) and had been pinned to the zero bound for the previous 22 months. Thereafter Powell and his merry band of money printers kept kidding themselves into believing that the Ukrainian War inflation surge was “transitory” and that a Volcker style slamming of the monetary brakes was unnecessary.

As it evident in the chart, however, the Fed tepid 25 basis point increases month after month in its target funds rate was blatantly too little and way too late. By February 2023, the very inflation metric that the Keynesian central bankers claim to heavily influence—-domestic services less energy services—was leaping higher at a +7.3% Y/Y rate.

By then, of course, and with double digit energy and food inflation layered on top, headline inflation was running at 40-year highs and knocking on the door of 1970s style double digit inflation.

We think this history is profoundly relevant to where a Kevin Warsh-led Fed may come out because it just so happens that the the Y/Y rate on this key metric stood at +3.05% in March 2026 or about where it had been in October 2021 on the eve of the “Powell Inflation”.

Needless to say, we don’t think Kevin Warsh, who is a real student of money and economics, wishes to be placed next in line in the Burns/Miller/Powell gallery of monetary villains.

CPI For Services Less Energy Services, June 2021 to March 2026

That’s especially the case when you look at the history of the Fed’s so-called monetary target adjusted for the prevailing (Y/Y) inflation rate. To wit, there is no logical or sustainable world in which the inflation-adjusted or “real” cost of overnight money can be negative for any even limited period of time.

That’s because negative cost overnight money in real terms is truly the mother’s milk of speculation—especially on Wall Street among the hedge funds and fast money operators, but on the main street economy, too.

Stated differently, cheap money everywhere and always causes excessive speculation, imprudent leverage, debt accumulation, financial asset bubbles, malinvestment of capital and economic waste. But above all else, it also fuels an inflationary rise in the general price level owing to artificial credit-fueled demand uncoupled from any prior and corresponding increase in supply.

In this context, the chart below tells you all you need to know about what the Warsh Fed will be up against, and also the lessons of the 2022-2023 error committed by the Fed in its delayed and languid reaction to the Black Sea commodity shock. To wit, the inflation-adjusted Fed funds rate in Q2 2022 when measured by the inflation metric the Fed swears by—the domestic services CPI less energy services—was negative -4.4%.

Surely that was a signal that the money-printers were way over the end of their skis. That’s especially because the Fed funds rate had been negative in real terms for 57 quarters running, going all the way back to Q1 2008, when the real funds rate had last been slightly positive.

But here’s where the inflationary gale force was gestated. It actually took the Fed more than three years—until Q2 2025—to get the Fed funds rate positive in real terms, and then only marginally so at just +0.75%. Indeed, it is nothing less than the big pool of negative real cost credit enabled by the Fed during those three years that rocked the US economy with an inflationary outbreak that is still not fully extinguished.

In fact, as the US economy now begins to absorb the far more powerful supply shock waves from the Persian Gulf supply shock, we think the incoming Warsh Fed is not about to run a repeat of 2021-2022.

The more likely course is actually suggested by the left-hand side of the graph, which shows that the real funds rate measured with this metric hovered in the +2.5% range or higher during the salad days of non-inflationary growth of the 1980s and 1990s.

That is to say, Kevin Warsh is likely to prove to be more of a Volcker/Reagan sound money central banker than we have experienced since Alan Greenspan sold his gold standard bona fides for a stint as the world’s most famous money-printer after the dotcom crash.

Inflation-Adjusted Fed Funds Rate, 1982 to 2026

So the question recurs. What is likely to happen to the alleged Trumpian Golden Age when the Persian Gulf Supply shock smacks up against the incoming sounder money Fed under Kevin Warsh?

In a word, we think the US economy is already teetering on the edge of recession, waiting for the proverbial wing-flap to tip it over into contraction. After all, it’s already evident that the one bright spot in the US economy during the Donald’s second go round—capital spending—is purely an artifact of the stock market bubble in AI.

For want of doubt, the table below shows Capex spending for AI and data centers and compares it to the second column, which is the standard measure of business fixed investment in structures, equipment and intellectual capital as reported in the income and product accounts. It is notable that the former accounted for just 2.5% of business capital investment in 2020, but grew by $188 billion in 2025 versus prior year.

At the same time, total business investment rose by just $228 billion in 2025, meaning that the AI/data center boom accounted for fully 82% of total business investment spending growth in the US economy during 2025.

The final two columns show the same data in constant dollar terms. Whereas the reported data shows that real nonresidential fixed investment investment (fifth column) rose by a seemingly robust 4.1% during Trump’s first year, capital spending excluding the AI bubble actually shrank at a -0.4% annual rate.

As it happened, the latter had actually grown by 6.7% per annum during the time of Sleepy Joe (2020-2024) owing to the unsustainable stimulus of borrow, spend and print after the pandemic collapse in the spring of 2020.

So “Joe Biden” therefore gets no plaudits for the artificially bloated economy he inherited from Trump 45 and the money-printing excesses of the Powell Fed. Still, it can be well and truly said that the US economy was already positioned on a banana peel when the Donald elected to blow up the Persian Gulf for no good reason of homeland security.

Business CapEx With And Without The AI/Data Center Boom, 2020 to 2025

In short, the Persian Gulf supply shock is about to monkey-hammer the US economy good and hard. And then the AI bubble in the stock market will bust—even as this time there will be no money-printers at the central bank waiting to bailout the mess.

*  *  *

The Persian Gulf supply shock may prove to be only one part of a much larger economic reckoning. If confidence in the US dollar continues to erode, the consequences could go far beyond higher prices, tighter credit, and recession. At some point, desperate governments often reach for desperate measures—including capital controls, restrictions on movement, retirement account grabs, and other forms of wealth confiscation.

That’s why it’s critical to consider your options before the window to act narrows. To help, we’ve prepared a special report, Guide to Surviving and Thriving During an Economic Collapse. It explains practical steps you can take now to better protect your money, freedom, and future.

Get your free copy of Guide to Surviving and Thriving During an Economic Collapse.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 18:40

Caught On Tape: California Billionaire Tax Architect Admits Wealth Confiscation Could Go Even Further

One of the co-authors of California’s controversial 'one-time' tax on billionaires appeared to suggest that the levy could extend beyond a single imposition.

Marxist economics professor Emmanuel Saez, who hails from France, made the comment during a Tuesday debate against economist Arthur Laffer at the University of California, Berkeley.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a one-time tax. Because you can’t surprise billionaires more than once,” Saez said. "Even then, maybe some of them were expecting something like this. So, it’s going to be a debate about this time, you know, a permanent wealth tax at a low rate that’s going to last for a number of years.”

Watch the entire debate below:

The radical tax pushed by the far-left Service Employees International Union–United Healthcare Workers West would slap California residents with a punishing one-time 5% levy on anyone with assets over $1 billion.

The proposal has reverberated through Silicon Valley, where several high-profile figures have already established residency elsewhere. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have moved to Florida, drawn by its more favorable business and tax environment, while Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg purchased a $150 million mansion in Miami. This week, Bloomberg reported that Palantir CEO Alex Karp scooped up a Miami-area mansion for $46 million, while the company itself has recently relocated from Denver to Florida.

Even Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder, prominent Democrat donor, and longtime buddy of convicted schrodinger's pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, has publicly criticized the proposal, describing California’s wealth tax tax as a “horrendous idea” that would hasten the departure of tech founders and executives from the state.

California is not alone among Democrat-leaning states experiencing such outflows. This week, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, a longtime backer of liberal causes, announced his relocation from Washington state to Miami, Florida, shortly after state legislators advanced a bill imposing a tax on residents earning more than $1 million annually.

"We have moved to Miami for our next adventure together. We are enjoying the sunshine of South Florida and its allure to our kids on the East Coast as they raise families of their own," he wrote in a Linkedin post.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 18:05

Commodity Supercycle: The Enemy Of The Bull Thesis

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

The commodity supercycle thesis is everywhere right now. Bank of America’s Michael Hartnett, one of the most widely read strategists on Wall Street, recently declared “commodities the biggest trade of the next five years,” anchoring the call on deglobalization, chronic capital underinvestment, and a world drifting away from dollar dominance. As is often the case, the narrative is extremely compelling. However, it’s also internally contradictory in ways that most investors aren’t stopping to examine.

After three decades of managing money, I have learned to be THE most skeptical of the trades that feel the most inevitable. That skepticism isn’t contrarianism for its own sake, but rather the recognition that when a thesis achieves consensus, the crowd has usually already priced the easy part of the move, and the hard part is what comes next. The commodity supercycle argument has real structural legs. But it also carries a reflexivity problem, a dollar mechanics problem, and a catastrophist assumption problem that, taken together, make the clean “go long commodities” conclusion far messier than the headline suggests.

Let’s work through each one carefully, and as always, with the data.

The Reflexivity Problem: When the Trade Defeats Itself

The most straightforward critique of any commodity supercycle thesis is that a sustained commodity rally is, by definition, inflationary. And sustained inflation is demand destruction. Before we get to the counterarguments (there are legitimate ones), it’s worth mapping out the feedback loop precisely, because the mechanism is more complex than the simple “inflation is bad for growth” headline suggests.

Commodity bulls offer a legitimate counterargument here. First, they distinguish between demand-pull inflation, where a hot economy bids up prices, and supply-constrained inflation. The latter is where chronic underinvestment means the world can’t produce enough regardless of demand levels. Hartnett’s case leans heavily on the supply side, and that’s the more defensible version of the argument. A decade of ESG-driven capital withdrawal from energy and metals, combined with the shale revolution’s diminishing returns, has created real supply deficits in several commodity markets.

The data below illustrates the scale of that underinvestment. Global upstream oil and gas capital expenditure peaked around 2014 and remained roughly 40% below that level as recently as 2023, even as demand returned to pre-pandemic levels. That is a genuine structural story, and certainly is worth paying attention to.

But even granting the supply-side framing, the reflexivity problem doesn’t disappear. This is a point that is often forgotten in the “heat of the moment” of a profitable trade. The markets are not static, but dynamic, and, as the old saying goes, “high prices are a cure for high prices.” There are two reasons why that is true.

First, high commodity prices are a tax on growth by transferring wealth from consumers and manufacturers to producers. That transfer compresses the demand on which commodity producers depend. Governments and central banks respond asymmetrically to commodity inflation by releasing strategic reserves, imposing windfall taxes, or accelerating substitution. The 2022 oil spike is a perfect case study: WTI briefly hit $130 per barrel, the Biden administration released over 180 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and demand destruction combined with a Fed tightening cycle broke the trade within months of the initial spike.

Secondly, high prices bring more supply online. When prices rise, producers are incentivized to produce more products. When that increase in supply collides with the collapse in demand, the cycle reverses quickly due to the supply glut. As shown in the chart below, the commodity market is notorious for booms and busts precisely because of this.

The 2022 episode compressed in real time what would normally take years to play out, but we also saw a similar episode from 2000 to 2007, as China consumed commodities in a push to rapidly grow its economy. That episode crashed in 2008 as the Financial Crisis crushed global demand. The policy/producer response isn’t hypothetical; it’s a documented reflex, and the more dramatic the commodity rally, the more certain the policy response becomes.

The Dollar Contradiction at the Heart of the Thesis

Here’s the fault line that most commodity bulls don’t address directly, and it’s the one I find most analytically significant: virtually all commodities are priced and settled in U.S. dollars in global markets. That’s not incidental; it’s the structural backbone of the petrodollar system that has anchored dollar demand since the 1970s. When oil prices rise, petrodollar recycling intensifies. Commodity exporters accumulate dollar surpluses and recycle them into U.S. Treasuries and dollar-denominated assets (including U.S. equities, gold, and other commodities). More commodity volume at higher prices means more dollar-denominated transactions, more dollar liquidity needs, and more dollar reserves held by commodity-importing nations.

A commodity supercycle, properly understood, is structurally dollar-supportive, not dollar-negative. As shown, many point to the decline in the US dollar’s “share” of global foreign exchange reserves as “proof” of its declining dominance.

The chart above tells a story the catastrophist crowd loves to cite, and they’re not wrong that the dollar’s reserve share has declined from its 2000 peak of roughly 71%. But look carefully at the actual level: as of late 2024, the dollar still accounts for approximately 57-58% of global reserves. The next closest competitor, the euro, sits around 20%. The Chinese yuan, despite years of de-dollarization rhetoric, accounts for less than 3%. The decline is real, but only because the Euro did not exist before 1999, and the Yuan only became accepted for trade on a limited basis a few years ago. However, a crisis it is not, and a commodity cycle only strengthens the dollar position.

This creates a direct contradiction with the other major pillar of the commodity bull narrative: the dollar debasement story. If the thesis requires dollar weakness to fully materialize, and many versions of it explicitly do, then a successful commodity cycle works against that by generating incremental dollar demand. The two arguments pull in opposite directions, and that tension is almost never acknowledged in the thesis presentations.

The only scenario in which both the commodity bull and the dollar bear cases work simultaneously is one in which U.S. fiscal excess debases the dollar faster than commodity-driven dollar demand can offset it. That requires a genuine crisis of fiscal confidence, a level of sovereign stress that isn’t currently visible and isn’t probable within a five-year investment horizon. Yes, the U.S. deficit is running approximately $1.8 to $2 trillion annually, interest expense has eclipsed defense spending, and the CBO projects no credible stabilization path under current policy. That is a real long-run problem over the next 30-50 years. But it’s not a five-year catalyst.

The China Problem: No Replacement for the Original Engine

China is the most critical lynchpin to the commodity supercycle. The 2000s commodity supercycle, the one this thesis is implicitly invoking as its template, was not primarily a supply story. It was a demand shock of historic proportions, and it had a name: China’s urbanization and industrialization. Between 2000 and 2012, China accounted for roughly half of all incremental global demand growth for steel, copper, aluminum, and coal. Its share of global iron ore consumption grew from under 20% to over 60% in that same period. That’s not a supply-deficit story. That’s a billion people building cities that no one lived in, which have now become an economic anchor.

That engine is now structurally impaired, and the table below illustrates why the India- and emerging-market “replacement demand” narrative falls significantly short of the original.

India’s commodity demand growth is real, and the broader emerging market infrastructure buildout adds genuine incremental demand. But there’s no single country or bloc that replicates the concentrated, high-velocity demand shock that China delivered between 2000 and 2012. The 2000s supercycle had a demand engine of historic scale running underneath it. Hartnett’s version relies on supply-side logic. In the absence of a comparably powerful demand driver, the supply/demand imbalance will not be as significant.

Meanwhile, as noted, China’s property sector collapse has removed the world’s single largest commodity demand driver. At its peak, Chinese real estate accounted for roughly 25-30% of GDP when the full construction supply chain is included. That’s not recovering in five years. The commodity demand that China generated during its construction boom was effectively borrowed from the future. Now that the borrowed “future” is arriving, it came as a demand vacuum.

Tail Risk Dressed as Base Case: The Catastrophist Problem

The “dollar demise / U.S. asset exodus / bipolar world” framing has been a persistent feature of bearish macro commentary since at least 2009. Every round of quantitative easing was supposed to be the moment dollar credibility broke. Every geopolitical fracture, the European debt crisis, Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the U.S. credit downgrade, and the rise of the BRICS payment alternatives, was supposed to accelerate de-dollarization beyond the margin.

None of it happened on the timeline or at the magnitude the catastrophist crowd predicted. And yet the narrative keeps resurfacing and gets refreshed with new catalysts because the old narrative failed. That is why those castraphosists always have a key statement: “just not yet.”

The table above makes a straightforward point. In every major crisis of the past 20 years, the world’s response has been to buy dollars, not sell them. The de-dollarization that Hartnett and others embed in their commodity bull thesis requires the world to do the opposite. Rather, the world would shift away from dollar-denominated reserves and transactions in a sustained, structural way. There’s no evidence that’s happening at the pace or scale the narrative requires.

This doesn’t mean the dollar is invulnerable. The fiscal trajectory is genuinely concerning over a multi-decade horizon. A term premium reset in U.S. Treasuries is already underway, driven by foreign buyers demanding more compensation for duration risk. These are real and worth monitoring. But they’re 10 to 15-year dynamics, not five-year catalysts. Hartnett is packaging a legitimate long-run concern as an imminent trade driver, and that’s where the analytical rigor slips.

What This Means for Investors

I want to be precise about what I’m arguing and what I’m not. I’m not saying commodities are a bad investment or that the structural supply-deficit case is wrong; it’s not. Energy, select industrial metals, and agricultural commodities face real, medium-term supply constraints. Those constraints should support prices above the levels they traded at in the 2010s deflationary decade. The capex destruction of the prior cycle created a genuine deficit. That deficit will take years to close, and that story is worth holding exposure to in a diversified portfolio.

What I’m arguing is that the clean, multi-year commodity supercycle narrative, particularly the version built on dollar collapse and a wholesale shift away from U.S. assets, overstates the probability of its own enabling conditions. And more importantly, it contains a logical fault line: the commodity supercycle itself is dollar-supportive, not dollar-negative. The two main pillars of the thesis pull in opposite directions.

But What About The AI Boom?

Here is the real question. Can the artificial intelligence infrastructure boom replace China’s urbanization as the demand engine underneath a new commodity supercycle? The short answer is no, and understanding why clarifies exactly what kind of commodity opportunity we’re actually dealing with.

AI infrastructure does generate real commodity demand. Data centers require significant copper for power distribution and cooling systems. The grid expansion needed to support hyperscaler compute loads is driving demand for steel, aluminum, and transformers. Natural gas and nuclear power are being positioned as the baseload energy sources for facilities that can’t tolerate renewable intermittency. Goldman Sachs estimated that data center power demand could grow by roughly 160% by 2030, a figure worth taking seriously. Copper in particular has a legitimate AI demand tailwind, and uranium’s renaissance as a clean baseload energy source is directly tied to this infrastructure buildout.

But here’s where the China comparison breaks down completely. China’s urbanization moved roughly 500 million people from subsistence agriculture into cities over 20 years. It required building entire urban ecosystems. That boom required everything from roads and bridges to apartment towers, factories, ports, and railways. All scratch, simultaneously, across every commodity category at once. That was broad-based, high-intensity demand across iron ore, coal, copper, aluminum, cement, and energy, running in parallel. A true commodity supercycle requires that kind of breadth. AI infrastructure demand is concentrated almost entirely in copper and electricity. It doesn’t move the needle on iron ore, agricultural commodities, coal, or the dozens of other categories that a genuine supercycle requires.

There’s an irony here that rarely gets discussed.

“AI is simultaneously the most compelling new source of commodity demand and one of the most powerful long-run deflationary forces for commodity consumption.“

AI-driven efficiency gains in manufacturing, logistics, energy management, and precision agriculture reduce the per-unit economic output intensity of commodities. Predictive maintenance reduces equipment replacement cycles. Smart grid management reduces transmission losses. The same technology driving data center copper demand is also optimizing the systems that consume commodities everywhere else in the economy. Over a five-year horizon, those efficiency gains compound. The net commodity impact of the AI revolution is almost certainly positive. However, it is far more modest than the bull case narrative implies.

Conclusion

The highest probability scenario, a structurally elevated commodity price floor with significant cyclical volatility, doesn’t support a set-it-and-forget-it long commodity position. It supports tactical, rules-based exposure management. The investors who generated the most alpha during the 2000s commodity bull weren’t the ones who correctly read the structural thesis in 2001 and held through 2008. They were the ones who managed position sizes through the cyclical interruptions and had predefined frameworks for when to add and when to reduce.

That discipline is exactly what the current “biggest trade of the next five years” framing discourages. When a thesis gets packaged as a multi-year certainty, it creates complacency about the cyclical risks embedded in the trade. Those risks — recession-driven demand destruction, Fed policy response, dollar strength in stress events — are precisely the ones that cause the most damage to investors who sized positions based on narrative conviction rather than risk-adjusted analysis.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 17:30

"Dateflation": 40% Of Singles Are Going On Fewer Dates Due To High Costs

Inflation is reshaping modern dating by making romantic outings more expensive and forcing many singles to be more intentional about how they spend, according to a new study from DealSeek. 

Rising costs are affecting how often people go out, with 71% of singles saying dating is more expensive than it was a year ago and 40% saying they are going on fewer dates because of it. For many people, paying for transportation, meals, drinks, entertainment, and other date-related expenses has become harder to justify as everyday living costs continue to rise.

That financial pressure is changing expectations around first dates. Most singles now prefer keeping first dates relatively inexpensive, with 57% saying they want to spend $75 or less and 39% preferring to stay under $50. Only 8% are willing to spend more than $150. Rather than choosing expensive dinners or elaborate nights out, many people are opting for lower-cost activities like coffee dates, walks, park outings, community events, or discounted entertainment options that feel more practical.

Many singles are also becoming more proactive about saving money while dating. Around 37% said they suggest free activities for dates, while 30% actively search for discounts or deals before making plans. These habits show how dating is becoming less centered on extravagant gestures and more focused on spending time together in affordable ways.

The DealSeek report writes that financial responsibility is increasingly viewed as an attractive trait. About half of singles said they appreciate partners who suggest inexpensive date ideas, while 49% said being open about budgeting is appealing. Even using coupons is seen positively by 41% of respondents. These responses suggest that being practical with money is becoming more valued in relationships.

At the same time, irresponsible spending habits are seen as major red flags. Around 78% of singles said bragging about money is unattractive, 61% said overspending is a turnoff, and 69% dislike people who complain about finances while continuing to spend recklessly. Many people appear to value financial maturity over flashy displays of wealth.

Money concerns are also shaping dating decisions in deeper ways. Nearly half of respondents, 47%, admitted they have tried dating someone who earns more than they do. Meanwhile, 53% said they have misrepresented their financial situation while dating, and 42% said they have stopped seeing someone because of financial issues. Dating profiles are reflecting these changing attitudes as well, with 61% of people finding profiles that mention simple, low-cost hobbies more attractive than profiles focused on career ambition or high-paying jobs.

Overall, dating is becoming more practical as people adjust to higher costs. Instead of trying to impress others through expensive dates or displays of wealth, many singles are placing greater value on honesty, affordability, and financial responsibility.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 16:55

Hantavirus: Stop The Spread Is Back

Via the Brownstone Institute,

Hollywood loves a good sequel and so does politics and pharmaceutical development. 

Since Covid, there have been several attempted disease scares – Mpox, Swine flu, Bird flu, Chikungunya, Measles – but nothing has really caught the attention of audiences like the new Hantavirus frenzy. 

Today’s evidence comes from DRUDGE REPORT: global effort to stop the spread. Is “flatten the curve” next?

Let’s remember how this began last year, with of course, a hantavirus death in the family of one of America’s most beloved Hollywood actors. It was Betsy Arakawa, Gene Hackman’s wife, who died February 12, 2025, from apparent hantavirus infection from rodents in the home. Terrifying image. 

At that point, no regular person had ever heard of such a disease. There is a reason. It’s rare and human-to-human spread is nearly unknown. Strange that it would hit the wife of the appropriately named Gene Hackman (get it?), leading man of the prescient 1998 movie Enemy of the State. 

Next up we have a reprise of the Plague Ship motif. Like the Diamond Princess, it is a cruise ship, the MV Hondius operated by Oceanwide Expeditions with 147 passengers, departing from Argentina and now anchored off Cape Verde, West Africa. 

It was headed to the Canary Islands when three people died, two with lab-confirmed hantavirus. No port would allow the ship to dock. With the assistance of rescue boats, the dead have been carefully removed by workers in hazmats and masks.

A flight attendant who came in contact with a dead body is now hospitalized and in rough condition, suggesting that even coming close to a person with hantavirus is risky stuff. No one can figure out how this is even possible. So mysterious, so unusual, so terrifying, just like the movie Contagion. 

This fits with the theory of Drs. Fauci and Morens that we need not worry about lab-created pathogens when animal-to-human spillover is becoming more common. This is why, they wrote in August 2020, that we must commence to “rebuilding the infrastructures of human existence, from cities to homes to workplaces, to water and sewer systems, to recreational and gatherings venues.”

Ready to opine for the press is the World Health Organization’s Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, she of Stanford University pedigree, now widely quoted as the go-to authority. 

You might remember Dr. Kerkhove from the original cast of the Covid production. It was she who wrote the WHO’s report to the world following the February 2020 junket to Wuhan. (We know this from the metadata of the report, which she failed to cleanse in the rush to publication.) 

“Achieving China’s exceptional coverage with and adherence to these containment measures,” she wrote of the CCP’s extreme lockdowns, “has only been possible due to the deep commitment of the Chinese people to collective action in the face of this common threat. At a community level this is reflected in the remarkable solidarity of provinces and cities in support of the most vulnerable populations and communities.”

Many close observers credit Kerkhove’s report with inspiring the worldwide lockdown of all nations but four in the following weeks. She still works at the WHO. Hardly anyone remembers any of this. There is no mechanism in place for her to be held to account for her role. 

There is no known cure but a vaccine is in development by Moderna based on the mRNA platform. 

As a result, Moderna’s stock, down dramatically from its highs, is now starting to recover. It is now up 100 percent year over year. The buy signal is strong with this one.

Looking back at the Covid prequel, there was always a flaw in the coronavirus caper, namely its short period of latency, roughly that of a cold or flu. You are infectious for a few days without symptoms while you pass it on. A genuine disease panic needs a longer period of latency. You need to be infected for weeks while spreading it far and wide. 

Why is this? Because every infectious disease confronts the logic of survival. A smart virus does not kill its hosts – it needs them to infect others – but a dumb one does, which is why dumb viruses are not good candidates for pandemics. 

This persistent trade-off between severity and prevalence can only be gamed by a long period of latency. That’s extremely rare and not even lab-created viruses manage this balancing act well. 

As it turns out, this hantavirus does have a very long period of latency, we are assured by the Harvard School of Public Health. It has issued a pronouncement: “The incubation period – the time between when a person is infected and when they begin to experience symptoms – is usually in the range of two to three weeks, but may be as long as eight weeks.”

Two months! Imagine that. Here we might finally have our candidate for the silent killer about which Deborah Birx fantasized during the last iteration of this story.

Keep in mind that no high institution in the US has repudiated lockdowns, even if two-thirds of the public believes they were pointlessly damaging. The call for Covid Justice has now 37,300 signatures but not enough to cause the Senate, House, or any other legislative body to speak clearly that this will never be tolerated again. 

To this day, the plan of the World Health Organization – which is already practicing for the next pandemic – is to push for lockdowns until vaccination in the event of a new disease scare. “Every country should apply non-pharmaceutical measures systematically and rigorously at the scale the epidemiological situation requires,” they say. 

Meanwhile, the Biden plan was for a 130-day lockdown in the event of a new pandemic. 

There are few mechanisms in place in any country to prevent this from happening. There are good people in government who would oppose this with strong conviction but will they even be asked their opinions? Or does this all occur with any obvious evidence of democratic volition? 

Who precisely is directing and producing this sequel? No one knows for sure. Will it be a box office hit like the last time or only have a limited release to test market interest? All the ingredients are here for an Academy Award: rodents, long latency, spread through casual contact with the dead, workers in hazmat suits, no known cure, a vaccine in rushed development. 

The real beauty of disease panic is that it has broad audience appeal and crosses partisan lines. National Review is all in already, as it was with Covid, and surely The Nation will join the effort in days. 

These are well-worn plot devices and sequels are rarely as compelling or profitable as the original. But when one is out of other ideas – and the public clamor to indict Fauci grows by the hour – it’s always worth a shot. 

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 16:20

Wall Street Keeps Testing AI Traders, But Most Are Still Underperforming

Recent trading competitions suggest large language models are still unreliable portfolio managers, according to Bloomberg.

Tests involving models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and xAI have often delivered underwhelming results: many lost money, traded excessively, and made erratic decisions despite receiving identical prompts. In several cases, models appeared unable to stick to coherent strategies for more than a few trading sessions.

Bloomberg writes that one of the clearest examples came from Alpha Arena, a competition created by startup Nof1. Eight models were each given $10,000 and asked to trade U.S. tech stocks over a two-week period using different strategies, including defensive approaches and leveraged bets. Across four competitions, the models collectively lost roughly a third of their capital, and only six of 32 outcomes ended in profit.

The gap in behavior was striking: xAI’s Grok 4.20 made just 158 trades in one contest, while Alibaba Group’s Qwen executed 1,418 under the exact same prompt.

The experiments reflect growing interest in whether generative AI can eventually outperform traditional fund managers. Wall Street firms including JPMorgan Chase and Balyasny Asset Management already rely on AI for research, fraud detection, and internal analysis, but they have largely stopped short of handing over actual investment decisions. As Nof1 founder Jay Azhang put it, current models still struggle with basics like “position sizing, timing, signal weighting and overtrading.”

That broader pattern has shown up elsewhere too. Research blog Flat Circle tracked 11 public AI trading competitions and found that while every event produced at least one profitable model, only two generated a profitable median return — suggesting most bots still underperform more often than not. Azhang was even more blunt about the state of autonomous trading: giving an LLM money and letting it invest independently “isn’t a thing yet.”

Some firms are still betting that the technology improves with better tools and tighter guardrails. Intelligent Alpha, for example, runs an AI-driven fund that combines LLMs with earnings transcripts, analyst forecasts, corporate filings, macroeconomic indicators, and web searches to make predictions. In late 2025, OpenAI’s ChatGPT correctly predicted the direction of earnings estimate revisions 68% of the time — its strongest showing so far.

Evaluating these systems remains difficult because traditional backtesting methods can be misleading: models may already have embedded knowledge of past market events, creating look-ahead bias. That has pushed more firms toward live-market experiments, where results so far suggest AI may be useful as an assistant — but not a replacement — for human traders.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 15:45

Trump Says He's Not Replacing FDA Chief Makary

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump said on May 8 that he has no plans to replace Marty Makary as commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

When asked by reporters outside the White House about Makary, Trump responded: “Nothing much, he’s doing fine,” without elaborating further.

Trump said he had seen reports suggesting the administration was planning to remove Makary from his role leading the FDA, but added that he knows “nothing about it.”

The president also rejected the notion that he would hire someone new to replace Makary.

Amid the media speculation, White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to multiple news outlets that Trump “has assembled the most experienced and talented administration in history.”

Several media outlets, citing unnamed sources, on May 8 stated that the president intends to remove Makary after controversies surrounding abortion drug mifepristone.

A federal appeals court on May 1 blocked the mailing of mifepristone until the FDA can ensure the abortion drug is “safe and effective” for use in the United States. The Supreme Court later put the ruling on hold after pill maker Danco Laboratories requested an emergency stay.

Mifepristone has long been available to women after consulting with doctors. In 2023, federal authorities enabled access via mail and at pharmacies.

In its May 1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said mifepristone could not be shipped because the FDA “conceded it had failed to adequately study whether remotely prescribing mifepristone is safe.”

Susan B. Anthony (SBA) Pro-Life America had previously called for Makary’s removal, accusing him of being indifferent toward calls for stricter regulations on abortion drugs.

“FDA Commissioner Makary should be fired immediately. Indifference is completely unacceptable to millions of pro-life voters expecting the administration to act to save lives,” SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a May 4 statement.

“More than 90,000 abortions occur each year just in states that protect babies in the law throughout all nine months of pregnancy—a direct result of Biden’s COVID-era mail-order abortion drug rule, which the Trump administration inexplicably allows to continue.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, ​which oversees the FDA, for comment.

Meanwhile, Dr. Vinay Prasad, the top vaccine official at the FDA, left the agency for a second time on April 30. Prasad served as head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) before resigning from the role in July 2025. He subsequently rejoined the agency two weeks later at the FDA’s request.

Katherine Szarama, who had been CBER’s deputy director, has been elevated to acting director of the center following Prasad’s departure, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 15:10

Legendary Candy Company Killed After 141 Years By Soaring Costs

Soaring expenses for raw materials and labor have delivered a blow to yet another longtime business, claiming Lammes Candies, a family-owned confectioner that has operated in the South for more than a century, FOX 7 Austin reports.

The Austin, Texas,-based company recently announced that it will begin an "orderly wind-down of operations" after 141 years of family ownership, according to a statement posted to its Facebook page.

"This was not an easy decision," the candy company wrote. "Lammes Candies has been more than a business – it has been a family legacy spanning generations."

"We’ve been so honored to be part of your celebrations and your sweetest moments," the company wrote in a separate post. "Now we’re asking one last thing: savor every bite."

Lana Schmidt, the company’s vice president, cited intensifying economic pressures for the closure in an interview with FOX 7 Austin.

"The economy, you know, with the raw materials going up, labor is going – it’s just everything is escalating," a disheartened Schmidt said. "There’s not a huge margin in confections."

Founded in 1885 after the Lamme family reacquired the business, the company built its reputation on pecan pralines and other handcrafted sweets.

"Throughout the years, my father bought it in its entirety, I think, in 1972. And so, he was in the fourth generation," Schmidt said. "My brother and sister and I are the fifth generation. And back in that time, we had just like one, two retail stores. And then they grew it throughout Austin."

"I think we've built a legacy for the community. I mean we had the first neon sign. I mean there are a lot of firsts with lamps in Austin. I know people are gonna miss this sweet treat, this tradition of theirs. And so we will miss the community," she added.

Speaking to FOX 7 Austin, some longtime customers are heartbroken by the news.

"I first came here when I first moved to Austin. This was one of the first places I came to. I moved here about five years ago. And I came in because I saw that it was one of the oldest places in Austin. And I was like, I want to get in on that," one customer told the local news outlet.

"I've never been here before. My mom told me when we moved over here about how, when she was a kid, she used to go here a lot," another customer said.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 14:35

Iran Publicly Discloses Supreme Leader's Status For First Time: 'Marginally Injured'

The Iranian government has for the first time officially weighed in on the health of new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who was injured in the opening strikes of Trump's Operation Epic Fury, which killed the younger Khamenei's father and wife.

"A government official claimed Khamenei, who hasn't been seen in public since that attack, is now in good health," The Wall Street Journal writes Saturday.

via AFP

He hasn't been seen in public since the war began, and even official statements have been read aloud on state media broadcasts. There have since been conflict reports. However, according to the latest:

Yet the chief of protocol for the supreme leader’s office, Mozaher Hosseini, said on Friday that Khamenei is in “complete health,” stressing that he has only been “marginally injured” on his foot and lower back and hit by “a small piece of shrapnel had hit him behind the ear.”

“The enemy is spreading all kinds of rumors and false claims. They want to see him and find him, but people should be patient and not rush. He will speak to you when the time is right,” Hosseini told a crowd in Tehran.

Prior international reports suggested he was being treated for severe burns and that he could undergo surgery, and resorts to communicating commands to lower officials via low-tech means, including written and hand delivered messages, in order to avoid Israeli or US intelligence intercepting signals related to his whereabouts.

Regional and Gulf media have also summarized of the latest official Iranian description of the Ayatollah's health, that "there were no indications of a serious deterioration in his condition."

And, "According to Iranian media reports, the official stated that medical examinations confirmed Mojtaba Khamenei’s condition was completely stable. He added that the injury did not require complex surgery. Furthermore, he is undergoing only routine medical monitoring to ensure his well-being."

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian revealed on Thursday that he for the first time recently held a meeting with Mojtaba Khamenei, at an undisclosed location, and that the encounter was a long and productive one. State media said it was two-and-a-half hours.

US intelligence assesses that Iran’s new supreme leader is playing a critical role in shaping war strategy alongside senior Iranian officials, according to multiple sources. https://t.co/Ejyo5tGipb pic.twitter.com/c4nfMMR25r

— CNN (@CNN) May 9, 2026

"What stood out more than any other topic in the meeting was the way of dealing, the type of outlook, and the humble and deeply friendly manner of conduct by the leader of the revolution," Pezeshkian described. He characterized the new Ayatollah's approach as "a model based on taking responsibility, being close to the people, and truly listening to issues and problems."

Western officials and intelligence have all the while been seeking to assess just who is ultimately in charge of running the country. There have been reports of a growing split between the IRGC military apparatus and the Islamic Republic's civilian leadership. However, none of these reports are confirmable, but it's largely only guesswork by those far outside the country.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 13:25

5 Highlights From The Pentagon's UFO Files

Authored by Jacob Burg & Jacki Thrapp via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours - the ALFstein files),

Apollo 11 astronauts reported seeing a “sizeable” object close to the moon with a “fairly bright light source” that they described as a “possible laser,” in a newly released post-mission crew debriefing from NASA.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command reported a UAP that resembled a football-shaped body near Japan in 2024. The image was released on May 8, 2026. Department of War

That document, along with videos and images of unknown objects in airspace from nearly all corners of the globe, was included in newly released files from the Pentagon related to the U.S. government’s investigations into unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). The first tranche of files was released on May 8.

“As for my promise to you, the Department of War has released the first tranche of the UFO/UAP files to the Public for their review and study,” President Donald Trump wrote on social media Friday morning.

“With these new Documents and Videos, the people can decide for themselves, ‘WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?’ Have Fun and Enjoy!”

While the Pentagon had been increasingly declassifying various UFO and UAP files throughout the past decade, Trump threw the topic back into public focus when he suggested in February that a document release could be coming soon.

The first batch of released files includes FBI interviews and internal communications, State Department cables, NASA crew transcripts, and videos of potential UFOs.

Here are five highlights from a partial review of the new file release.

Moon Sightings

The newly released documents reveal that NASA astronauts encountered a series of unexplained phenomena during multiple Apollo missions.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin reported witnessing a “fairly bright light source” which he described as a “possible laser” while in lunar orbit, according to a previously confidential crew debriefing of Apollo 11 taken on July 31, 1969.

The Apollo 12 flight crew observed two separate incidents of an “unidentified phenomenon” in November 1969.

Apollo 12 astronaut Alan L. Bean described observing particles of light “sailing off in space,” that looked as if they were “escaping the Moon.” Charles “Pete” Conrad made a separate observation of seeing floating debris outside the lunar module.

Apollo 17 astronauts reported three different unexplained events on three separate days of their 1972 mission.

Harrison “Jack” Schmitt said he observed a flash on the lunar surface north of the Grimaldi crater. He described it as a “thin streak of light.”

Schmitt experienced another unexplained event with Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, as they observed “very bright particles or fragments” drifting and “tumbling” near the spacecraft.

“There’s a whole bunce (sic) of big ones on my window down there—just bright,” Schmitt said. “It looks like the Fourth of July out of Ron’s window.”

In a separate incident on the same Apollo 17 mission, Mission Commander Eugene A. Cernan said he experienced an intense, “imposing” light flashing between his eyes like it was a train headlight.

Amid those sightings, the astronauts took a photo of what appeared to be three dots in a triangular formation in the sky above the moon. NASA noted that while the image has been released previously, “there is no consensus about the nature of the anomaly.”

A NASA file photo from the Apollo 17 Mission, taken in December 1972, shows an unidentified anomalous phenomenon in the sky above the moon. Courtesy of the Pentagon ‘Eight-Pointed Star’

The Epoch Times reviewed all the videos included in the Pentagon’s initial UFO file release. Potentially the most striking video came from U.S. Central Command in 2013, which shows an aerial object that was described as “an eight-pointed star with arms of alternating length.”

The object appears to be hovering in the one-minute forty-six-second video.

A newly released video of a potential UAP by the Pentagon shows an aerial object that was described as “an eight-pointed star with arms of alternating length.” Screenshot by The Epoch Times/Courtesy of the Pentagon

U.S. Central Command reported another potential UFO that was filmed from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in 2022. The report described the object as a “possible missile” quickly moving across the field of view.

In a third video, another U.S. military infrared sensor films two bright objects that seemingly track across the sky in formation. The objects appear with high contrast against the sky’s backdrop.

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command submitted a video from 2024 to the Pentagon that was also filmed with an infrared sensor, tracking a potential UFO through an area containing multiple windmills.

FBI Probes Multi-Witness Sighting

The file dump included multiple heavily redacted FBI interview reports from a multi-witness sighting at an unknown U.S. testing facility in September 2023.

In one report, a woman describes a strange series of events that occurred one morning when she and several government contractors were working on a special project under restricted airspace.

While trying to enter a remote-controlled gate at the undisclosed U.S. testing facility, the gate “opened just a little and then closed on three separate tries” before finally opening on the fourth attempt.

The report said the gate had zero operational issues before or after the incident occurred.

As the woman’s vehicle drove through the gate entrance, she “looked up and saw a cigar-shaped object with an extremely bright light” anywhere between 500 and 3000 feet above the nearest treeline.

She described it as “metallic bronze in color” and the length of two to three Black Hawk helicopters “lined up nose to tail.” The woman and another unnamed contractor watched the object for five to 10 seconds before it disappeared, leaving no contrails.

The FBI included a composite sketch of the reported object.

An FBI composite sketch of a UAP reported by multiple witnesses over an undisclosed U.S. testing facility in September 2023. Screenshot by The Epoch Times/Courtesy of the Pentagon

These were not the only witnesses. The FBI interviewed a drone pilot operating near the same testing facility who also claimed to see the object, and other redacted witnesses driving towards the facility that day who saw it as well.

‘Cobalt Ray’ Telegram

One of the seemingly strangest documents seen thus far by The Epoch Times in the Pentagon’s initial UFO file release is an internal FBI memo from 1967, sent from the Bureau’s legal attaché in Mexico City to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

Marked as “classified SECRET,” the memo reproduces a telegram sent to Mexico’s Federal Security Police by a W.R. Hanawalt, who reportedly sent it from Harlingen, Texas, in December 1966.

Hanawalt tells of a strange technological object that he describes as a “laser ray, or cobalt ray” that is “self-enshrouding” and “similar in use to a cocoon around a silk worm.” He says the ray can enclose a person’s entire nervous system, allowing the operator to produce “visions of flying objects.”

“Breathing and heartbeat can be absolutely manipulated—your lie detector tests can be positively controlled without your knowledge,” Hanawalt writes, adding that the ray can manipulate a person’s five senses.

“They have infiltrated almost every business level,” he says, referring to those who operate the alleged technology.

“I have stated the possibility of premeditated murder from the standpoint of the operator, his vehicle and add to this the same conditions for the other vehicles involved. These are manipulated by the ‘rotten apples’ in the barrel of any Federal security arm, who are untouchable because of betrayal of Federal top secrets they have sworn to defend,” Hanawalt adds.

Other than the “SECRET” stamps on the document and barely legible handwritten notes, the only notation from the FBI is that the Bureau had no information in its files on Hanawalt.

‘Bright Light of Enormous Intensity’

The trove of files also included multiple State Department cables and documents.

In one cable, dated Jan. 31, 1994, an object was reportedly seen over Kazakhstan by Tajik air pilots, who described it as a “bright light of enormous intensity” that approached them from over the horizon.

“They watched the object for some forty minutes as it maneuvered in circles, corkscrews, and made 90-degree turns at rapid rates of speed and under very high [G-forces],” the cable said. “After some time, the object adopted a horizontal high-speed course and disappeared over the horizon.”

The captain took photos of the object with a pocket Olympus camera. Those photos were not included with the report.

In another State Department cable dated Jan. 28, 1985, a “high-altitude, high-speed aircraft” was observed over Papua New Guinea by the U.S. Embassy in Port Moresby.

Local residents reportedly became frightened by unidentified aerial objects flying overhead. The reports described “fast-moving objects with lights, contrails, and noise.”

A pilot reported seeing an aircraft on radar “flying south to north at high altitude and high speed.”

The State Department told Papua New Guinea’s National Intelligence Organization that it knew of no overflights of U.S. military B-52s, or U.S. aircraft in the area on the night of the reported incidents.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 12:50

Putin Rips NATO Aggression At Scaled-Down Victory Day Parade As Ceasefire Holds

By many accounts Russia's Saturday Victory Day parade and memorial observances in Moscow's Red Square were once again muted and somewhat scaled down compared to the immense pageantry which marked the pre-Ukraine war years.

President Putin used the occasion while speaking in front of thousands of military personnel and flanked by a handful of world leaders to take swipes at NATO and the West, saying he's fighting "just" war and called Ukraine an "aggressive force" that is being "armed and supported by the whole bloc of NATO".

Pool Photo via AP 

"The great feat of the generation of victors inspires the soldiers carrying out the goals of the special military operation today," Putin said. "They are confronting an aggressive force armed and supported by the entire NATO bloc. And despite this, our heroes move forward." He added: "I firmly believe that our cause is just."

The three-day Ukraine ceasefire announced and backed by President Trump appears to be holding, as no drone attacks have been registered on Moscow or other parts of the country. Large-scale drone waves were coming on a daily basis throughout last week. Massive bombardment of Ukraine has also ceased. Ukraine's Zelensky had reportedly ordered his armed forces to adhere to the short ceasefire:

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree on Friday (May 8) ordering the Ukrainian military not to attack the parade. He also confirmed that his government would adhere to the ceasefire and the prisoner swap of 1,000 detainees from each side.

"Red Square is less important to us than the lives of Ukrainian prisoners who can be returned home," Zelensky said, referring to the historic site in Moscow where the annual event is held.

The Kremlin has over the past days repeatedly warned that Kiev would come under immense bombing if the parade did get attacked, and went so far as to tell foreign diplomats they should evacuate the Ukrainian capital in such a scenario.

via AP

Among the foreign leaders that attended Saturday V-Day included Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of Laos Thongloun Sisoulith, Malaysia Supreme Leader Sultan Ibrahim, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

The NY Times (and a lot of other Western media outlets) is reading all of this as a 'loss' and reputational hit for Putin, again given the scaled-down and lower key nature of everything.

Happy Great Victory Day! pic.twitter.com/trYNYEz1K2

— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) May 9, 2026

"President Vladimir V. Putin has cultivated the annual Victory Day parade commemorating the Soviet triumph over Nazi Germany into a cornerstone of Russian patriotic ritual," NYT wrote. "Tanks and nuclear launchers roll across Red Square in a showcase of military prowess and righteous pride that the Kremlin has used to justify the country’s great-power posture toward the West."

But then the report underscores that "Moscow is under a heavy security presence as Ukraine rattles Russia with long-range drone and missile strikes. The Russian authorities have appeared exposed as they acknowledged that the beefed-up security was intended to protect Mr. Putin."

Face-to-face on Red Square! - Putin speaks with DPRK commander after V-Day parade pic.twitter.com/7Ica2VaaRM

— Viory Video (@vioryvideo) May 9, 2026

It further highlighted: "The parade on Saturday included none of the usual muscle-flexing missiles and armor. Personnel from Russian military academies and other servicemen made their way through Russia’s most famous square."

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 12:15

The post Trump Accounts Are a Sick Joke, not a Threat to Social Security appeared first on CEPR.

De-Extinct Dire Wolves Ready To Breed; Bioscience Company Pushes Forward Multiple Projects

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Colossal Biosciences has announced that its de-extinct dire wolves—Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi—are now breeding-aged and the firm plans to expand the pack later this year. The development marks a significant step for the Texas-based company in its mission to restore extinct species through genetic engineering.

The dire wolf pups, born in late 2024 and early 2025, represent the world’s first de-extinct animals. They have thrived in a secure 2,000-acre preserve, reaching milestones like learning to process whole deer carcasses and now showing readiness for natural breeding behaviors.

“The dire wolf pack is actually breeding-aged at this point,” Matt James, Colossal’s chief animal officer, said, adding “But we will initially grow the pack through assisted reproduction while we create new, genetically diverse individuals.”

The company intends to engineer two to four additional pups to boost genetic diversity before allowing full natural breeding. “The plan is to create an inter-breedable population of dire wolves in which they would eventually breed naturally to create a sustainable population of the world’s first de-extinct species,” James continued.

He further added, “We will grow the population through assisted reproduction initially and then eventually only rely on natural breeding.”

“The dire wolves are doing great,” Ben Lamm, Colossal’s CEO and co-founder, stated., adding “The three dire wolves live on a 2,000-acre secure, expansive ecological preserve that allows us to monitor and manage them while providing them a semi-wild habitat to thrive in. We hope to have more dire wolf pups by the end of the year.”

Colossal reconstructed the dire wolf genome from ancient DNA fragments in bone samples, including a 72,000-year-old skull. Scientists then edited gray wolf embryos to incorporate key traits: a white coat, larger teeth, more muscular build, and distinctive howl. Embryos were implanted in surrogate dogs, with births by caesarean section.

Watch the full story of their creation:

See the pups’ early development and first howls in over 10,000 years:

Colossal is running several parallel de-extinction projects:

• Woolly Mammoth: Aiming for a live calf by late 2028 through Asian elephant genome editing to restore cold-adapted traits and Arctic ecosystem functions.
   
• Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger): Editing fat-tailed dunnart cells to revive this extinct marsupial predator.
   
• Dodo: Using Nicobar pigeon cells and stem cell technology to revive the iconic bird extinct for over 350 years.
   
• Moa: Colossal is working on the giant flightless bird of New Zealand, extinct for about 600 years. Director Peter Jackson has invested, calling it a dream project. Related coverage: Peter Jackson Invests In Genetic Project To Bring Giant Bird Back From Extinction.

In April, Colossal announced the bluebuck antelope (Hippotragus leucophaeus) as its sixth de-extinction target—the first large African mammal driven to extinction in modern history around 1800.

The striking silvery-blue antelope once roamed South Africa’s grasslands as a grazer and seed disperser. Habitat loss, farming, and overhunting by European settlers led to its disappearance.

“We don’t love that ending. So we’re rewriting it,” the company states. Using high-quality reference genomes and editing roan antelope cells (its closest relative) as surrogates. The project advances reproductive technologies like ovum pick-up, IVF, and embryo transfer for antelopes, with broader benefits for conservation.

Critics note these animals are genetically edited proxies rather than identical clones, and question ecological reintroduction risks in changed environments. Colossal emphasizes ethical animal welfare, semi-wild habitats, and using de-extinction tech to aid living endangered species.

The projects continue to draw global attention, blending advanced biotechnology with conservation goals.

For those clamouring for Jurassic Park style de-extinction of dinosaurs, however, it’s bad news. Colossal addresses common misconceptions in the video below, noting dinosaurs cannot be revived due to DNA degradation, but more recent species are feasible.

Colossal’s official dire wolf page: colossal.com/direwolf.

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

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 11:40



 

 

This week, I speak with Howard Lindzon, co-founder and CEO of StockTwits, and founder and managing partner at Social Leverage. His podcast is podcast is Panic with Friends. We discuss his outlook for venture capital investing, including what he sees as potentially profitable from human behavior.

Our original recording in April was postponed because Howard accidentally severed a finger completely — he had to have it surgically reattached.

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

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 Joe McLean, Managing Partner at MAI Capital Management, where he leads firm’s Sports & Entertainment division, serving 100s of pro athletes/entertainers across NBA, NFL, MLB, PGA + NASCAR. His path to finance runs directly through the locker room as a 4-year NCAA Division 1 player at U of Arizona. Dubbed the athlete’s “Money Whisperer” by the New York Times, he is known for his non-negotiable 60% savings mandate for clients.

 

 

 

Current Reading/Favorite Books

 

 

 

The post MiB: Howard Lindzon, Social Leverage appeared first on The Big Picture.

Frontier Jet Hits Person On Takeoff, Engine Erupts In Flames At Denver

A shocking runway security incident unfolded late Friday at Denver International Airport after Frontier Flight 4345, an Airbus A321 bound for Los Angeles, struck an individual during its takeoff roll, forcing the crew to abort.

Full transcript of the ATC audio:

Frontier 4345 (pilot): Tower, Frontier 4345, we're stopping on the runway. We just hit somebody and have an engine fire.

DEN Tower: Frontier 4345, I see that.

DEN Tower (to Frontier 4345): Frontier 4345, I'm going to be rolling the trucks now. Do you know if there are souls on board and fuel remaining?

Frontier 4345 (pilot): Alright, 4345 we have 231 souls on board. We have 21,320 pounds of fuel onboard. There was an individual walking across the runway.

pic.twitter.com/4cA5JniCW1

— PaulyBee (@PaulyB303) May 9, 2026

In our view, a commercial jet at a major international airport does not simply "hit someone" on an active runway during takeoff, particularly near the point of rotation. This suggests a potentially serious breakdown in perimeter, airfield, or runway security controls.

The incident appears to represent a major security breach at DEN. One working theory is that the individual intentionally entered the aircraft's path, potentially committing suicide by entering the right turbine intake.

Hence the fire...

This is the right-wing view of Frontier Flight 4345 on its takeoff roll at Denver Airport Runway 17L when the Airbus A321-271NX (N646FR) hit a pedestrian. pic.twitter.com/xWCpUkcYrC

— Turbine Traveller (@Turbinetraveler) May 9, 2026

After ... 

The extent of damage to Frontier Flight 4345's right engine. https://t.co/6SX5Mx9D1w pic.twitter.com/heZC5RaS0v

— Turbine Traveller (@Turbinetraveler) May 9, 2026

That said, investigators will need to determine how the person accessed the active runway, whether DEN's perimeter controls failed, and whether the individual was struck by the aircraft and drawn into the engine or simply jumped into the turbine intake.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 09:55

Austrian Hotel Defends Burkini Pool Ban As Hygiene Dispute With Muslim Guests Heads To Court

Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,

A hotel in the Austrian city of Salzburg is defending its refusal to allow two women to use its pool while wearing burkinis, arguing that the decision was based on hygiene concerns rather than discrimination.

The case is now before the Salzburg Administrative Court after the operators of the hotel in Pongau appealed fines imposed by the district authority, according to Salzburger Nachrichten.

Boshra and Jasmina Amasha, two sisters from Upper Austria, had booked a short wellness break at the hotel on Oct. 25 last year.

They arrived early with the intention of using the swimming pool before going hiking.

The dispute started at reception when one of the women mentioned that she was going to retrieve her burkini from the car.

Staff told her that burkinis were not allowed in the hotel pool, a decision that was upheld after a phone call with the hotel manager.

The hotel manager later confirmed in court that women wearing burkinis were not welcome in the pool. She said the policy was linked to hygiene, arguing that longer fabric could carry bacteria into the water.

She acknowledged that she did not have scientific evidence to support that concern, but said the hotel also operated as a spa and had to place particular emphasis on cleanliness, especially because many older guests used the facilities.

The hotel’s co-manager also told the court that there was no formal written swimwear policy, but said long swimwear could have a negative effect on water hygiene. He added that the hotel had also previously asked guests wearing long swimming shorts to change.

The sisters reject the hygiene explanation. Jasmina Amasha said the phone conversation was not presented to them as a technical discussion about pool standards, but instead included remarks such as, “Here in Austria, we have to adapt,” and, “We could go swimming in Saudi Arabia wearing a burkini.”

She also claimed they were told other guests did not like seeing women in burkinis.

Their lawyer argued that burkinis are made from similar material to standard swimwear and are not less hygienic than bikinis.

She also cited a parliamentary inquiry to the Ministry of Health and said the garment could reduce the amount of hair and skin flakes entering the water.

After the confrontation, the sisters left and booked another hotel. The court heard that the original hotel covered the additional costs, but Jasmina Amasha said the experience had been “extremely humiliating and discriminatory.”

The hotel operators are appealing the penalty imposed against them, and the court is expected to issue a written ruling in the coming weeks.

Read more here...

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 09:20

Europe Sees 'Hyper-Concentration' Of Crypto 'Wrench Attacks' As Losses Hit $101 Million

Authored by Stephen Katte via CoinTelegraph.com,

Estimated losses from global crypto wrench attacks reached $101 million in the first four months of 2026, with most attacks occurring in Europe, according to Web3 security company CertiK.

With just 34 documented crypto wrench attacks, the losses have nearly doubled those of 2025, which came in at $52.2 million. Europe accounted for 82% of incidents, according to CertiK.

“Our 2025 report documented a gradual tilt from Asia and North America toward Europe, and these first four months of 2026 mark a European hyper-concentration.”

The frequency of wrench attacks has increased since 2025. They involve physical force to gain access to a victim’s crypto holdings and have taken the form of home invasions, kidnappings and other extortion attempts. CertiK said there have been 34 attacks since the start of the year.

If the trend continues, CertiK predicts that by year-end the number of incidents could hit 130, and losses could reach “several hundred million dollars.”

There have been 34 verified wrench attacks worldwide since the start of the year. Source: CertiK 

France is an epicenter of wrench attacks

Of the attacks, 24 crypto wrench attacks occurred in France this year, said CertiK. France’s National Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime has reported a higher figure of 47 incidents in 2026.

CertiK said France has likely emerged as a hot spot for these kinds of criminals because of the presence of crypto executives from major crypto companies such as Ledger, Paymium and Binance.

Crypto holders in France are being targeted more than anywhere else in the world. Source: CertiK 

It also pointed to numerous data leaks, such as the January breach at crypto accounting firm Waltio and tax official Ghalia C, who is accused of selling crypto asset holder data to criminal networks, and “a culture of flexing and voluntary doxxing that remains deeply embedded in the community.”

“Early 2026 marks the shift to a data-driven targeting model in which prior physical surveillance becomes unnecessary once attackers have the victim's full name, home address, financial profile, and so on.”

“The structural takeaway is clear: as the security of protocols and wallets tends to improve, the threat migrates toward the human link. As long as crypto-asset holdings remain associated with identifiable financial data, physical coercion will remain the economically most rational attack path,” CertiK added.

Blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs reported in May last year that wrench attacks have been on the rise because of the perceived pseudonymity of crypto transactions, the public visibility of wealth, and the ease with which bad actors can gather personal data online.

The criminal teams are often “complete amateurs”

Across recorded wrench attacks, CertiK said the orchestrators are often located outside the target country. The criminal teams on the ground usually consist of three to five people, and they frequently pose as delivery drivers or police officers, or lure victims into an ambush with a ruse such as a fictitious business meeting.

“Most of the time, they are recruited via messaging apps such as Telegram or Snapchat for a few thousand dollars. They don't know each other and are complete amateurs,” CertiK added.

Meanwhile, Casa chief security officer Jameson Lopp has recorded 31 crypto wrench attacks so far this year and reported in March that four cases he was tracking for his list turned out to be mistaken identity, with the thieves attacking the wrong targets. 

Source: Jameson Lopp

In April, at least 88 people, including 10 minors, were indicted in connection with alleged wrench attacks on crypto owners in France.

“The growing proportion of minors signals an increasing externalization of criminal liability toward profiles less exposed to mandatory minimum sentences,” CertiK added.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 08:10

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:

• I Want to Live Like Costco People: Embracing the Costco lifestyle means accepting the fact that I am, in many ways, becoming my father. This is an old idea, both Freudian and Kierkegaardian—the belief that we are all destined to embody learned characteristics and habits passed down from parent to child. On the strange aspirational pull of bulk warehouse shopping. A rare cultural piece that’s actually fun. Some of us are crying in H Mart; some of us are mourning in Costco. (Taste)

• David Attenborough and the Voice That Revealed a Planet: As Attenborough turns 100, a tribute to the most recognizable voice in nature documentary — and a worldview that hardened from wonder into warning over six decades. (The Ringer) see also At 100, David Attenborough Is Nature’s Most Trusted Voice: A second centennial salute to Attenborough, this one featuring Prince Harry. Two takes on the same milestone — pick your poison. (Time)

• SpaceX is Breaking Capitalism (& Indexing): Once upon a time, companies went public to raise money. You’d go on a road show to pitch your story and drum up interest, you’d float a big pile of stock, and then you’re off to the races to go build your company. Turns out, that’s not really the case anymore. On the index-construction problem when the most valuable companies are private and untouchable. The market-cap weighted world has a SpaceX-shaped blind spot. (ETF.com)

•  Raising Cane’s Grew From an Idea a College Professor Hated: No one believed in Todd Graves’ vision for a restaurant at first. Today, Raising Cane’s is the third-largest chicken chain in the US by sales and growing fast.  Founder Todd Graves built a multibillion-dollar chicken-finger empire from a business-school F. The professor is presumably re-grading. (Businessweek)

• Artemis II Is Competency Porn and We Are Starving For It: (girls will be like i needed this and it’s just four nerds in space). If you have spent the last week inexplicably emotional about a space mission, you are not alone and you are not being dramatic. Something real is happening to you. Something your nervous system recognized before your brain caught up to it, and it is worth understanding why, because the reason is actually about a lot more than space.On the cathartic appeal of an institution that still works. The rocket program is the rare federal effort that actually delivers on its press release. (Airplane Mode)

• Six lessons from history’s greatest financial crises: Robin Wigglesworth distills six recurring patterns. None of them are surprising; all of them keep getting forgotten. (Financial Times)

• Toyota built a $10 billion private utopia—what’s going on in there?: A reported tour of Woven City, the corporate test-bed at the foot of Mount Fuji. The ‘utopia’ framing is doing a lot of work, but the engineering is real. Woven City is a privacy nightmare but could be helpful to an OEM desperate to be more. (Ars Technica) see also Our Cringe Century: On cringe as the dominant cultural register of the 2020s. A cleverer essay than the headline suggests. Since the start of the millennium Britain has found new and exquisite ways to humiliate herself. Here, in order, are the most embarrassing moments. (The Fence)

• There Is No ‘Hard Problem Of Consciousness’ A bracing essay arguing the famous puzzle is a category error. Whether you buy it or not, it’s the best version of the case. Consciousness is not separate from the physical world — our “soul” is of the same nature as our body and any other phenomenon of the world. (NOEMA)

• How college students are learning to socialize without cellphones: Phone-free dorms and screen-free social hours are spreading on campus. The kids may end up correcting this faster than the policymakers. (Washington Post)

• Who’s NBA’s most overrated player? Underrated? Best coach? Anonymous player poll results: How do NBA players feel about which of their peers is most underrated and most overrated? And what do they think when it comes to the league’s head coaches? We asked them those questions, and more, for The Athletic’s 2026 Anonymous NBA Player Poll. (The Athletic)

Video of the day: Billie Eilish | Good Hang with Amy Poehler

 

Be sure to check out our Master’s in Business interview this weekend with Howard Lindzon, known as “The Larry David of Finance.” He is General Partner at the seed fund, Social Leverage, he was one of the first seed investors in Robinhood, which IPOd at $30B in 2021, eToro, Manscaped, and Beehiiv. Previously, he founded Wallstrip, a daily online video show acquired by CBS (2007). He also co-founded Stocktwits, which pioneered the “cashtag.” Recognized by Institutional Investor as a “Super Angel;” his podcast is Panic with Friends.

 

Which Brands Make the Best Cars?

Source: Consumer Reports

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